Gas Checks on Bevel Base bullets...Is it Possible???

[spongeman66]

I was reading through the group buy list, and I ran across this interesting bullet design:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=362

It got me to thinking about seating Gas Checks on other 'Bevel Base' type bullets. Specifically something like:


Has anyone tried seating a gas check on something like this? I don't have the equipment, or I would try it myself...

Just wondering...
Sponge

[Magnum Mike]

I havent tried it with my Saeco sizer but i did with the Lee Push Thru's and it didnt work worth a crap. I could give it a shot with the Saeco but i am not very optimistic...

[beagle]

Seating a GC on a BB or even a PB bullet is possible but it's pretty labor intensive and not something you'd go through for a bunch of shooting like with peeeeestols.

I've GC'd heavier PB .358 bullets for use in the .35 Remington. Specifically, the 358430 195 grain version and the 35875. Both worked out pretty well and I accomplished what I set out after.

Special equipment is needed. I first size and lube in a .359" die. I then use a .350" intermediate die and size the base band down to accept the check. Then I use a .359" die in a nose first sizing rig similar to the Lee Push Through die to do the final sizing and seat and crimp the check.

A sizing die with a wide, gradual leade is required similar to the ones that Stillwell makes down in Texas.

It can be done and works out all right but if you're shooting hundreds of them, you'll have a lot of work to keep the bullet supply up.

Now, Steve Hurst wrote an article in a Fouling Shot several months ago about GCing PB bullets using aluminum checks along the lines of the Free-Chek. That would be the way to go. It requires a precision cutter for the check disks, an alignment fixture for the sizer lubricator and one of the mdified sizing dies. Again, here we'e talking $100 at least in tools./beagle

[spongeman66]

Now, Steve Hurst wrote an article in a Fouling Shot several months ago about GCing PB bullets using aluminum checks along the lines of the Free-Chek. That would be the way to go. It requires a precision cutter for the check disks, an alignment fixture for the sizer lubricator and one of the mdified sizing dies. Again, here we'e talking $100 at least in tools./beagle

Well, I don't have any tools at the moment, so $100 doesn't sound too bad. I can get 300 grain PB bullets delivered for less than $0.10 each, but the CHEAPEST GC bullet I can find is over $0.20 each. $100 in equipment would pay for itself in just over 1K bullets...

Do you have any links to the article or the equipment mentioned? Do you know which issue it was published in?

Thanks!
Sponge

[drinks]

I gas check everything except .38sp and .45acp.
If a bullet I like the look of does not have a gc, I get the mold, turn some out, chuck one up in my mini lathe, use a parting tool and carefully turn off enough lead to seat a gc with a slight click, observe the amount of cross slide travel and then can do a bullet in about 5 seconds.
Then I just spray some case lube on the bullets, put on the gc's and push through my Lee sizer.
Does fine, so far[ about 8 styles and several thousand bullets].
Don

[Buckshot]

..............Loosing a GC as the slug leaves the barrel, or shortly thereafter can lead to a flyer or some level of 'wandering off' of that slug. It also seems as if some amount of gap between the GC and the drive band is somehow beneficial. Some GC boolit designs have the barest tiny sliver of room and do fine. Early on, boolits wearing half jackets with equal OD jacket and lead could lead to beat the band.

I have a Saeco mould I bought in hopes of feeding a 8x56R, M95 Steyr early on in my experimenting with it. The mould number escapes me at the moment but it drops a 205gr FNPB @ .336" on the baseband, and is of a tapered Loverin design.



On the left is the lsug essentially as cast, tumble lubed and then sent up through a ho-made .332" sizer. On the right is the same slug with a 35 cal GC stuck on, and it was also sent BASE FIRST up through the same sizer. It didn't appear to require much effort for the slug and GC to make the trip, but as you can see from the boolit's OAL and the width of the drive bands (in comparison) the slug DID grow in width due to the pressure on the nose. This resulted in it's growing longer as it passed through the die.

The boolit with the GC really shot no better then the PB version at the modest velocities (1200-1400 fps) I was shooting them at. At a later date with charges that should have had it going 1600 fps or so, there was also no improvement. It could have been something else, but the addition of the GC was a major change in the slug's design. I don't recall any leading issues, ever, with the Steyr but the GC made no improvement either. At least not in putting one on this boolit anyway.

..................Buckshot

[StarMetal]

Buckshot

I'm not so sure GC's coming off really effect the outcome of where that bullet is going. I base this on the sabot's used in todays modern inlin BP rifles, which shoot some pretty impressive groups with sabots and jackets pistol bullets.

Further remember when I was trying to beat Dan's 200,000 RPM contest? I used two gaschecks on that 7mm bullet and the rearmost one was not only not attached it was reversed and the rifle was shooting them almost consistantly into one inch at 100 yds at nearly 2700 fps.

Joe