milk jug gas checks

sniper wrote: I read somewhere that gas check bullets shoot very well without the checks. I guess that depends upon your gun,  but it couldn't hurt to try it a time or two.  I use gascheck design bullets without the GC all the time and they work just fine for light loads up to about 1400 fps.  Most of the time I use gallery loads of fast burning pistol or shotshell powder, but if you want something which shoots a bit flatter, in a smooth barrel,  using a powder a bit on the slow side for a plainbased load, you may be able to go a bit faster. 

In small capacity (for a rifle) straight-wall cases, such as using the .357 Magnum or .32 H&R Mag in a single-shot rifle, a nominal caseful of 4198 or RL-7 gives fine results with plainbased bullets without a wad and will get you over 1400 fps. 

In a smooth, well conditioned barrel you can equal the grouping of military ball ammunition at 1400-1700 fps in military bolt rifles using carefully prepared plainbased bullets in the .303 British, .30-40 Krag and .30-'06.

Use as large a bullet as chambers without resistance and extracts freely without de-bulleting.  I size to .312 in my 03A3. .313 for my Krag and .315 for my .303 Brit.

Cast plainbased bullets no harder than wheelweights. Fill the lube grooves with a soft lube such as 50-50 Alox-beeswax, then also overcoat the entire bullet lightly with Lee Liquid Alox.  Try 11 grs. of #2400,  14 grs. of 4227, 16 grs. of 4198 or 18 grs. of RL-7 in any nominal .30 cal. military rifle starters.  Use WLR primers.

Don't start with a clean, dry bore, but thoroughly decopper with Sweets, polish well with JB paste, then clean well with Ed's Red to remove all the JB paste residue and loosened old gunk. Then take a clean patch wet with Lee Liquid Alox, wipe the bore five times, and then run ONE dry patch through the bore to remove the excess LLA.

You are now ready to shoot!  

Shooting from a clean, lightly lubricated bore reduces the risk of leading by firing that first shot in a pristine dry bore. 

If groups open, up push a wet patch of ER through the bore, inspect the patch for  lead, and if so, wet-brush, wet-patch and repeat the whole process, adjusting the load is necessary.

Once you have a tweaked load which works and your bore is conditioned, you should be able to get 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards with iron sights or in proportion to 200. You won't need to thoroughly clean, but just leave the bore lightly wet with ER, then run a single dry patch through the conditioned bore and you should be ready to shoot again. Like like your .22 match rifle in the old days.

I shoot very few gaschecked loads anymore.