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Belted Mag Headspace Question

I have a rifle that someone apparently re-chambered to 8mm Rem Mag. It belongs to a friend of mine actually and he brought it to me to look over. I have no information on who did the chambering job. I ordered a set of Go and No Go gauges to check its headspace to make sure that it was safe to fire. When I received the gauges, I could get the bolt to close on either gauge. It does not even begin to close on the Go gauge. A factory 8mm Rem Mag round chambers just fine. What do you think? Thanks for any help.
 
Seems like it's a really tight chamber if the go gauge won't close.
A bit confused when you say it will close on either gauge though !!
Start putting tape on the 8 mm round and see how many layers you need to put on till it won't close..
 
You said re chambered , what action ? Just concerned about safety and feeding . I would make a chamber cast .
 
agr516 said:
agr516
I have a rifle that someone apparently re-chambered to 8mm Rem Mag. It belongs to a friend of mine actually and he brought it to me to look over. I have no information on who did the chambering job. I ordered a set of Go and No Go gauges to check its headspace to make sure that it was safe to fire. When I received the gauges, I could get the bolt to close on either gauge. It does not even begin to close on the Go gauge. A factory 8mm Rem Mag round chambers just fine. What do you think? Thanks for any help.

"I could get the bolt to close on either gauge."..." It does not even begin to close on the Go gauge."

PREACHER:....

"A bit confused when you say it will close on either gauge though !!

I'm with you on the confusion PREACHER.
 
Greyghost said:
Hell, cautiously fire one round that isn't maxed out and check the dimensions of the fired case.

Phil

I would STRONGLY advise against that! I don't know how one fires "cautiously", if you are uncertain of what your rifle is chambered for. There are ways but it could be the end of the rifle.
Also I noticed you said "apparantly re-chambered to...."

Gunsmith, chamber cast, safety first. Any order will do.
 
If it's not closing on a go gauge, and its a belted mag, probably means that it was chambered a little under SAMI specs, and if the cartridge still fits, its probably within that little tolerance difference. That is of course it was done with an 8mm barrel, but then again I would assume that that is pretty obvious. As long as it chambers on that belt with a tight fit, ain't nothing going to happen, that's what its there for. But hey get all the high tech tools out if you have them and go for it.

Phil
 
An 8 mm mauser really isn't safe re chambered to 8mm rem magnum . The case is so long that the barrel chamber gets real thin at the step in the military barrel . If it's a tapered sporter barrel its May be safe . But then again if it's a sporter barrel it could be 318 or 323 bore.
 
That's a whole different subject and has nothing to do with the head-space question. And again even that I'd not worried about using factory ammo. Someone reloading and maxing out a cartridge maybe.

Phil
 
It has to do with COMMON SENSE . If someone wanted to check headspace before firing ,I would think that would be done for SAFETY , again if it's a military stepped barrel , it may not be safe . The case is too long for a military stepped barrel .
I have seen many projects , never intended to be fired , get sold and cause injury .
 
The action is a Sako L61R. Yes, i had the rim of the gauge underneath the extractor. I pulled the bolt, slipped it under the extractor and tried to chamber multiple times. Bolt does not even begin to close on the Go gauge. I will get some scotch tape and try Preachers method with a factory round to see how many layers it can handle.
 
A belt u magnum is headspace is set off of the belt on the cartridge for regular case is done off the datum line of the shoulders you got two different things on the gun may have What headspace gauge do you have.
 
Whoever chambered it may have head spaced it to a case he had on hand and not a gage. Belted mag head space on actual cartridges has been all over the place for a long time.
 
Barrel appears to be new through borescope. It must have been chambered to a case shoulder and not the belt. The go/no go gauges i bought are PTG.
 
Is the barrel stamped as being a 8mm Rem. Mag.? You say it easily closes on a 8mm Rem. Mag. cartridge... does it scratch or mangle the bullet? If not you might try using a black marker on the bullet and chamber it to see if it is making contact with the lands. Could try and knocking a soft lead round ball down the barrel using a wood dowl and mic the ball to make sure it is an 8mm barrel.

Other than that could take it to a smith to get stuff verified.

Phil
 
Yes, the barrel is stamped 8mm Mag. Im going to try the scotch tape method on a factory round and do a chamber cast. Im not firing this thing until i know exactly what is what about it.
 

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