Freechex Free Gas Checks

[Dr.Hess]

While waiting for the paint to flash between coats on the Locost, I went over to the corner of the shop and started playing with my new gas check maker. Got it on eBay for $33. Search for "freechex" or seller codarnall. Have you priced gas checks lately? Out of sight, until you price bullets too. Insane. I was going to make my own maker because I didn't know this guy was still making them. I had even drawn up plans for it. Then I found him selling exclusively on eBay and for $33, it isn't worth tooling up for or the day of machine shop time I would spend on it.

 

So, you take the hole punch and punch little disks out of an aluminum can, then put them in the forming thing, drop the tool in and bash it with a mallet. Out comes a gas check. Coke cans are a bit thin, so I put two disks in and form 1 gas check from them. Next up was to see how they went on a bullet. I'm sure I had a few cast 30 cal bullets around that hadn't been sized yet because I ran out of store bought gas checks ten years ago, but I couldn't find them. So, the next day after moving the chassis over and cleaning up, I dusted off all my casting stuff (I last cast a bullet during the Klinton administration) and cast about 2/3rds of a 1 lb coffee can full of 30 cal. Once you're set up and on a roll, just keep going. That was two Lee production pot's worth of lead with a 2 cavity mould. Next was to see how the freechex fit. They turn out a little bottle-cap-ish if you do a single layer but smoother if you use two layers. My bullet sizer/luber was still set up for 30 cal, so that was good. Push the check on, which somewhat snapped in place versus store-bought checks, run it through the sizer/luber and they look good. I did some single layered ones and some double layered ones. Some were a little loose and sometimes the 2 layered ones separated. Next up is to load them into 7.62x39 and see how they shoot. I think I'll set up some water bottles and try to trap them and see how they hold up compared to a store bought gas check. All the thing really has to do is stay on the bullet until it leaves the barrel to keep the hot gasses from melting the lead. And for you newbies, you only need gas checks with rifle bullets or some high velosity handgun bullets, like .357's or 44 mag. Slower bullets like 45 ACP don't need one.

 

Total cost on the bullet: Uh, a little bit of electricity, little bit of lube and some wheel weights I have been hording for 20 years. A half cent each would probably be stretching it. I need to see how to make my own bullet lube. Can't do much about the electricity. If I could find some .025 aluminum, brass or copper sheet, I think that would work a little better than Coke cans. But, can't beat the price on the Coke cans: Free.

 

[Ron J]

This may sound stupid, but what keeps them from separating in the barrel? I would guess the pressure moves it out even if they come off? Not being critical here, I have no clue - I've never made bullets of any kind. This all sounds interesting except getting the lead with scrap costs up like they are.

[AzRednek]

Thx Doc for the evaluation, I will probably buy one soon. From what I read on another group watch for a house with aluminum siding to be stripped. Thickness is supposed to be just right and a couple sheets will give you a lifetime supply.

 

This may sound stupid, but what keeps them from separating in the barrel? I would guess the pressure moves it out even if they come off? Not being critical here, I have no clue - I've never made bullets of any kind. This all sounds interesting except getting the lead with scrap costs up like they are.

 

The only separation problems I've "heard" about is from seating the bullet's bottom in bottle neck brass below the neck. Like I said "heard" and don't now if it has really happened or if it the product of the internet's imagination.

 

Here is another report on a cast bullet group.

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=32978

[Dr.Hess]

Interesting on his results. He's pushing some big bullets at some pretty fast speeds for a cast bullet. Most impressive. I have 50 yards to test at. I haven't loaded any of the freechecks yet. The aluminum cans may be too thin to provide a good tight fit on the bullet. Also, some bullets are slightly smaller than others pre-sizing, depending on how hot the lead and the mould were at the time. More experimenting will be in order, I can see. I solved a nasty loose primer problem when reloading non-reloadable steel case 7.62x39 with a tad bit of red locktite. Perhaps something similar would fix this. I've recovered bullets I made with store bought gas checks and they were still attached. That's why I want to catch them down range with a water trap of some type and see what's happening.

