Am I the only guy that can't seat checks?

[trooperdan]

OK, what is the secret to seating checks? I really get upset when a beautifully cast boolit winds up with a cock-eyed check swaged onto it's butt. I use Hornady checks and seat them before sizing.

Would a check seater help? I just take my Lyman wrench and set it across the top of the die. I usually have to take my barlow and prune the parting lines and the edge of the base before I can even get the check started. Even then it is tough to get it started on square. There is no positive alignment using a flat surface like the wrench and my Mk 1 eyeball doesn't always have the boolit right in line with the axis of the punch.

Has anyone ever heard of a swage to square up the base of a boolit before seating the check? Wouldn't take much to remove the flash and put a little taper on the shank so the check would square up easy.

Seating checks is the most unfun and frustrating part of loading for me!

[454PB]

I feel your pain. Firstly, all flash or fins has to removed as you said. I seat them as you do, using the flat wrench across the top of the die and pushing them on, but they may still want to cant occassionaly. If the boolit has a flat nose, you can use a pair of pump pliers (slip joint pliers) to squeeze the checks on. I have a Craftsman pair that have an unserrated area so it doesn't mar the boolit nose or the gas check.

[Uncle Grinch]

Some of my gas checks require a separate step like you do with the Lyman wrench. It is aggravating, but I just wait until the house is quiet (I'm retired and my wife still works) and just get it done.

My 6.5 RCBS mould seats them with no problem using some very old Ideal gas checks. However my Lyman 314299 is much more finicky and often requires the extra step. I have a gas check seater, but never use it.

I do inspect all my bases before I start so I have a good supply of quality boolits to work with.

[Johnch]

I aneal my gas checks for those PROBLEM molds that the shank is a touch to big .

It sofens the gas check a little and it will expand easyer .
Some guys flair the gas check a little , I used a bolt that I ground to form a punch .

Johnch

[35remington]

I also anneal the checks if they are hard to get on the shank.

Rinsing in solvent, then drying, (optional) eliminates the lubricant left on the checks when they are formed. Make sure all solvent is dried off. Dump checks in tinfoil and close it around the checks. Place on oven burner on very light red heat (check in darkened room). Leave on this setting until the checks are brought up to temp, hold it for a few minutes, then shut off burner and let cool. Removing the lubricant reduces the amount of gray scale on the checks.

Now they're soft enough to spread open and seat on the bullet.

[drinks]

Dan;
My first impression is that you have a bunch of out of spec molds.
I have about 25 molds and the only one that offers any resistance to seating checks is a .35 Lyman.
I sometimes have to do a bit of flash trimming, but, mostly, with that mold, I just put the check on and place the bullet, nose down, on a block of wood and give it a whack with a 4 oz brass hammer.
Works for me.

[hiram]

I have used a thin, flat plate over the die to use as a gas check seat, I press a little, turn the bullet 180 degrees and press again. A little faster is I cut two squares of leather. Folded each one over the jaws of an offset plier(the type that has 5 or six jaw adjustments). Glue or staple the leather to hold shape of plier jaw. Press a little, turn 180 and press again. Sometimes you get a mold where the GC shank is oversize and you have a problem. I have a 311440 with an undersize gc shank. The gc slips on, run it into the die to cinch it up, and you can still turn the gc with fingers.

[versifier]

I use push-through sizers, Lee's & Buckshot's, both kinds seat checks perfectly. I just push the checks on with finger pressure and run the boolits through. They're properly crimped and perfectly straight, even if the boolit bases aren't perfect to start with. No problems. I don't see why you couldn't use them just for seating, then lube & size the checked boolits in a conventional unit if you don't want to go the liquid alox route.

[Slowpoke]

OK, what is the secret to seating checks? I really get upset when a beautifully cast boolit winds up with a cock-eyed check swaged onto it's butt. I use Hornady checks and seat them before sizing.

Would a check seater help? I just take my Lyman wrench and set it across the top of the die. I usually have to take my barlow and prune the parting lines and the edge of the base before I can even get the check started. Even then it is tough to get it started on square. There is no positive alignment using a flat surface like the wrench and my Mk 1 eyeball doesn't always have the boolit right in line with the axis of the punch.

Has anyone ever heard of a swage to square up the base of a boolit before seating the check? Wouldn't take much to remove the flash and put a little taper on the shank so the check would square up easy.

Seating checks is the most unfun and frustrating part of loading for me!

The # 1 rule at my reloading bench regarding gas checks is all gas checks are to be annealed.

Also if you are getting large parting lines or base fins your mold or casting technique might
need a little fine tuning.

Don Eagan makes a deburring tool for cast bullet bases, 8 whole dollars, craftsmanship second to none.

I had Buckshot make me a press mounted Gas check expander, works like a charm.

I use several of the lyman type gas check seaters, each fine tuned to a particular die's lead in taper length, they are not all the same unfortunately. For me it is a matter of timing at the moment the base of the bullet makes solid contact with the inside of the check thats in solid contact with ejector pin I want it crimped, not before.

If you have a well trained Mark IV eye, and a little patience a file will square up a bullet base base quite nicely in a pinch.

Good luck

[Duckiller]

I have the opposite problem. Base too smalland checks tend to fall off. I use super glue to stick them on. Glue up 20-25 at a time. Lets glue dry. Then I size and lube. Slow but not too frustrating. Duckiller

[keeper89]

Wow, after reading this thread I guess I can thank my lucky stars I haven't run into this type of problem at all with any of my molds! Good luck for once--must be hell is freezing over.......

[9.3X62AL]

I have a few molds with GC shanks a little bit fat......these castings get their gas checks flared a bit with a tapered punch before seating. ALL of the offending molds are Lymans or Lees......RCBS, NEI, Lee 6-cav, and Mountain Molds products aren't affected. This quirk used to annoy me too--the flaring solved it for me.

[trooperdan]

It is good to have "brothers"; kinda like an AA meeting I think! I've gotten a lot of good tips here; looks like the first tip is to anneal those checks. Where do I find Don Egan's boolit base deburrer?

Buckshot, if you are listening, I need one of those press mounted check expanders in .30 cal!

I also think I might have a casting problem, maybe a too-loose sprue plate causing base flashing. I'll try some differnet boolits from the same session today with annealed checks and see how that goes. Thanks a bunch guys!

[XBT]

Duckiller,
If the gas check shank is too small you might try this; Take a boolit from the mold, apply a small amount of fine grinding compound to the gas check shank, then gently turn the base of the boolit in the mold with the boolit turned backwards, so the only part in the mold is the gas check shank. Go slowly and measure often so you don’t remove too much.

I used this method on a 6.5 mold with an undersized gas check shank and it solved the problem completely, no more loose gas checks.

[44man]

Since I have been making my own moulds I find the gas check portion very hard to guess at. Some are loose so I have to lap them and some are tight.
I just set the boolit on the check and rap them on my table top. By tilting the boolit all around when tapping I can tell by the sound when it is all the way on. I prefer them tight anyway. I like the idea of expanding them and have to make a tool.
I have annealed a bunch but some boolits will not group as tight as they do with a hard check. One boolit cast of WW's will shoot a tighter groups with an annealed check but some of my others cast harder, will open up unless the check is left hard. I don't know why it makes a difference so the best thing to do is test fire your checks both soft and hard to see what the boolit prefers.
Just another crazy thing to give us trouble! As if I haven't lost enough hair!

[RayinNH]

I do like Versifier, in that I size and apply gaschecks with the push thru die and then lube in the luber afterwards. It does add another step however you can send them through the push thru very quickly and the leverage is much better on the single stage press than the luber. I've yet to put on a check that wasn't straight either...Ray