I'm loading Lyman's 135 R.N. in 7-08 cases and I'm concerned abot the gas check coming off of the bullet, falling into the main interior body of the case and causing a barrel obstruction.

To correct this, I seated the bullet out far enough to keep the Hornady gas check (which doesn't crimp on very well) in the case neck. Now the leading edge of the bullets have engraving marks from the rifling when I chamber them.

Which is the bigger sin, (and how real is) taking a chance of the G.C. falling off in the case or risking preasure issues because the bullet is into the rifling at ignition? Thanks.

I think the odds of a gas check coming off and obstructing the bore are slim to none. Even if it does come off the base of the bullet, I'd expect the burning gasses behind it to be more than capable of getting it out of the bore

I did have a similar issue with a heavy 35 caliber bullet in my 350 Rigby, I could either seat the bullet for easy chambering, but the gc was in the case body, or I could seat it long to keep the gc out of the powder but the bullet was well and goodly jammed in the lands. What I found was that accuracy was much better with the bullet seated long and jammed in the lands.

I don't think you'll run into pressure problems with a cast 135 gr in a 7-08, you'll get horrendous leading before reaching top velocity loads.

My advice would be to look at blue dot and 2400 pistol powders and trying to get a nominal 2000 fps.

Mike, What Paul H. said, but I wish to ask why the Hornady GC's are loose since that seems to be happening more frequently with their newest GC's. Whether yours are new production" or not, maybe they'd crimp better if you annealed them? One way is to put them in an empty tin can and heat them with a propane torch until they turn red, then let them cool. This seems to help crimping them in place.

All good advice.

9 times out of 10 best CB accuracy is obtained with the bullet seated out to nudge the leade. How much nudging depends on how much effort is acceptable to close the action, and whether you can extract loaded cartridges without having the bullet stick in the barrel.

In general, pressure is a non-issue with engraved cast bullets.

I've shot thousands of deep seated cast bullets without incident. Even if the GC is loose the gas pressure will tend to push it forward, so it's hard to imagine how it could come off, but I suppose it's possible.

Go with the seating depth that shoots best and chambers reliably.