 

The gas check won't separate from the bullet in the barrel because it is being accelerated by the hot, expanding gasses pushing on the bottom of the bullet.

 

I'll have to keep my eyes out for aluminum siding or other sources. I noticed that Heinekin cans seem to be thicker than Coke cans. I need to measure. I may need a bigger sample set. With scrap prices where they are today, any source of scrap anything is scarfed up and sold to China. Last time this happened to us, the Japanese were buying all our steel and started WWII with it. Virtually all the iron hull tall ships got turned into the Japanese war machine. I was lucky to buy a bunch of lead at a tire store auction in the 80's and I've been carrying it around with me since. It should last me till I'm done.

 

[Spiris]

I just checked some alum flashing that I had that comes in about 1ft. wide rolls. It measured .008 thick. Then I measured a beer can and got .004. I didn't measure a gascheck yet for thickness. I'm wondering if the alum flashing is too soft and perhaps create galling. Come to think of it, I guess that's what they made bullet lube for.

 

Spiris

[Dr.Hess]

I measured the storebought gaschecks that Az sent me but I didn't write it down. I think they were 20 thou'. I'll check tomorrow or Wednesday and write it down this time. I got 5 thou on the Coke cans. That would certainly make them a loose fit on a bullet designed for a 020 gas check. I need to bring my calipers down to Home Depot and see what I can get. I have some 040 and 060 aluminum that I've been building my car out of, but that's too thick. I'll check the flashing I have somewhere around here. Two layers of 008 might be pretty close. I don't think galling is going to be a problem. The aluminum is probably harder than copper that storeboughts are made out of.

 

[AzRednek]

From what I have read, Lyman checks are thinner than Hornady. Lyman's are (in theory anyway) supposed to fall of in flight and Hornady's crimp on style are supposed to stay on. Lyman checks are much easier to work with and look as though they are brass or an alloy. Hornady's look like pure copper.

 

Doc the 35 cal checks are out of a box of Herters brand and are likely 30+ years old. The others I sent are recently manufactured and the measurements should be more accurate.

[Dr.Hess]

AzRednek sent me some gaschecks to measure. These are my results (all dimensions in inches):

 

Gas Checks

ID Thickness

0.290 0.017 (recovered from shot 7.62x39 bullet)

0.355 0.010

0.400 0.007

0.401 0.017

0.405 0.017

0.430 0.017

 

The first one is from a store-bought gascheck I had on a cast bullet from 10 years ago. I recovered it at the range and it floated to the top of the pot. I don't have any like it that are not already stuck on a bullet.

 

I measured the Coke can and it was about 4 thou. I went through my scrap pile and came up with some aluminum flashing. It measured at 10 thou. A Heineken can was very slight thicker than the Coke can, but it could be a coating on the inside of the can and not the aluminum.

 

Material Thickness

Coke Can 0.004

Heineken 0.004+

Flashing 0.010

 

I made some frechex from the flashing. They seem to stick to the boolits better than the drink can ones. I experimented with two layers of coke cans, but sometimes they come apart in the sizer/luber, leaving one stuck on the boolit and one stuck in the sizer/luber. A layer of coke can and a layer of flashing would be pretty close to the majority of the store-boughts, but that didn't make too well in the freechex tool. I usually wound up with an unuseable mess.

 

I think that the flashing at 0.010" may work out the best. They make well and they stick to the boolit in the sizer/luber well too. I have about 10-15 of each type (1 layer coke can, 2 layers coke can, flashing) done. Next up is to dust off the Dillon (last used over 10 years ago, hangs head in shame) and churn out some reloads.

 

I found some recipies on that other web site for lube. Most of them use bee's wax and something else, usually a petroleum product like vasiline, ATF, etc. The problem is that bee's was is $5/lb +shiping cheapest on the net, and I can buy store bought boolit lube from Midway for $3.50/12oz. Not hardly worth the trouble. My luber is a RCBS that I bought almost 35 years ago and uses the hollow sticks.

