Setting Headspace with Rifle Brass ?

[antelopedundee]

The problem with using fired brass is that is is NOT the dimension of the chamber that fired it. It is smaller. It must be or it would not extract from that chamber, right?

How about setting it so that the bolt closes on a fired case with just a smidgen of resistance and leaving it as is or cutting the chamber and adding a couple thou to the chamber length. Was just discussing this with my smith this morning since some fired cases I sent to him would chamber in the one he's working on now, but they were too short to the point it was a sloppy fit. I am eventually going to have him rebarrel the rifle that the fired cases came from, so I guess that I will end up having to jam the bullets and move the shoulder forward so the fired cases will work in either chamber.

If a bolt closes on a case with no resistance, then the chamber has some amount of headspace but there is no easy way to know how much so I'd seat the bullets to touch just to be safe.

If a case chambers with some resistance is there any reason why one couldn't put a smidgen of wax on the case head so that the bolt face doesn't end up with brass stains on it?

 

[msinc]

I use headspace gauges.

But like most things in shooting and reloading its whatever works for you.

Way I see it SAAMI only applies if you want to shoot factory store bought ammo or you are a gunsmith working for the public.

So what if there is a little wildcats in a rifle you build for.yourself.

I have used a properly sized case filled with epoxy to check headspace. You have to be "light handed" with a brass case. One turn of the bolt just slightly too hard and you are no longer reading accurately. It cannot be man handled or banged around at all.
All that said, to answer your last sentence: "so what if it's a little off??" well that's okay if you are going to live forever...what happens when you pass on and/or the rifle somehow ends up in the hands of some innocent person that believes it is SAAMI/correct size???
Don't get me wrong, I get it, the chamber could be on the upper limits of SAAMI and even past it as long as you reload and size the brass accordingly. Assume you leave it .006" over minimum. That's .002" out of spec...along comes some guy that sizes his cases .008"-.010" under that {I have seen worse} and now someone else has a possible dangerous condition.
I could not sleep at night if I thought there was a remote possibility that work I performed was half assed and might hurt some innocent person, even after I passed on.

 

[Old Navy]

I have very limited experience in this area. One thing I have noticed is that the last two hundred Lapua cases I bought were .005" shorter than they were after shooting them twice.

 

[robert8904]

Just changed my first barrel on a Savage Accustock Varmint. The original 22-250 barrel was replaced with a stainless Shilen in 6.5 cm. I bought the headspace go/no go gauges. I wanted to match the headspace of my Ruger Long Range Target as close as possible to simplify reloading. The go gauge with a piece of masking tape worked. Fired cases from the rebarrreled Savage were .001 shorter than ones from the Ruger. The only hard part was the Savage's recoil lug doesn't have a pin to index it to the receiver and the aluminum bed requires that lug be positioned just right.

 

[Mark W]

For prefit installs, I like to use a fired case that has been resized in my die as a go gauge and then add a piece of tape to the same case as a no go gauge. After that I double check the head space with plasti-gauge and a stripped bolt using the same case again with no tape.

If I don't have access to the fired case that I can resize with my die or if I intend to shoot factory ammo, I'll round up a set of go / no go gauges.

 

[foxguy]

I wanted to thank everyone for sharing their experience's, and knowledge on installing a new barrel on a rifle. It sounds like the consensus is to go with a headspace gauge to insure not having problems, and possible not being able to use factory ammo). I hadn't even thought about the die issue of not being able to size all the way down the case or set the shoulder back.

I have been wondering about this for some time as I have a couple of savages and know I will have to replace barrels before long. Coronavirus time on my hands now, so I thought I would ask.

With this knowledge, when the time comes to replace my barrels, I will order the appropriate Go Gauge and give it a try.

Thanks to All!