Zinc gas checks . . . Anybody try these?

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I found a roll of zinc sheeting that I was going to use on the roof of my garage but never did. I’ve been google-ing zinc uses in reloading and I found out a couple of things. I don’t know if the below is true, but it’s out there on the internet :
  – zinc bullets have been made and seem to work but they are around 2/3 the weight of their lead counterparts.
  – rotometals.com sells kirksite or “Zamak 2” ingots which you can use
  – do not use it with your melt or you will ruin it plus your furnace will be contaminated. Have a separate pot for any zinc melt you want to do. I guess this means dedicated moulds as well?
  – zinc running through your barrel will “coat” (sheradize?) it and preclude the necessity for bullet lubrication as zinc has this property by nature. This is true for zinc projectiles as well as lead with zinc gas checks.

  Ok, that’s enough of that. So, I’m going to try zinc gas checks on my next trip to the range. I use Pat’s dies to make them. Anbody have any experience with zinc?
  I guess the other reason I’m interested is if they ever ban lead we’ll have to find something to work with. And zinc is a hell of a lot cheaper than bismuth!

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[Full.Lead.TacoKeymaster]

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The only experience I have with zinc was a bad one…  ruined a pot or 2 full of lead.  A couple of zinc wheel weights snuck through my sorting and ended up contaminating my melt.  As far as using them as gas checks, I don’t really see a good reason why it wouldn’t work as long as it is harder than the lead that it is supposedly protecting.  Making zinc bullets would be kind of cool–I read about a guy doing that on the castboolits forums.  I think he ended up giving up after a while.  As far as using zinc bullets in a revolver, I bet you could get it to work pretty easily.

[ronreedParticipant]

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I’ve used the zinc base guard style bullets before and they work, but I have never tried them as a GC (in the cup style). I don’t know how much faith I put into the zinc acting like a natural lube and think that is more a function of the zinc scraping off most of the lead deposited by the slug ahead of it.

Keep us up to date, certainly well worth the effort since you have the tooling to make the GC already. Did you notice any difference in making the checks? Easier, harder, did they act sticky?

[micaelnetzParticipant]

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I’ve always doubted the scraping action. I think any mechanical scraping would force the check off the base, or bend it in the case of the riveted washer, by the build up of material. If it seals the bore, OK. Protects the base, maybe… lubing, who knows.

[AlvinYorkParticipant]

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Welp, I didn’t get too far. The motor controller board on my lathe quit on me so I’ve been monkeying around with that for a while.
  I did make some plain base zinc gas checks from the roll I found. Turns out that stuff is 0.008 thick and it swages onto the base of an NOE 315-103-SWC quite nicely. From looking at them you wouldn’t think it had a check.
  The next step is to get to the range and “sheradize” my barrel.

[AlvinYorkParticipant]

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I tried the zinc checks in the 327 SP101. Pretty much they worked like aluminum or copper gas checks. So nothing really to report there.
The next project will be zinc bullets. I got another Lee 20 bottom pour furnace so I’m going to dedicate the old one to zinc. Roto-metals has Kirksite for something like $2.50 a pound (4lb ingot for $10).

[Full.Lead.TacoKeymaster]

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Just for kicks?

[AlvinYorkParticipant]

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Pretty much. I guess there was a minor scare that the EPA might ban lead for hunting. But I think that’s a non-issue at this point. 

[Author]

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