[AzRednek]

I can buy store bought boolit lube from Midway for $3.50/12oz.

 

Doc, this is where I buy lube. I've used his 50/50 and with a heater used the red and purple. His lube is as good as the name brands.

 

http://search.ebay.com/jakes-lube_W0QQ_trk...jakeQ27sQ20lube

 

[Dr.Hess]

Thanks, Az. I've used a lot of different lubes over the decades, and I'm kinda partial to the RCBS green type that I have loaded now. I don't know what's in it, besides bee's wax of course, but I like it because it is relatively clean to handle and you don't have to heat it. I hate bullet lubes that leave your fingers a sticky mess when you pick up the bullet. Store bought cast bullets I still have laying around, like 9mm or 380 because it wasn't worth tooling up for, also use a non sticky kind. Which of his lubes would be like that?

[AzRednek]

Doc his red and purple are not sticky but require heat to install. It wont get sticky from body heat like the NRA formula. The red needs a bit more heat than the purple or the purple with moly. I'll dig up the guy's email address if I still have it and edit it in. He is real good and prompt on answering questions and he may have cloned RCBS's. I've never used RCBS but everyone I know that have used it claim it is the best but also the most expensive. I was going to buy a tube of it a few years ago but decided against it because the price was almost 3 times more than locally made NRA 50/50 stuff. If you don't have a heater, you might try rigging up a light bulb. The light bulb can be a pain in the donkey but it does work.

 

If you haven't tried Lee's tumble lube, it is great. I use it on mild to medium handgun loads I shoot without sizing. I dust tumble lubed bullets with mica after they have dried out overnight and have no problems with them sticking together and have never had a leading with it except for an old revolver with a pitted barrel. Loaded ammo can be stored in sunlight and Lee's stuff wont turn soft or melt.

[Dr.Hess]

This is Jake's web page:

http://www.jakesproducts.com/index.html

 

His lube is a little cheaper if you buy it direct. I don't think I could make it for what he charges. He must have his own bees. I think I still have 2-3 sticks of the RCBS green stuff. I gotta look and if I'm low, I'll order ten sticks from him for about twenty bucks. Probably the purple. If I recall, I've use a light bulb on my sizer/luber before for some lubes, especially in the cold. Not that it ever gets COLD in Texas, but it does freeze in Bryan and snow every 3-5 years, and I used to have to scrape frost off my windshield in League City at 0400 when it was time to go to the hospital.

 

Next up is to load some ammo. I haven't loaded a bullet since about 1996 or so when I shot some high power, and I've moved 500 miles between then and now. That was also the time of cheap ammo when you could buy 30-06 for 23 cents, 8MM for 7 cents 7.62x39 for 5-8 and 223 for 18. Now the bullets are 18 cents, primers 2 and powder 10, and loaded ammo is 60 cents. Times have changed. THANKS U.N.

 

I set up my presses when I built my shop, just never used them. I found my die collection (not as easy as I had thought), fixed my powder measure (siliconed the plastic part to the metal part) and looked around for what else I need. I need some case lube. Last time I loaded, I used Dillon's spray on case lube. It was fantastic stuff. You just put about 30 cases in a cake pan, squirt and couple mist squirts on them, roll them around in the pan, done. So much better than any other lube I had ever used like RCBS and the pad, faster and not nasty to handle. Well, that plastic spray bottle self destructed 5 years ago, dumping the stuff into the cake pan and making a mess. The mess did catch 3 baby mice, so not a total loss. Remembering that the only thing in it was about 1/3 lanolin and 2/3rds rubbing alcohol, I got some lanolin, rubbing alcohol and a spray bottle at Wally World today. The 100% pure lanolin is sold over in the baby section. I'll let you guys figger out what fer.

