Downloaded the drawings from the cast boolits forum to make gas check punches and went to town on the lathe. Made one for 50, 44 and 35 cal and while I was at it made one for percussion caps also. 50 cal I can make two for a penny, 44 three, 35 seven and percussion caps I make eleven for a penny.

For those of you with a lathe and use gas checks here's another simple way to stretch your reloading dollar, or penny

Now, before McGruff sees this thread and feels compelled to reply, it's technically NOT illegal to repurpose a penny this way.

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Interesting-- Just a thought-- couldn't you do the same thing with brass?? I have a few brass sheets ordered years ago from Brownells-- Am sure other brass is around. I have all the gas checks I will ever need, but others might not. Also, I have some in Aluminum, sure plenty of that around. Just a thought or two. Myself, I am not That talented.

Good idea, I'll have to give my discarded brass cases a try. If they'll anneal without melting the zinc in them they should work just fine.

I purchased a "Check Maker" several years ago and IIRC it was less than $20.00. I made a few hundred checks from soft drink/beer cans and purchased aluminum and brass sheets from Ace Hardware. Fun for a while, but I never considered I'd be saving $.005 (5/100 cent) on a bullet. Besides I cast many, many flat based bullets and they shot fine to magnum velocities with no leading to speak of.

But making components is a huge addition to the satisfaction of our hobbies...

Interesting and it ought to be useful. I have a friend who also makes his GCs out of beer cans.

Years ago I bought several thousand Hornady GCs in 30 and 35 calibres on sale so It'll be a while before I try making my own GCs.

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Keep your powder dry.

I made the first percussion caps from .003" soda cans which worked well but found the ones I make from .004" copper fit tighter. I need much thicker material for the checks so soda cans won't work.

Would copper flashing work well for gas checks?

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What would Jim Cirillo do?

I don't know... Was given these cast boolits as part of a box from an estate. Seems that somebody thought "soda cans " worked OK.
I would never shoot these. They are just too cool as part of a display

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Copper flashing would work great.




Worked OK? Maybe, maybe not. If those bullets have a shank they'll more than likely require a thicker gas check than a Bud can.

You can get any thickness of brass or copper sheet you want at McMaster-Carr.

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protocalldesign.com

Kind of blows the cost savings out of the water doesn't it?

Nothing there is cheap.

And just another reason why the US is short on coins and begging people to turn in their stashes.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I do turn them in, just not the pre-1982 pennies because they're mostly copper.

I did the math and a 12x12 sheet of copper costs me $16 and yields 330 gas checks in 50 cal. A penny rolled to the same thickness will make 2 each so the same 330 count only costs $1.65. Simple economics I say

Aluminum rolled roofing works in the right thickness. I played for a while with soda cans and copper sheeting but in the end I buy mine if they are in stock. Gator seems to be about half the cost of Horn. or Lyman.

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Front sight and squeeze

There's nothing wrong with soda/beer can gas checks. I made, attached, and fired several hundred, no problems, no fouling.

FWIW there are different thicknesses of can material; I found the cans shaped like a bottle for beer (I don't drink beer any more and I don't remember the beer in the can, but probably imported). Some of the soft drink cans are really thin, like .005" and often come off the bullet, but the .010" stuff works. 24 gauge flashing is kinda thick, but 28 or 30 should work...