What are the pro/cons of shooting gas check lead bullets in 38/357 revolvers?
I am mostly shooting casual targets and just plinking.

Thanks

i have been casting for over 40 years, and have never needed gas check bullets. they are just to prevent the base of the bullets from melting and coating the barrel with lead when you load the cartridge to higher speed loads. medium loads do not have this problem.

Gas checks provide some protection from bore leading in high-intensity loadings. At handgun velocities, and especially in revolvers with their inherent gas leakage, they're pretty much extraneous.

Larry

The base of a lead bullet is not what is causing leading, but the gas leak & blow by that melts the side of the bullet base. So a gc protects that area a bit. It also adds a bit of grip to the base of the bullet, which can help if the bullet isn't sized right, 0.001" min larger than bore.
The down side is cost & time to apply them. I don't find a need for conventional handgun bullets going less than 1400fps. Above that, I might want one if I intend to keep the bullet on the softer side for say hunting. Otherwise just not needed IMO. I have several molds where I had the gc removed, I never run them above 1300fps.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Velocity over 1400 fps and or bullet hardness
Gas cutting around the outside diameter of the bullet will not only lead the barrel, it will upset the accuracy even below 1400

The molds have a gas check cut in them which adds to the expense.

The checks are fun to make with the Checkmaker from Pat's

Patmarlins™ | Specialty Products for Casting and Reloading

Lot of extra expense with gas checks, However the rewards justify the means. You really have to be into casting, loading. shooting AND have a lot of spare time

You can get by with loading soft bullets that would otherwise lead at high loadings. Plain soft swaged bullets are limited to around 1000 fps or a little more depending on your barrel/bullet fit.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I only use gas checks on one bullet of mine - the 429244 in hollowpoint form. My working theory (may or may not have basis in reality) is that I can cast these a little softer to hopefully get some or more expansion, but have the gas check to prevent or minimize leading. Never recover these bullets from game (I've killed several deer with them out of various .44s) so I can't verify the expansion question but can say I don't get any leading.

I have the same bullet design in solid form for .38/.357 but rearely use it - mostly shoot the 358429 Keith 173 grain (plain base - Keith had no use for gas checks) in that bore size.

I might try some of the gas check .357 bullets cast hard and pushed to maximum velocity in my recently acquired pre-27 just to recreate the original .357 loading.

The biggest advantage of gas check lead bullets is in using them at fairly high velocities in rifle cartridges, generally anything over about 1200-1300 ft/sec. It's possible to get reasonably good performance at high velocities up to around 2000 ft/sec using gas checked lead rifle bullets. If anyone has the Lyman cast bullet handbook, it provides a lengthy discussion on the use of gas-check bullets. The LCBH is a very useful resource (and in fact essential) for anyone interested in loading with lead bullets.

I use gc on the 358156 HP in a carbine. It is the only 357 load I use them in. They serve a purpose but I am of the opinion it isn't to reduce leading but to help the base band as it enters the rifling. I only use them on cartridges at greater than 1600 fps.

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Front sight and squeeze

Yep, grip and gas (actually neither is a 100% factor for need of a gas check). I have been casting for many years and only have one mold for gaschecked bullets. As long as the bullet fits the gun, I have had very little/no leading and as far as I can tell, no skidding w/o gas checks, plain based bullets.

Pro; do provide some protection from hot gasses. Does provide extra "grip" of bullet to rifling.
Con; extra expense of gaschecks. Additional work installing gaschecks. Some molds may produce bullets with gas check "step" either too large or too small

And choice of lube & pressures driven. After all, 22lr are pure lead & driven much faster than 1000fps w/o much leading.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I cast 2 bullets designed for gas checks, a 155gr SWCGC for my 357s, and a 215gr SWCGC for my 41 Magnum. I view the gas check as cheap insurance for when I intend to shoot my cast bullets at Magnum velocities.

Up front, I will freely admit, I am cheap/frugal. I cast my bullets from salvaged wheel weights, then I quench them. I have not tested them for Brinell hardness. I figure that the gas check prevents leading if my bullets are too soft.

For me, gas checks are cheap insurance for when I push my bullets at Magnum velocities.

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Judge control not gun control!

A lot of folks put a lot of credence on "Celebrity Opinion" so I thought I'd share what I found Elmer Keith said about gas checks. I hope I can post this here without getting in trouble or having the mods remove it as it's a quite interesting article from "The Father of Handgun Shooting".

From an article in Oct. '66 Handloader Magazine; "Gas checks are a farce and delusion on sixgun bullets. They will not upset to properly fill the cylinder throats... and more gas escapes past them to raise havoc with the bearing bands of the bullet. They cause more gas cutting of the top strap at barrel and cylinder junction." He goes on to say they raise pressure as tested at White's Laboratory.

Well,everyone who knows me will tell you that to me,Mr Keith was a walking encyclopedia about shooting lead bullets through an steel tube.But I must admit that there is one backstreet where I wouldn't have walked closely by and it is the one where he states that gas checks are useless(I don't recall one of his designs that incorporated one such!).I'll say that most handgun use will shoot just as good with plain base bullets and will go as far as saying that all,even gc designed bullets shot without will group good.But these gc designed shot with a gc will most of the time shoot a LITTLE better with than without.Now,my experience spans only through a few guns in .44 and .357 mag.Maybe you will have found something different but to me,for shooting at paper target,without is just as good.But if I want to make a big impression to the lady who's shooting next to me,I might go through the extra trouble and seat gc onto my bullets!
Qc