 

[Dr.Hess]

So, got busy today. Rifle is my 1901 Spanish 93 Mauser $20 action, GPC 7.62x39 bbl, Turk 98 stock cut down and pookied to fit, J&G $20 scope. I'm not claiming it's a tack driver, and everything that can be Bubba'ized has been.

 

First off, I came across some of my reloads from about 1994 or so. They were Berdan primed, steel ChiCom cases that I reloaded back then just to prove it could be done. I only have a handful of Boxer primed brass cases, so run what ya brung. I had some loaded with FMJ bullets and some with boolits I cast back then with store-bought gas checks. Primers are large rifle. Range was 48 yards. Backstop 100 year old dead oak tree. The FMJ's shot about 3 MOA. Not bad for a fully Bubba Mauser that still needs a lot of work, shooting rather bizzare reloads. The cast boolits with store-bought gas checks shot around 4 MOA, give or take. OK, still not bad.

 

Next up was my first Freechex boolits, cast last weekend. I had double thickness coke can and single thickness flashing. I loaded up some double coke can, 27 grains of H335, Winchester primer. Right off, I had a pierced primer. Great. In a 93, I'd always heard that they didn't handle pierced primers well, were dangerous, blah blah. Nothing happened. It kinda vented around the bolt and that was it. Course, my eye was way up high on the scope and I had glasses on. Continue on. No more pierced primers, but they got whapped real good. I may need to measure firing pin protrusion on that thing. I wonder what the spec is. I shot about 10 rounds and went to look at my target. Couldn't see the holes with the 4x scope and I hadn't bothered to set up one of my spotting scopes. I've seen better patterns from a shotgun. I'm talking about 25 MOA. That ain't gonna cut it. I put the rest of the double can boolits back into the lead pot. Not worth a primer and powder.

 

Next up, I took the surviving empty cases back to the bench and loaded up 5 with the flashing Freechex, 5 being all the cases that were still useable. The rest split somewhere or had extraction issues. Back to the range. These shot much better. I had one flyer that I would not rule out pilot error on, so I'm calling it 4 to 5 MOA. I think the flashing at 010 shows promise. If I could find something 15 to 17 thou thick, I think I'd be good on the Freechex.

 

I'm still going to try a few of the single can Freechex boolits, just to see what they do. I need to "convert" some more steel cases to reloadables. Anyway, these were the first bullits I've reloaded since about 1995 or so. Amazing how you jump right back on it. Changed out my Dillon from 30-06 to 7.62x39, started cranking them out.

[Spiris]

Glad to see you're back into it Doc. Hope to hear more of your adventures in reloading.

 

Spiris

[Dr.Hess]

I tried out the single coke can boolits last night. They were stringing vertically about 10 MOA. I had some issues with my cases dropping the primers out as well if they were loaded into the mag, so I single fired them. I haven't been using my secret primer fixer technique of red Loctite because you have to wait a day or two between loading and shooting. Some headstamps work better than others; I started a chart to see which ones to just pitch.

 

I experimented with a layer of coke can and a layer of flashing, but they didn't make in the tool, so I made up some more flashing checks. I think a trip to Home Depot is in order to look for some 015-018" copper or aluminum. On inspection, the bore, which has now had probably 40-50 rounds of freechex run through it, was squeeky clean. I mean really, really clean. No signs/symptoms of leading at all.

 

My shoulder is getting sore. That steel buttplate is kinda tough, even with 7.62x39. It isn't bad at all if you shoot standing, but sitting at the bench (or porch rail, as it were), it whaps you pretty good. No more pierced primers. The dogs go into their house when I'm shooting. The cat, Isaac, came out and layed down about 3' away. He don't care.

