So yesterday I loaded up a lot of 50 458 win mags with some newly purchased 475gr cast bullets complete with gas checks. The bullets came from a guy whom I have bought thousands of bullets from. So out back to the rifle range I go, set everything up and begin shooting. First round hits two feet low. "HMMMMMM that's odd" I said to my self. Next round went over the target a good two feet high. Now I have a very stupid puzzled look on my face, but never one to give up, I chamber another round and SMACK, the bullet hits the target at two o'clock right outside the bull. Eureka!!! must have been some bore past or something left in there to cause those fliers. I could see the bullet hole trough the three power Leupold, and it wasn't until I peered through the 32x Burris black Diamond on my long range gun that I saw the problem. The bullet hole looked far more like a key hole. Two more rounds confirmed this and brought the session to a halt. I sat and pondered my situation for a spell until finally giving and calling for help. The man that taught me everything I knew about shooting was retired and at his farm back in Pennsylvania, and home most afternoons, so I pulled out the not so trusty cell phone and placed a call. After describing to him what had happened and telling him that my load of 50grs of IMR3031 was a real favorite of the rifle with all the 475 cast bullets I had shot. He said that the new ones must be a bad batch and after retrieving a set of dial calipers from the bench the problem became all to clear. These bullets were anywhere from .454 to .457 in diameter. Well, no big deal, I will simply pull them and reload with some other's I have here, no harm done. I knew the gentleman that I buy the bullets from would stand behind them and then some so I was not concerned, until this morning. I popped the first short fat little case into the kinetic puller and after two good whacks the bullets plunged into the end of the puller and I unscrewed the top only to find the bullet and no powder. I looked down into the case and found the gas check still firmly seated into the case, and it showed no interest in being popped out via any means short of damaging the brass, and this is new brass! So, after this long winded explanation, do any of you out there know of a trick to get the gas checks to either come out with the bullet or out with the powder. I tried inserting the case back into the puller and beating the hell out of it, but the gas check and powder held firm. I would hate to set there and shoot 40 some rounds that are useless.

Joe

Fun, eah? I've never been able to pull gas checks kineticly. Always had to (cafefully) drill a hole in them and run a tap into the hole and use the tap to pull the out. A coarse thread seems to be best

I guess you could putem in the gun and shoot it, but... Well maybe not

Take a small screwdriver and tap the gas check towards the edge and it'll rotate around in the case so that the edge of the check will be facing you. Then use a pair of needle nose pliers to remove them from the case.

What Paul said works great!....even in bottle necked cases...

thank you gentleman , I'll try that this evening.

Joe

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:
Take a small screwdriver and tap the gas check towards the edge and it'll rotate around in the case so that the edge of the check will be facing you. Then use a pair of needle nose pliers to remove them from the case.

Exactly what I do.

pull the bullets, take the cases to the range and fire them AS LOADED ROUNDS. not worth the trouble to recover the powder, but the GC can still cause a serious wound/death
jeffe

The screw driver worked very well and recovered half a pound of powder for later use. Only problem is I don't have a thin enough set of needle nose pliers so know its off to the hardware store in town. Crystal will surely think this was done just to provide another excuse to buy another tool.

Jeff, I thought about shooting them, but just couldn't muster the courage to do it. Maybe next time.

Joe

I will add my $.02 here.
I have occaisionally seated bullets too deep then changed my mind on the seating depth. To get them back out where I wanted them I would pull htem out partially with a bullet puller then reseat then to the shallower depth.
This works ok with jacketed bullets.
I tried it once with gas checked bullets.
Because they were the Lyman non crimp gas checks I went a head and pulled a bullet completely. Sure enough the gas ceck was still seated at the deeper setting with a gap between it and the base of the bullet. This is a sure way to get a ringed chamber.

Joe
IF you live where you HAD to go to "TOWN" to get needle nose pliers, then it was not a want, it was a REQUIRED ITEM to be in your toolbox.


Oh and in the case of the GCs, . . .
What Paul already said!

mebbe i wasn't clear.. that happens..

pull the bullet and if the GC is left, just fire them like blanks

Louis, I live about 26 miles from the hardware store. Nice thing about it is though, the range is 20 feet from my back door. All the way to 600 yards.

I showed Crystal what you had typed and she just rolled her eyes muttering something about "MEN".

Cases will be freshly loaded with properly sized bullets as soon as the next batch arrive.

Jeff, I understood what you meant, I just didn't know what might happen firing 50 grs of 3031 under nothing more than a gas check.

Joe