remington 700 excess headspace

[shortgrass]

Because of changing bolts, all that needs to be checked. The distance from the bolt nose to the barrel, the distance from the front of the locking lugs to the barrel, and the head space. Excessive head space is nothing to be fooling with. It is possible to achieve proper head space and have too much cartridge case hanging out of the chamber, in mid air! A condition like that can have catastrophic consequences. You have changed bolts with 2 different ignition systems. It is better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Buck Fever]

An alternative view: the chamber hasn't changed, you just need to reestablish the relationship of the chamber to the bolt face. You can see exactly how much to thin the recoil lug by measuring both bolts from the rear of the bolt lug to the bolt face.

Of course that assumes you didn't lap a ton of material off of your receiver locking lugs or the bolt lugs.

You are never going to get both good headspace and unsupported cases if you leave the chamber alone.