 

[Dr.Hess]

I messed with them some more last weekend. I bought some .016 aluminum from mcmaster.com at $3.66 for 1 sq ft plus shipping. Not exactly low cost, but I could get about 600 (theoretically) gas checks from a sq ft and I wanted some material to try. Anyway, I also found some .020 aluminum at Lowes or HD. Neither worked in the tool, as both tore when formed. The tool was making about .308" OD checks, but my bullets are sized to .311. So, I opened up the tool to about .315. Then I smoothed out the inside radius a tad, polished stuff, smoothed the radius on the edge of the pusher and add a little bit of break free to the disk and the tool. Now I'm getting some 020's and 016's that are about 315 OD and mash onto the boolits tight. They still aren't shooting worth a darn, but the 016's look promising. A few wild fliers, but tightening up some.

 

With my rifle on the porch rail sand bag, I moved my eye around and it looks like my J&G "so good you'll want another" scope has about 20 minutes of parallax now at my 50-ish yard range. I wonder if something loosened up inside it from the MASSIVE 7.62x39 recoil. Oh well. Looks like that thing is going into the scrap pile. I dug up another Chineese 4x scope from about 10 years ago. I'll mount that one and see where I'm at.

 

Also, the formed checks are not real symetrical. The "skirt" part is longer on one part than the other, usually. I have been discarding the ones that are really out. I think that I'll take the remaining ones and run them over some emory cloth until they are more uniform. Any variation in total weight would have a minimal effect on accuracy at that point.

 

My steel cased shells have been having mixed results. Some work, some don't. I haven't been glueing in my primers. I just discard the ones that don't keep the primer in and single load the rest. To make them work in an auto-loader, you have to glue them in.

 

[Dr.Hess]

I stopped by a pawn shop yesterday looking at scopes. I bought a Bushnell 6x fixed with rings and flip up lens caps for about $35. Mounted it up last night. It is the same size as the NCStar that was junk. We'll see if there's any improvement. I'll start out with some store bought ammo and go from there.

 

Incidentally, this is how I mount scopes:

Clamp gun in vice with plenty of padding (towel, rags, etc.) Put a level on top of the scope mount and adjust rifle until level. Set up laser level with line splitter pointing at a wall. Put scope on and adjust until cross hairs are even with laser level line. Works for me.

 

 

[Spiris]

Sorry about your firearm's woes, Doc. Cool on the laser level!

I have some background in metal properties because I worked with it daily at the job that I retired from, and know that the softer aluminum, also generally cheaper, will not cut cleanly with your Chex maker and often leaves an uneven burr. Eventually the soft stuff will leave some galling in the barrel because i often had that problem with buildup on the punches in the 56 station CNC punch press that I ran. The problem with the harder aluminum alloys, t1, t3, t6 is that they will cut cleaner, they also will have a tendency to be harder to form, and often crack in doing so. 2024 alloy has the extra malleability due to the addition of copper, but the price begins to go against you. And copper foil or sheets, forget it. Unless one can come across some cheap surplus stuff that works, it's almost better to shoot harder plain base cast bullets.

Continue to persevere Doc, you may hit on something that will benefit all. HMMM...I wonder how something like railroad board paper that measures .017-.022 would work, formed and paper glued to the base similar to the old paper patched bullets of yore? Probably too much trouble.

[Dr.Hess]

The tool itself is really very simple. I think that a proper tool and die maker could do a much better job designing something, but it would have to be custom designed for the thickness of the stock. I am convinced that aluminum cans are too thin to use as stock for the bullet profile I am using. It might work fine for other profiles, but not this one. Anyway, the process is: Take a standard Chineese 3/8" hole punch that has had the edges sharpened up and punch out disks of aluminum from your stock backed up against a block of wood. There isn't much burr potential at this point. Then you put the disk into the tool and push it to the bottom, insert the forming punch and whap it with a mallet. Next, pry the formed check off the end of the forming punch now protruding from the bottom of the tool. I should take some pics.

 

The stuff from McMaster is plain 3003 or something like it.

 

A guy I sailed with was into black powder. He was a Main-iac. Anyway, he said that there was a tool that you could use to make caps from toy capgun stickon caps and aluminum cans. It was like pliers. You squeezed and a cap was punched out and formed, then you added the toy cap to the inside. Something like that would be ideal, I think.

