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chris in va

New member
I had good luck with 45 and 9, really revolutionized my cast bullet use. As we all know the Hornady gas checks are rather expensive and somewhat defeat the purpose of casting for rifles, so I decided to coat my x39 bullets.

These are wheelweight water dropped and normally gas checked, running about 1600fps. Today I fired 30+ through my CZ Carbine and surprise...no streaking or leading and accuracy seemed on par with the GC versions. Keep in mind these are still the usual Lee 155gc bullet, just powdercoated and no GC.

I'm thrilled! My next project is 37gr 4895 for my Garand. I was getting gas port leading but PC should prevent that.
 
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hartcreek

Moderator
How do you figure that a gas check defeats the purpose of casting rifle bullets?

I shoot my gas checked bullets up 2700 fps with no leading and no gummy residue all over the bullet. I use Lee Liquid Allox and apply it to the lube bands with a Q tip.
 
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Beagle333

New member
A q-tip would work!:)
I tried laying them down on some wax paper and paint 1/3 of each and then roll them and repaint after a couple of hours, but I found that tumbling in Ben's Liquid Lube works better and faster. :cool:

To the OP... 'Glad the PC is working for you. :) I had heard that it stopped leading in gas ports, but I don't own anything with ports myself.
 
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hartcreek

Moderator
You can also make you own gas checks. There is a tool that cuts and forms them out of what ever thin metal you choose. Some use aluminum from pop cans but you can also purchase thin copper sheeting. I have had to make my own head gaskets...the local metal place had a good selection of sheet copper in different thicknesses.

I used to just tumble lube my rifle bullets but the tumble lube attracts dust so my tumble lubed bullets were part dust bunny after years of storage. For pistol I do not se it mattering much but for a rifle that you plan on hunting with....so I cam up with using a Qtip.

I dab the Allox lube on and then stand the bullet up on a tray that will fit in my toaster oven. Once the tray is filled I turn the oven on for 20 minutes at 160 and then let them dry in the oven.
 
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res45

New member
Cost. Hornady has worked best for me and they are $40/1000.
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You can get Gator checks here cheaper http://www.sagesoutdoors.com/copper-gas-checks/37-30-762-caliber-gator-gas-checks.html They ship USPS so they want cost much for shipping.

As to powder coating an gas checks,powder coating is just a lube an nothing else. If a bullet requires a gas check at a particular velocity and pressure with a given alloys BHN you still have to use a gas check,if the loads shoots more accurately with a check installed it's probably still going to shoot more accurately with a check coated or not.

Powder coated bullets do have there advantages but I haven't found they to be any more accurate that standard lubed bullets and on some occasions they are less accurate.
 
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FrankenMauser

New member
You can also make you own gas checks. There is a tool that cuts and forms them out of what ever thin metal you choose. Some use aluminum from pop cans but you can also purchase thin copper sheeting. I have had to make my own head gaskets...the local metal place had a good selection of sheet copper in different thicknesses.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you're aware that I'm the type of person that's generally more than willing to trade my time to save some money, and that I do take pride in casting and swaging my own bullets. That being said...

I have a FreeChex III for .30 caliber checks.
I ran about 1,600 checks some time last year.
...But I don't plan to ever do it again, even though I have enough aluminum, brass, and copper sheet stockpiled to run about 25,000.
No matter the material thickness or type, it's just a pain in the butt.
I'd rather just buy Gatorchecks. (Or Hornady checks, when Midway does their semi-annual clearance blowout on them for 75% off. ;))

The tool worked as intended.
My setup wasn't too bad.
The material was free.
But there's a lot of material waste.
And if you make one little mistake, don't regularly empty the ejection chute, or let one little trimming get into the tool, it jams that punch like no other; and it may take 45 minutes, an hour, or even several hours to get it unjammed and working again.

The tool does work, and I could eliminate at least one of the jam-inducing issues by using an arbor press with a hole in the bottom. ...But I'm still done with that thing. It was just too frustrating.
One of these days, I'll figure out where I put it and list it for sale.
 
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