some questions about pistol reloading

To learn and introduce new loaders. Tips and tricks from old timers.

Moderators: Chuck, Mustang380gal, Coordinators, Moderators

glocksmith
Posts: 3918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:04 am
Location: Cincinnati/SW Ohio

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by glocksmith »

I can't imagine NOTusing gas checks. All my molds are GC. Remember that the OP is talking .357 magnum loads, so I think GC is a good idea.
Give em' Hell Pike!!!
Bama.45
Posts: 3025
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 4:32 pm
Location: Warren county

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Bama.45 »

What are gas checks?.. I don't think I have ever heard of them.
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




U.S. Marines 01-07



~The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.~ Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
JustaShooter
OFCC Coordinator
OFCC Coordinator
Posts: 5800
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 3:08 pm
Location: Akron/Canton Area

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by JustaShooter »

They are essentially a copper cup that the base of the lead bullet fits into. The bullet base has to be made to accept it, so the mold used has to be made in such a way to cast them to accept the gas check. It looks like this:

Image
Christian, Husband, Father
NRA Life Member
NRA Certified Range Safety Officer
NRA Certified Pistol & Rifle Instructor

Want to become more active with OFCC and help fight for your rights? Click Here!
Bama.45
Posts: 3025
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 4:32 pm
Location: Warren county

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Bama.45 »

Ah ok, thanks for posting the pics... Do they affect accuracy?... I wouldn't think they would... What is the purpose of adding the gas check though?
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




U.S. Marines 01-07



~The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.~ Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
JustaShooter
OFCC Coordinator
OFCC Coordinator
Posts: 5800
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 3:08 pm
Location: Akron/Canton Area

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by JustaShooter »

They really don't affect accuracy - well, unless the bullet is designed for them and you don't use them. As I understand it, anything other than a flat base on a lead bullet makes it less accurate - but that's just what I've been told by some who have been casting and shooting lead for longer than I've been around.

As to their purpose, it is to be able to achieve higher velocities without lead fouling. Beyond a certain velocity it is difficult, if not impossible, to prevent lead fouling. However, with a good, smooth barrel if the bullets are sized correctly for the barrel, and are made with the right alloy (to achieve the optimum hardness) and use a good lube, you can drive them pretty fast before you reach that point.
Christian, Husband, Father
NRA Life Member
NRA Certified Range Safety Officer
NRA Certified Pistol & Rifle Instructor

Want to become more active with OFCC and help fight for your rights? Click Here!
glocksmith
Posts: 3918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:04 am
Location: Cincinnati/SW Ohio

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by glocksmith »

They are mainly a "heat shield" to prevent the ultra hot and high pressure gasses from melting the lead base of the cast bullet...leading to leading of the bore.
Give em' Hell Pike!!!
Bama.45
Posts: 3025
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 4:32 pm
Location: Warren county

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Bama.45 »

Ah that makes sense.. Thanks for the explanations.
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




U.S. Marines 01-07



~The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.~ Thomas Jefferson
glocksmith
Posts: 3918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:04 am
Location: Cincinnati/SW Ohio

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by glocksmith »

Unfortunate part of using gas checks is IMHO they are a bit pricey.
Give em' Hell Pike!!!
Bama.45
Posts: 3025
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 4:32 pm
Location: Warren county

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Bama.45 »

What is the average cost of them? I tried looking them up but must not have been looking on the right website or something.
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




U.S. Marines 01-07



~The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.~ Thomas Jefferson
glocksmith
Posts: 3918
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:04 am
Location: Cincinnati/SW Ohio

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by glocksmith »

I looked at Midway USA selection. Price depends on size...aka caliber. Roughly 4 or 5 cents a piece I guess. Doesn't sound like a lot, but with the price of brass, bullets, primers and powder being what they are....another 5 cents per round makes a big difference. Used to be a significant savings in reloading over factory ammo...but the gap has narrowed.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?userSearc ... gas+checks
Give em' Hell Pike!!!
Bama.45
Posts: 3025
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 4:32 pm
Location: Warren county

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Bama.45 »

Yeah, I don't know exactly how much is saved by reloading now,.. I'm sure it is still cheaper for pistol rounds, probably not so much for rifle anymore especially like 5.56... Probably hunting rounds are still cheaper to reload considering they are still at or over $1.00 a round... But I think the biggest advantage is accuracy especially in rifle reloading.. And being able to load slightly warmer rounds for pistols.
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




U.S. Marines 01-07



~The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.~ Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
Sevens
OFCC Patron Member
OFCC Patron Member
Posts: 7526
Joined: Thu May 07, 2009 8:30 am
Location: Far East Side of CBus

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Sevens »

Don't be fooled-- there's only a couple places where handloading doesn't slaughter the cost of factory ammo.

If you are talking bulk, surplus, craptastic chi-com corrosive Russkie battle rifle crap... those prices can be tough to beat. And if you buy ultra-expensive 9mm component slugs... then some screaming 9mm factory ammo sales can get close.