[Dr.Hess]

I sighted my new scope in on store-bought ammo. I just got it dialed in and ran out, so I couldn't shoot a group with it for a baseline. Then I switched to some 016 home brews. I shot 5 and 2 were touching, 2 were touching about 2-3 inches away from those other 2, and 1 was way out, about 8-10" away. I think these are promising. I'm calling it 5MOA plus a flier. Next up is to sand them down to get them uniform before I put them on the bullet and run them through the sizer.

 

[Dr.Hess]

Took a few shots today. First off, I shot some 1991 Norinco ammo, FMJ, steel case military stuff. I shot about 2.5 MOA in a 5 shot group. Other 3 shot groups were 2-3 MOA. Not bad, and there's lots of potential left for improvement.

 

Next up was a batch of freechex from 016 AL, trimmed to about symetrical on the grinder. They did about 8-10 MOA. All over, not stringing. I just don't know what else to try here. I am considering trying a few without gas checks at all to see what they will do. With 27 gr of H335, I'm not exactly pushing the envelope, I don't think. Otherwise, I am about to give up on the freechex. I might try making my own punch/form from scratch. I think I'll load up some with store bought gas checks next just to see how they shoot. I still have some already loaded from 10 years ago, but to rule out other variables, I might give that a try.

[Larry Gibson]

Dr.Hess

 

Just a note; I have GC making tools also, a FreeChex for .22, and two other tools for .30, .31 and 8mm. I find that Masters & Carr sells 6x100" brass shim stock in different thickness. I use .012 and .014. I use a paper cutter to cut 1/2" strips for the larger GC makers. I can get 2800 GCs from a 6x100" sheet. Costs me $33 per sheet including shipping if I order 2-4 sheets. That makes the cost of my .30-8mm GCs less than $12 per thousand. They are much better quality than the aluminum ones made from cans. They also lock onto the GC shank as well as the Hornady crimp ons if the right thickness of shim stock is used. I'm setting up for a side by side comparison of them against Hornady and a GB GC from the cast Boolit forum. I'll post the results.

 

Larry Gibson

[AzRednek]

Thx Larry. I'll look forward to hearing about your results, I've been keeping my eye on this thread as Doc Hess has been experimenting with Free Chex and keeping us posted wit the results. The price of the shim stock is a bit steep but if it works out to about 12 bux a thousand it is a real bargain. That is the kind of savings a real cheapskate like me enjoys!! Currently I have more spare time than $$ and cutting my own gas checks would certainly be worth the time. I hate to come off as a dummy but what does "GB GC" mean?

[Larry Gibson]

Thx Larry. I'll look forward to hearing about your results, I've been keeping my eye on this thread as Doc Hess has been experimenting with Free Chex and keeping us posted wit the results. The price of the shim stock is a bit steep but if it works out to about 12 bux a thousand it is a real bargain. That is the kind of savings a real cheapskate like me enjoys!! Currently I have more spare time than $$ and cutting my own gas checks would certainly be worth the time. I hate to come off as a dummy but what does "GB GC" mean?

 

"GB GC" means that over on the Cast Boolet forums they do Group Buys (the GB) on custom moulds and also have a guy who makes GCs for a bit less than Hornady's or Lyman's. The GC is for Gas Check. Sorry, everyone over there is used to those abreviations so I just used them here without thinking.

 

Larry Gibson

 

[Dr.Hess]

I've been busy with other projects and events (this is the big event season, cars, bikes, etc.) and haven't had the time to mess with this. I bought that 016 AL form mcmaster. I saw the brass stock, but it was a lot more, especially for a limited quantity test run. My 016 AL's crimp onto the shanks of my 7.62x39 cast boolits and are now about the same ID, OD and thickness as the store-boughts. I think my problem right now is in the uniformity of the freechex. They are coming out fatter on one side than the other, and I think that is throwing it off into a spiral flight pattern, but that's just a theory.