Thread: Alternative to gas checks

nope...I dont use them at all in 45/70 even with smokeless loads....if you were trying to poke projectiles out at 1800 plus fps yeah probably but slow speeds not an issue.

Originally Posted by Three O'Three

No need for GC's?

No

That's a mouse fart load as far as speed goes but should be good accuracy wise. Just load, shoot and enjoy.

Originally Posted by Three O'Three

No need for GC's?

Correct. That is why .22LR at 1200fps have no GCs either .... and there was a recent thread here on NZHS about whether you need to clean .22LR barrels. Clearly no major fouling issue from lack of GC at those velocities. If the rounds are for plinking or targets at relative ahort range, then why bother use GCs to get 1800fps or more?

Thanks everyone

.314 &.316 works well in mine with the 202gn noe molds and 4227/2205 powder charge

Also the standard unique charge is also accurate

Neither are gas checked

Greetings All,
A few bits of trivia. The card wad in .303 cartridges was there primarily to hold the cordite in place when the case was formed to its final shape. Anyone who has broken down a British .303 cartridge will have wondered how the got the cordite in past the neck. The answer was that the neck wasn't there at the time. None of the other military cartridges I have broken down has the wad. Teflon tape on cast bullets was written up in Handloader in the early 1980's. I fiddled with it for a bit.
Regards Grandpamac.

Only just stumbled on this thread so apologies for the late response.

I'm churning out 30 cal gas checks using a Checkmaker from Patmarlins and 0.015" aluminium coil from Yonky. Here are some Ranch Dog TLC 311-165-RF I loaded last week.

The checks don't snap on to the shank in the same way that as the Hornadys do. I meticulously cleaned the sprue on each boolit and just placed the gas check on square and as far on as it wanted to go. Passed them through a Lee 311 sizer and there wasn't a single one that wasn't perfect and they shot great at about 1950 fps too.

Would be happy to fire off gas checks in your direction if they're of any use to you.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Nice, had a mate that was making them out of beer cans, only ever wanted to use Lion Red for some reason. Reckoned Waikato was absolutely the worst for gas check material, poor accuracy, crap speeds and the odd pill ended up with the anemic trots and slid out of the end of the barrel...

Ha ha!



Despite an occasional cheapskate inclination, I haven't tried beer cans or roof flashing. The ease of production with the precision cut coil is worth every penny. Commercial checks are of the order of 10 cents apiece, I think I'm at 1/20th of that including the cost of the tool and shipping the coil from the UK.

I made my first gas checks about ten years ago, before powder coating was really widespread. Having had a good start with the old school technology I wasn't motivated to try anything else and as I have raw material for better than 50,000 gas checks in stock, that will likely last me until I can't see the target any more.

I started making gas checks with various cans, then got on to lithographic plate and grabbed a fair bit of that, heck even sheets of copper shimming material, bit like yourself and made up a stack of GC’s, but so glad i did, as like all things, i put casting aside for a while and its nice to come back to it and have a stack of bits already waiting!

Originally Posted by Tertle

I started making gas checks with various cans, then got on to lithographic plate and grabbed a fair bit of that, heck even sheets of copper shimming material, bit like yourself and made up a stack of GC’s, but so glad i did, as like all things, i put casting aside for a while and its nice to come back to it and have a stack of bits already waiting!

I've been accumulating casting goodies for a couple of years, somewhat indiscriminately I have to say so a bit of an odds & sods collection. We are in the middle of hopefully our last relocation and the good thing is I will have a suitable work area to form my lead collection into ingots and thence into projectiles. Gas check making is high on the list of interest.