Otherwise, handloads will crush the price of factory. And your ability to increase your savings is limited by your ability to buy in bulk.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
Bama.45
Posts: 3025
Joined: Wed May 21, 2014 4:32 pm
Location: Warren county

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Bama.45 »

So in other words you're saying to buy powder,primer,bullets and cases in bulk when I buy to get the most savings?
"Lord, make my hand fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes and those who wish to do harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be 'If I only had my gun."
And Lord, if today is truly the day you call me home
Let me die in a pile of empty brass."
Amen




U.S. Marines 01-07



~The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.~ Thomas Jefferson
User avatar
evan price
Forum Janitor
Forum Janitor
Posts: 9044
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:23 pm
Location: Westfield, Ohio

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by evan price »

Bama.45 wrote:So in other words you're saying to buy powder,primer,bullets and cases in bulk when I buy to get the most savings?
Absolutely. Powder and primers require a haz-mat ticket to ship. One haz-mat ticket covers one package up to iirc 60 pounds of material. The group buy I did on primers a while back (we ordered something like 255K primers!) we were able to save a lot of money and get primers when there were shortages.
The same goes for powder. If you are ordering, say, 10K primers and 16# of powder, they ship as one hazmat item if you get them from the same place, and one hazmat box should be the same actual shipping cost no matter how much is in the box.
iirc one hazmat ticket lot was the equivalent of 50K primers or 50# of powder, so any combination of that is one shipment. Shipping was $25, hazmat ticket was another $25.

Places like Powder Valley, Graf's, etc. are where you buy them. Midway USA drop ships from Powder Valley anyway.

Cases and bullets, your best bet is the United Postal Service Flat-Rate Box. If it fits, it ships, up to 70# for a flat rate.
A medium flat-rate box holds easily 2000 45acp cases by bulk, or 2000 45-auto lead bullets by weight, for example and ships at about $13. Whether you order 500 or 2000, the shipping is the same. Might as well max out your shipping and amortize that across the most material it can contain.
Same goes for lead for casting. I can get about 16-20 pounds in small flat rate boxes that ship for about $6.

It's all about getting the best deal to save money.

Standardize on one specific load that you like, and then order the hell out of the stuff to make that load. When the Obama ammo scare was in full swing I had plenty to shoot because I can stash a pound of powder, a brick of primers, a box of bullets and a bag of cases in a 5-cal can on a shelf.
"20% accurate as usual, Morty."

Striking down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering!
Carpe Noctem- we get more done after 2 am than most people do all day.
User avatar
Sevens
OFCC Patron Member
OFCC Patron Member
Posts: 7526
Joined: Thu May 07, 2009 8:30 am
Location: Far East Side of CBus

Re: some questions about pistol reloading

Post by Sevens »

Bama.45 wrote:So in other words you're saying to buy powder,primer,bullets and cases in bulk when I buy to get the most savings?
That is BY FAR the finest way to lower your costs. But if you are limited in finances (everyone has their own acceptable scale of spending in this endeavor) then you should focus on the bullets.

There are four components that make up a loaded round.
If we can assume that you already have brass or have been saving it or can come up with some used brass for a decent price, then we can take the cartridge case out of the equation. Even if we want to factor in what that costs, you might wish to amortize it since you will be re-using it. And if it's .357 Magnum, you will reuse it MANY times and if it's .38 Special, you will reuse it SO MANY TIMES that you couldn't possibly hope to keep count. Quality .38 brass, if not abused, doesn't wear out. (No fooling, I'm still running brass that I loaded when I first started... and it was USED brass when I got it. That was 1989. And there are old-timers that would chuckle at my even hinting that '89 was a long time ago... :P )

That leaves us with primer, powder and bullet. Primers are normally priced at around $4 per hundred or $40 per thousand. A better price is $35/k and a great sale and you are at $29 per thousand. If you are a high volume shooter then yeah, explore a gigundo purchase with haz-mat fee. But if you aren't a crazy high volume shooter, a couple thousand will have you loading and shooting for a helluva long time.

Powder... depending on the cartridge in question, it can even be cheaper than the primers.

Figure if it's a .38 Special, you'll be using 3.5 to 5.0 grains of powder. That is 1,400 to 2,000 loaded rounds with just ONE pound of powder. So if you pay $26 for it (yikes) it sounds horrendous next to the $17 a pound I've paid, but really... how much difference is that really going to make over THAT much ammo?

If it's .357 Magnum and you follow my way of thinking and only stick to the true slow burning magnum powders, you will need more powder to make the proper loads. Figure 13.0 to 20.0 grains. So now your one pound of powder only nets you 350-525 loaded rounds. Quite a bit less, so buying powder in bulk now looks much more attractive.

But your bullets...
Now those are expensive. Powder costs in handguns could approach bullet cost if you had REALLY cheap bullets and REALLY expensive powder with high charge weights of powder. But for the most part, that bullet is where the money stacks up.

Go out and check prices on 100 bullets. Or even 250. Then compare that to boxes of 500 or 1,000 (and if you are ordering boxes of 500 or 1,000 you will pay to ship so you'd be nuts to not buy MULTIPLE boxes of them)

Now we aren't talking a very high quality bullet like a Hornady XTP or Sierra Sport Master slugs here, but price a box of XTP's the next time you are at the gun store. Those are terrific bullets, no doubt, but buying those by the hundred starts to look like a price for FACTORY AMMO, except you are only getting a bullet.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
Post Reply