Spent a good portion of Saturday casting...

[swampratt]

Dumpstick that is good you cast.. sure saves a bunch of money.
I prefer wheel weight lead the clip on type for rifle and hot 357 mag..I can go softer with under 1100fps loads.
My 45acp likes 2/3 soft lead and 1/3 clip on. Bumps up quicker and less leading.
Last few rounds I have been powder coating instead of lubing.
Only because I found shooting lead from 30-30 at 1900fps in rapid succession the velocity eeks up after each shot like lube is building up.. But at 100 yards the groups did not change..this was with Lee alox and gas checked bullet.

Without the chrony I would never have known.
If I fire 10 rounds through my 45acp as fast as I can I will get a little leading no matter the lube or alloy, another reason I have been powder coating.

 

[Dumpstick]

swampratt - you took Lee alox to 1900 fps ?

Wow ! I've never tried pushing anything that hard with Alox. I can easily get to 1200 fps in my SBH, never gone above it.

I'm checking, sizing, and lubing the 358156 now, using aluminum checks, and RandyRat's TAC (or is it Tac-X ?) lube. No leading in a checked .357 to ~1300 fps with that lube.

Maybe I need to try the BLL, or 45-45-10, just to give it a whirl. Tumble-lubing is far easier than individually picking up each and every single freakin' projectile.

Pick up a fiddly gas check.
snap it on the bottom of the bullet.
Set it in the lube/sizer,
pull the lever.
tighten lube feed screw.
Check to see if the groove is full.
Spin bullet 90°.
Pull lever again.
pick up bullet.
wipe bottom of excess lube.

 

[Dumpstick]

Got some of these ready - about 300 of the 358156

This is the mold designed for 38 or 357, it has two crimp grooves. This makes it possible to load 357-level loads into 38Spl brass - just crimp in the lower groove, with more of the bullet sticking out. Hopefully, this makes it too long to chamber in 38Spl.
This mold was designed back when 357 Mag brass was harder to find. Now, with Starline Brass making 357 brass by the truckload, it doesn't make as much sense to load that way, but I'm going to try it anyway.

I tumble-lubed in BLL, just to get some lube on them to go thru the sizer. Ran them thru a NOE push-thru sizer (.359) just to seat the check. Aluminum checks, from a now-defunct maker. I am having about 10% rejects on the checks, which is probably why the maker is defunct.

Then , on to the old Lyman 45 luber/sizer. Sized to .358, and lubed with TAC-X (or is it TAC ? I can't ever remember what it was I purchased, and I was too busy to mark it.) TAC-X is for warmer weather...

I have maybe 30-40 checks remaining. I'll try these with just tumble-lube too, see how it goes.

I'll load up some honkin' loads, and try it in wifes' single-shot.

 

[DRC458]

Aluminum checks, from a now-defunct maker. I am having about 10% rejects on the checks, which is probably why the maker is defunct.

Have you tried Sage's Outdoors? Aluminum and copper gas checks. Good prices and cheap shipping. I'm only on my first batch from them, but so far so good.
http://www.sagesoutdoors.com/

 

[swampratt]

Looks like sages does wholesale orders for those who want to resell the checks.
I used Gator checks and on one forum we got together and did a group buy which the terms were we needed an order of 50,000 checks to make the deal come together..we got that and then some..
The 35cal or checks for the 357 ended up costing $17 per 1000 the regular price then for the gator checks was 20.

I have not had one bad check from them yet.
I only got 30 and 35 cal ones though

 

[Dumpstick]

Have you tried Sage's Outdoors? Aluminum and copper gas checks. Good prices and cheap shipping. I'm only on my first batch from them, but so far so good.
http://www.sagesoutdoors.com/

Funny you should mention him. I spoke on the phone yesterday to James Sage, asking mostly about quality control.
The price of cheap gas checks gets out of hand with a 10% rejection rate.

He assured me that he has a no-BS warranty, including return shipping. Problem with the checks, send em back for a full refund.

He is supposed to be sending me some samples.

 

[swampratt]

OH I actually took Alox to 2045 fps to be exact. No issues really but the bullets are gas checked.
The 30-30 gained velocity after each shot but this was a get back on target quickly and shoot again.
Velocity looked like this .
#1-2013 fps
#2-2030 fps
Then i gave it a 20 minute rest.
#3-1919 fps
#4-1930 fps
#5-1950
#6-1969
#7-1984
#8-1992
#9-2045
The first 2 were shot out of a dirty barrel that had not been shot or cleaned for over 4 months.

 

[DRC458]

Funny you should mention him. I spoke on the phone yesterday to James Sage, asking mostly about quality control.
The price of cheap gas checks gets out of hand with a 10% rejection rate.

He assured me that he has a no-BS warranty, including return shipping. Problem with the checks, send em back for a full refund.

He is supposed to be sending me some samples.

Just curious - what kinds of defects are you seeing to cause rejection? Oversize/undersize diameter/ thickness? Material defects?

 

[Dumpstick]

Just curious - what kinds of defects are you seeing to cause rejection? Oversize/undersize diameter/ thickness? Material defects?

I'll let the picture speak for itself. Randomly pulled from the reject bag.

 

[NikatKimber]

I'll let the picture speak for itself. Randomly pulled from the reject bag.

Ick!