Head space

[ArtinNC]

What if your head space is to tight , but the bolt still closes , tight , maybe to tight ?

 

[1Merlin]

With a cartridge in the chamber it closes?

 

[Reddog58]

What caliber , custom 22's can be finicky . Lapua and Eley are different thickness depends on who chambers them .

 

[jelenko]

but the bolt still closes , tight , maybe to tight

What does that mean?

 

[efoleyjr]

Lapua should be 0.0425 to 0.043" and Eley should be 0.040" to 0.041".

Ed

 

[ArtinNC]

What does that mean?

Just what I said the bolt closes tight , maybe to tight .

 

[dutch14]

If the bolt closes and the cartridge doesn't go off it's not too tight.
If you are really concerned about it, there are headspace gauges available that you can use to check it. There are also other shooters in your club that can advise you better than we can. In your area, there should be some people who work on guns to advise you. Just saying it closes hard is relative, match chambers always close harder than a field chamber.
The head space is the distance between the bolt at the back of the rim and the barrel at the front of the rim. Hard closing in a target rifle is caused by the bullet being pushed into the rifling. How far the bullet is pushed into the rifling can be measured by chambering a round then extracting it and then measuring the rifling marks engraved on the bullet.

 

[ELR LVR]

What if your head space is to tight , but the bolt still closes , tight , maybe to tight ?

You grind a little bit off the bottom of the FL die and allow yourself to bump the shoulder back
This is because when you are bottoming the die against the shellholder
You are not getting enough setback - for your particular chamber
----------
I would much rather have this condition and be able to grind bottom of die to provide for shoulder setback, and be able to adjust the die further down...
...than headspace too long and cases grow and head seperates because of it

 

[dutch14]

ELR that is a great idea in centerfire, however, this is a rimfire area and a common question about rimfire target rifles.

 

[ELR LVR]

ELR that is a great idea in centerfire, however, this is a rimfire area and a common question about rimfire target rifles.

Smacks head (my bad, didn't notice) thanks for the update

 

[Tony K Harper]

I see we are mixing apples with oranges. Centerfire is one thing rimfire is quite another as far as headspace is concerned. I have experimented a lot with headspace over a very long period of time.
With today's match grade rimfire ammo .044 is about as good as you can get for both Eley and Lapua. It is true that Eley case heads are a little thinner than Lapua but not enough on average to matter. The main thing with rimfire headspace is to not have it too tight. You don't want the bolt face or exstractor or ejector to be putting any kind of pressure on the case. If it does you will have fliers. Rounds that go outside the group. As far as too much headspace I can find no accuracy loss going out to .046-7 headspace. But if you have any amount of "feel" when closing the bolt beyond forcing the bullet into the rifling you will get fliers.

TKH

 

[dutch14]

Thank you Tony.

 

[grauhanen]

Tony Harper's information should be kept in mind by anyone who is thinking about altering headspace.

I have graduated headspace gauges and checked my rifles, including a V22S and several Anschutz single shot match rifles. None are below .043", with four of them closing on .044". These rifles shoot well with good ammo.

If shooters wish better accuracy performance it is to be found with better ammo not by altering headspace to something other than what TKH describes.

 

[TRSR8]

Tony Harper's information should be kept in mind by anyone who is thinking about altering headspace.

I have graduated headspace gauges and checked my rifles, including a V22S and several Anschutz single shot match rifles. None are below .043", with four of them closing on .044". These rifles shoot well with good ammo.

If shooters wish better accuracy performance it is to be found with better ammo not by altering headspace to something other than what TKH describes.

Folks should take note as well as a top flight shooter TKH is top flight RFBR smith as well. He doesn’t beat his chest in that regard but them’s the facts.

 

[Hipshoot]

Don't slam the bolt home TOO HARD!

 

[ArtinNC]

If the bolt closes and the cartridge doesn't go off it's not too tight.
If you are really concerned about it, there are headspace gauges available that you can use to check it. There are also other shooters in your club that can advise you better than we can. In your area, there should be some people who work on guns to advise you. Just saying it closes hard is relative, match chambers always close harder than a field chamber.
The head space is the distance between the bolt at the back of the rim and the barrel at the front of the rim. Hard closing in a target rifle is caused by the bullet being pushed into the rifling. How far the bullet is pushed into the rifling can be measured by chambering a round then extracting it and then measuring the rifling marks engraved on the bullet.

I have 22 Rimfire headspace gauges and the bolt will not close on .039 and that is as low as my gauges go . My gauges are from Whidden . I have shot center fire, Chambered my own barrels for years , and reloaded . But haven't had a Rimfire for 50 years . So a lot of rimfire is new to me . And shot this today .

 

[tmwinds]

Has someone shimmed the bolt?

 

[dutch14]

My ruger american rimfire closes harder on closing than my cz 455. I believe this is caused by the bolt cocking on closing. I didn't have a live round in the chamber on either one when I checked them.

 

[ArtinNC]

Has someone shimmed the bolt?

No I bought it new .

DUTCH14 < I found a new bolt handle cocking piece that had a threaded handle and put a 2" long handle on it and that took care of the hard closing .

 

[ArtinNC]

Well Dam ! found a new problem one right after another . I have new Whidden Head Space gauges . I took the extractors off the bolt and the bolt still would not close on a .039 gauge . and I got to looking and the gauge is to long to chamber . I checked Winchester brass .607 and my gauge is .633 , so the gauge will not chamber . so now I have to miss with Whidden on the gauges .