gas checks

[Gallahad]

Should you be able to pluck them off after attaching them with a lee sizer? I never used gc's before, and dug my fingernail into one after it was sized to see how well it attached. With not too great an effort i plucked it right off. Is this normal?

[Thomas Krupinski]

Were you using Lyman or Hornady gas checks?  The Lyman are smooth on the inside sides and the Hornady has an inside crimp that is pushed into the side of the bullet to hold it in place when you run it though the sizer die to seat the gas check.

[Leftoverdj]

If you happen to have some of the old Lyman GCs, you can make them stay on by setting them on something hard with the cup up and giving them a tap on the rim with a cold chisel. Two taps at right angles, if you are fussy. This throws up burrs that will bite into the shank and lock them on when you size. Little practice will teach you how hard to tap.

I oughta have better sense, but new GCs are high and I keep running into old stock at $3-5 a thousand.

[Gallahad]

I was using hornaday gc's. The bullet design may have something to do with it. like i said iv'e never loaded gas checked bullets before, but the base is just beveled, like a boat tail, but on a much smaller scale. They are gc bullets just the same.

[John Traveler]

Normally, seating gas checks on cast slugs is pretty straightforward.

You install the gas check, give the bullet a couple sharp "raps" on a hard table surface, and run it through the sizer-lubricator.

If you are tapping the bullet NOSE first into the Lee sizing die, that might be the problem.  The tapping tends to jar the gas check loose before it is crimped onto the base.  Are you pan lubing and using a hand sizer die?

Most lubricator-sizers push the gas checked bullet BASE first into the die, and that tends to crimp the gc on.  No tapping to jar it loose either.

[Thomas Krupinski]

John,  I don't tap the Hornady gas checks prior to running them through the Lee sizer die.  Just place the gas check over the base of the bullet, then place the bullet nose first into the tapered end at the bottom of the sizing die.  Then run the ram up and the base punch pushes the bullet up through the die and into the container.

When the bullet meets the resistance in the die the gas check is firmly pushed together to the bottom of the bullet and as it goes through the die the sides of the Hornady gas check are compressed and crimped into the bullet.  

They don't come off after they are crimped on.

[Leftoverdj]

Gallahad, I am inclined to suspect that you have run into some bevel base bullets that only look like they are for gaschecks. Every GC bullet I have ever seen had a step to the shank.

However, if a GC will go on and crimp well enough to stay on under normal handling, it might be interesting to see how they shoot.

[LAH]

I agree with Leftoverd.