coolbrze0

Was talking to my bro yest. about my Rem 700 30-06 and he told me he had talked to his gunsmith who had returned 4 700s in the past 3 weeks. He mentioned something about putting a go or no-go gauge in the action... Can anyone tell me what this is about. To the best of my knowledge, the gunsmith was saying that some of the 700s have chambers too big and when you shoot, it can bea potentially hazardous problem. Anyone got more info on this?

Vapodog

If a rifle has excessive headspace it's not necessarily a bad thing.....It's not good either.....it's just that it shouldn't have excessive headspace and the smith is absolutely correct to send them back.

It reduces case life dramatically and can be potentially dangerous if it's extremely excessive in that it can cause a case to rupture in firing and potentially injure the shooter. Companies like Remington should never let a gun out with excessive headspace...it's so easy to check.....

Rebel Hog

Gunsmithing
Measuring Headspace[/align]


Here's how to use the tool needed to check your rifle's chamber dimensions. [/align]
By Patrick Sweeney [/align][/align]




A three-tool set of Go, No-Go gauges represents an easy way to check the headspace of your favorite rifle.[/align]
To many shooters, headspace is a mysterious term, one to which many evils can be attributed. I've had shooters come in to my shop expressing the belief that their rifles had too much, not enough, none at all and even the wrong kind--I'm still not sure what that guy was talking about. In simple terms, headspace is the dimension of the chamber of your rifle, the gap between the face of the bolt and the stopping surface for the cartridge. To be precise, it is the distance between the face of the bolt and the datum line, which is a circle of stated diameter, along the slope of the shoulder of the cartridge.
On a rimless cartridge such as the .308, the stopping surface is the shoulder. On a rimmed cartridge like the .30-30 or .303 British, the headspace is the gap for the rim. On a belted magnum, headspace is the gap for the belt. Since not every rifle or cartridge can be made to exact dimensions, with perhaps the best custom rifles being one exception, headspace is deemed to be correct if it is within a certain range.

Charley

He's talking about headspace. Go, no-go, and field gauges are used to determine if headspace is within aceptable tolerances. I'd be surprised that Remington shipped new rifles that had excesive headspace. They might have been within factory tolerance, but the 'smith deemd them excessive.

bigcountry

Don't be too surprised. I have had a few that were over by a small margin.

Vapodog

It seems I read so much bad about Remington QA lately.....a lot of publicity about bolt handles coming off.....extractors failing.....the "J-lock" failing.....now excessive headspace.

I've read horror stories about their customer service a few months ago.....I don't buy much from Remington because I'm a loyal M-70 fan....not because I don't like their products.....

is it really that bad?????

Rebel Hog

Bottom of my post!

"Since not every rifle or cartridge can be made to exact dimensions, with perhaps the best custom rifles being one exception, headspace is deemed to be correct if it is within a certain range".

vangunsmith

I wouldn,t want any gun with excessive headspace,even if my insurance was paid up! Rebel hog and others defined it very precise.One other factor comes into play ,and have seen it before.As all reamers are different,thus all chambers are different.Sometimes,through different manufactors the Headspace gauges can have fifferent dim..,thus will give a false reading.Not very often but if 4 guns from Rem or whom every are this way in the same shop,its a real bad bo bo by the quality control people or his headspace gauges may be off. vangunsmith

bigcountry

Vapor, probably not that bad. I bought a batch of remingtons from an estate sale for a steal. I took them home, and looked them over, and was so shocked.

They were top notch guns, all from the late 70's and early 80's. Blueing top notch, no brush marks just deep blueing. Trigger set to 3.5lbs. And then I took them to the range. And it was effortless to get them to shoot subMOA. I forgot how nice they were.

When I say, headspace off, I am comparing the fireformed shoulders of a piece of brass to what my RCBS full length die is. I know thats a poor gauge and no substitute for a No go gauge, but thats what got me on track with one gun to take to a gunsmith to see and send the Dies back to RCBS who said they were perfect. It never seems that remington or any gun is on the low end of headspace. In other words, the Go guauge will barely go in but in spec (shorter cut but in spec). Always seems to be long.

So this gun actually was barely in spec according to the gunsmith. Maybe my FL die was short which compounded my problems.

I have owned 2 remington 700's made in the 2000's and both had creep in the triggers, blueing looked like I did it, with this reddish look on the bolt hand. Both shot medocre, but acceptable, nothing stellar. I had to have both freefloated and pillar bedded. I glass'd one. All I can say, is in 1999, a BDL deluxe ran 740 dollars with tax in Ky. Now you can get them from wally world alot cheaper, but there is alot better gun out there for 740 with tax.

bigcountry

Hey van, do you think that Remington trys to streatch the life of a reamer? Or do you think they rough ream thechamber, and then cut the threads back to accomdate this? Reason I ask, my friend had a remington 1187 shotgun that wouldn't extract very well. It turns out the chamber was too tight. So our gunsmith said probably remingtons's chamber reamer was wore out, and if you get a shotgun barrel when the reamer is new, you will have a looser than expect chamber, but at the end of its life, a tighter?

Now maybe full of it, but his idea made sense to me.

I watched a video of them cutting chambers with carbide reamers and they cut them so quick, it was amazing and full automated, I was shocked how good the tolerances was.