Gas Checks-what’s the difference

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  • Last Post 28 January 2020
Slug Gun posted this 15 January 2020

What is the difference between Hornady and Gator or some other brand of gas checks. Is there an accuracy improvement between brands ?

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Larry Gibson posted this 27 January 2020

Oops, forgot to answer the question....

My experience amounts to about 1500 Gators as compared to thousand of Hornady and Lyman GCs.  I never used the Gators in my match rifles so can say from that.  However I used most of them in my "other" rifles (30 and 31 cals) and never noticed any difference in accuracy with those using mostly 170 - 200 gr bullets at 1750 - 1950 fps.

LMG

Concealment is not cover.........

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Larry Gibson posted this 27 January 2020

I have shot a lot of all three types of GCs along with my own home made aluminum and brass GCs in accurate .308Ws.  I've found that upwards of 2000 fps all of them shoot just about the same accuracy wise including those with the old Lyman slip on GCs.  However, when shooting at higher velocity (which also means higher psi) I've found the slip on and other non-crimp GCs do come off in flight.  That occurs almost within the first few yards after muzzle exit [I have the GC shot up chronograph screens to prove it].

Every time I noticed a GC had hit the screens that bullet was a flyer out of the group.  Never had the loss of the GC destroy the bullets stability, just caused a loss of precision is all.  

Also in my HV tests with the 30x60 XCB cartridge I found even the crimp on GC would be lost at velocities over 2950 - 3200 fps.  

LMG 

Concealment is not cover.........

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Eutectic posted this 28 January 2020

Slug,

My experience mirrors Bud and Ed's work. In order to see the difference you must shoot a gun and load that is consistent and capable of small groups. The match reports in TFS agree, Hornady's are top choice.

The Hornady's are a lot more trouble. You need to carefully seat them and then size/crimp them. Some of my molds had large check shanks and would turn up a ring of alloy ahead of the check when seating. I made a check expander reported in TFS which cured this and made the grouping more consistent.

The Lyman's are slipped on, sized and lubed, lots less work. They can be used without sizing and lubed with liquid Alox for even less work. For many purposes they are fine, I use both kinds. 

Steve

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Bud Hyett posted this 15 January 2020

I have shot both for the .308 Win, I cannot see any difference on the target. There are other more prevalent factors in my opinion.

My only test for the Gator checks was trying to pull them off after seating. They held on as well as the Hornady checks. Four decades ago when shooting the Lyman checks, we would find them strung from the firing line to the 200 yard targets. 

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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leadhead2 posted this 17 January 2020

I'm thinking of buying some gator checks in .30 cal.

Have heard good things about them.

Denny

leadhead

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Wallyl posted this 27 January 2020

BudHyett  When shooting those Lyman GC's,  did you find any difference in accuracy using them compared to a Hornady GC.  I often wondered if a bullet that "throws a GC" made it less accurate. 

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Wallyl posted this 27 January 2020

Larry   That may explain why I get so many flyers with my .223 Rem 700 using cast bullets as I've found that some of my aluminum GC's are a few yards in front of the muzzle. Then again I shot groups using Hornady & my home made aluminum and found no significant difference in accuracy. both in the .223 Rem & .22-250 Rem (Rem 700's)....

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Slug Gun posted this 27 January 2020

And now......back to the original question: 

What is the difference between Hornady and Gator or some other brand of gas checks. Is there an accuracy improvement between brands ?

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Bud Hyett posted this 28 January 2020

BudHyett  When shooting those Lyman GC's,  did you find any difference in accuracy using them compared to a Hornady GC.  I often wondered if a bullet that "throws a GC" made it less accurate. 

Yes, the Hornady gaschecks were definitely better. The noticeable difference was fewer flyers. Both Ed and I shot several Saturdays with side by side comparisons and the central groups were the same, especially fewer outlying flyers. 

We would shoot ten shots of a good load with Lyman and then tens shots of the same load with Hornady. The Hornady shot better, this was with several groups. That was forty years ago and I do not remember how many groups, but at least three each at each yardage. 

We also dug bullets out of the backstop to see if the Hornady checks stayed on to both the 100 and 200 yard targets. They did.

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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