Thought I'd come here for some possible thoughts on my Problem with this bullet. Can't get the gas cheks to seat. This mold drops great looking bullets. They are .2845 on the bands and .250 on the gas check shank. I am running these though a .285 sizer and the Hornady checks fall right off. Might mention these are cast pretty hard. Thought I'd try some imput here before calling RCBS. Sometime the answer is right under your nose so to speak. Thanks in advance!

woods

.250" gas check shank will mount a 6.5mm gas check. Now why did they do that, do you suppose?

Oldfeller

woodsloafer...If it's a new mould...send it back. If an E-Bay special, open the gas check shank band a little by lapping./beagle

Oldfeller And Beagle et all, This is a brand new mould of the shelf about last February. Had cast some bullets in it two or three monthe ago but recently had gotten around to sizing them. The mould was from a local gun emporium that was at the time just trying to get ris of stuff. Only God knows how long it had been there. Don't have an original receipt cause they didn't give me one at the time. I gave 20 bucks for it. Lew and I went back there the other day and looks like all the good deals have dried up. Yhey wanted to charge me 16 bucks for a box of .41 cal gas checks! Lyman at that!

woods

I've had a gas check seating problem with a RCBS 7mm 168 SP mould, except my base is too big. Gas checks would go on crooked having gained the edge on only part of the bullet heel. I sent the mould back to RCBS with a note explaining the problem. I included some Hornady gas checks that I was using (these seated perfectly on my other 7mm RCBS mould - 145 SIL).

True to form, RCBS replaced the mould with a new one, or at least it looked new. However, the replacement has the same problem: gas checks won't seat. Now, am I just unlucky or are there others out there with the same problem? I think RCBS has some bad tooling or made a bad bunch of moulds. Any thoughts?

/Emil

.......Emil, I just went out and measured mine. It's .253" at the very end tapering up to .255" just under the rear band. Of course the GC doesn't go up that high. I also checked some Lyman 150gr Loverins and the GC shank also mikes .253".

The first mould of this design I bought (maybe 10 years ago) cast oval bullets. Like the blocks hadn't closed completely on the cherry. Sent it back to RCBS and a short time later got one back. Same problem! The mould looked brand new. Sent it back with some cast bullets. Very quickly got one back with some bullets THEY'D cast, and all was well.

.........Buckshot

Yes, it can be the tooling, but more than likely it's the materials, and the speed of those materials coming in contact on that given day. The only guarantee is buying USED molds from the manufacturer, having been tested by a greedhorn secretary, and modified by an expert watching him/her cast. Wishful thinking, eh? ... felix

My hornady 7mm checks measure 0.251" ID and bullets cast from an old NEI 7mm-170 mold have a 0.252" shank. Your 0.250" shank could be easily fattened up with a little lapping.

You mentioned 0.2845" bands with your hard alloy .... geez, sounds like the cherry had been resharpened one too many times.

I bet Dan will supply a used mold if requested. ... felix

Felix,
Actually, I'm kinda fond of that old NEI mold, shoots 3/4 MOA in a TC 7-30 carbine with 2.5X scope. I have no practical use for either the mold or the rifle but just can't bring myself to part with anything that shoots that well.

felix, from your post, would it be helpful do you thing to slow down my casting speed?

woods

Woods, I have no idea. You gotta' try every trick in the book to make a mold work. The first order of business, though, it to work it over with good vent lines as we discussed already on the board. Across the top, mainly, but everywhere the mold should have smooth edges so some burr doesn't slip into the picture accidently. ... felix

Emil, I have a custom Hoch .35 cal. with an oversize GC shank. Solved the problem by annealing the checks and opening them a little with a punch made by turning it in my "lathe", a 3/8" drill, vise, and file. If you make the punch good and smooth it can be pushed into the check by hand. HTH, curmudgeon