Powder coat, gas check, or both

[Chad Keller]

When casting .223 bullets has anyone had any issues with just powder coating it instead of also using a gas check. I have read and watched videos where they are just powder coating the projectile and not using a gas check.

what do you guys think?

 

[Chad Keller]

These are just fun practice rounds not precision rounds

 

[swampratt]

The idea of the gas check was to allow the bullet to spin through the rifling grooves.
If you tried to push the cast projectile too fast or had too much pressure it would slide through the barrel
not spinning and as it left the muzzle it would be unstable and most of the time start tumbling.

Gas check allowed the bullet a bit more traction and kept it spinning instead of sliding.

If the powder coat allows the bullet to spin and not slide then a gas check is not needed.

I have intentionally loaded my 45acp to the point of sliding the Cast bullet just too see how much I could get away with.

 

[TheDoubleD]

The purpose of a gas check was to, well "check gas." A gas check covers the bottom the bullet to keep hot powder gas from melting the bottom the bullet and keeps the molten lead from being spun out during firing and splattering the bore-leading it. One type of leading.

It may also work as a driving band at lower velocities. At higher velocities the lead portion of the bullet may still strip and lead the bore. When this occurs accuracies declines. Back in day the discussion was at higher velocities was accuracy lost due the lead stripping alone and gas check spinning or was the gas check working a scrapper and pushing up lead in front of the gas check.

The consensus also back then was lead bullets were not a good idea in a gas gun. Lead would quickly plug a gas port on the Garand. Harder to clean out than carbon. Some where in my tool box is a Garand gas port reamer, made just for this job. Cleaning the piston was fairly easy, cleaning the cylinder, not so easy.

I would "guess" and guess only, no experience, it might not be a bad idea to have a spare gas tube for your guns so equipped if shooting lead.

 

[rickm]

If the bullet is designed for a gas check i use it if not i dont whether wax lube or powder coating, the big debate i have seen is whether to gas check before or after powder coating, i havent got into it enough to say one way or the other.

 

[TheDoubleD]

What's to debate. Check a recovered bullet base for gas cutting, check your bore for leading.

If you have either apply the gas check.

 

[rickm]

It wasnt my debate and like i said i havent got that far, so far the only thing i have powder coated is a few 45 acp rounds thats not gas checked and havent had a chance to recover a bullet yet.

 

[swampratt]

I would think if the powder coat was not allowing good performance due to sending it fast down the barrel
then powder coat on top of a gas check would not be as tough as the bare gas check.
Powder coat is a plastic and not near as hard as a gas check.
I say powder coat then gas check it for best results.

Post 9.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?240345-Powder-coated-223-max-speeds

 

[Calamity Jake]

The purpose of a gas check was to, well "check gas." A gas check covers the bottom the bullet to keep hot powder gas from melting the bottom the bullet and keeps the molten lead from being spun out during firing and splattering the bore-leading it. One type of leading.

It may also work as a driving band at lower velocities. At higher velocities the lead portion of the bullet may still strip and lead the bore. When this occurs accuracies declines. Back in day the discussion was at higher velocities was accuracy lost due the lead stripping alone and gas check spinning or was the gas check working a scrapper and pushing up lead in front of the gas check.

The consensus also back then was lead bullets were not a good idea in a gas gun. Lead would quickly plug a gas port on the Garand. Harder to clean out than carbon. Some where in my tool box is a Garand gas port reamer, made just for this job. Cleaning the piston was fairly easy, cleaning the cylinder, not so easy.

I would "guess" and guess only, no experience, it might not be a bad idea to have a spare gas tube for your guns so equipped if shooting lead.

The heat from the powder burning is not there long enough to melt the bullet base.
But to use a GC'ed bullet without the GC is asking for trouble as it allows the gases a place to shoot by the bullet
causing gas cutting which leads the barrel, this is another reason for having the cast bullet big enough to seal to bore.

 

[TheDoubleD]

The age old debate is gas cutting, melting? A game of semantics played before before I was born. Greener talks about in the early days smokeless powder.

The base of the bullet get distorted and the bore gets leaded. Is the debate that gas simple blasted it or melted it? Or is the debate how to prevent it?