458 Rifle Gas checks on 454 pistol boolits?

[Ed K]

Any reason not to try using 458 Rifle Gas checks on 454 pistol boolits? The gator shank size is 0.426" for both pistol and rifle. The revolver itself is 0.454" throat/barrel groove so we're nor going all the way down to 0.452" or 0.451".

Any input is appreciated.

[gloob]

The only thing you could lose is the cost of the checks and your time.

Sizing to 454, that's still ~5 thousandths of extra squeeze after the check is put on. I'm assuming you would size cast rifle boolits to 459, nominal. And that would squeeze the check closed by maybe a couple thous. From ~461 to 459.

Sizing to 454, that has to squeeze a 461 check down to 454. The mouth of your sizer might catch and crumple the check. Smoothing out the mouth of your sizer might fix it. But the bottom of the check could also come out severely bulged/convexed if you size it base first, with an air pocket in the center. It might come out concaved if you do it nose first with potential asymmetry, because squeezing the bullet that far would extrude/raise an extended rim around the bottom of the bullet. But so long as it stays on, it should do the job OK.

[Ed K]

A little more info on Gator checks from Sage's website:

Rifle Checks: "Made with thicker material than regular .45's to allow for rifle sizing. These are a heavy .45 caliber rifle check for .458, 45-70 and other 45 rifle calibers. These measure about .468 in overall diameter, about .080 in overall height. Made for the average .426 shank using 210 copper / gilding brass."

Pistol Checks: "These are Gator brand .45/.454 caliber gas checks, they measure about .464 in overall diameter and are about .068 in overall height. Made for a normal .426 shank."



So normally the pistol check is sized .464 -> .452 which is .012 for use in a typical Ruger 45 Colt revolver

Proposed would be sizing the rifle check .468 -> .454 which is .014 for this particular application (would get sized .010 for .458 rifle use)

[Tatume]

Any reason not to try using 458 Rifle Gas checks on 454 pistol boolits? The gator shank size is 0.426" for both pistol and rifle. The revolver itself is 0.454" throat/barrel groove so we're nor going all the way down to 0.452" or 0.451".

Any input is appreciated.

They work just fine. I've been doing it for years.

[gloob]

Proposed would be sizing the rifle check .468 -> .454 which is .014 for this particular application (would get sized .010 for .458 rifle use)

The starting size is just how big the mouth of the check starts. The amount of sizing down of the bullet base will come down to the thickness of the check material itself.

The rifle checks are (supposed to be) made from a thicker copper/aluminum sheet. I'm not going to look it up, so I could be wrong. Just from memory, I want to say the 452 pistol checks are 14 thous thick, and the rifle are 20?

The exact numbers aren't important to make the point. When you size the rifle check on there, the base of the bullet is going to be squeezed that much smaller, and the extra lead gets displaced. So as long as it fits good enough it's fine, but it might not seat as good as the correct checks.

That extra thickness of the check might improve the maximum performance, if you want to push things and find out. (More metal means it can absorb and redistribute more heat). And if seated a little wonky, it might decrease maximum accuracy potential, if you wanted to sit at a bench and really find out. But if you got 'em and they go on, you'll probably never know any difference.

Since you're presumably going to size these only to 458 or thereabouts, due to your bore size (and assuming the assembled cartridge fits in your chamber) the rifle checks might fit and work better. Regular pistol checks might fall off in flight, because they're not fully on at 458.

edit: there's usually a lube groove just above where the check goes. If the longer rifle check doesn't leave room for adequate lube, then maybe the maximum performance will actually go down?