Savage Head Space Question

[aggie99]

Over the weekend I installed a new McGowen 6.5X55 barrel onto a Savage 110. I stripped the bolt and screwed the barrel down until it touched the Go gauge. When I put a loaded factory round in the chamber there was tight, crush fit on the factory round. I readjusted the barrel to get a slight crush fit on the factory round and checked the head space with a no go and the bolt would not close.

So my question is, is it normal for for a factory round to be so much longer than a go gauge?

Thanks for any insight.

 

[Forester]

Over the weekend I installed a new McGowen 6.5X55 barrel onto a Savage 110. I stripped the bolt and screwed the barrel down until it touched the Go gauge. When I put a loaded factory round in the chamber there was tight, crush fit on the factory round. I readjusted the barrel to get a slight crush fit on the factory round and checked the head space with a no go and the bolt would not close.

So my question is, is it normal for for a factory round to be so much longer than a go gauge?

Thanks for any insight.

Do you have a way to measure the headspace length on the factory round and the headspace gauge? (Like the Hornady comparator setup)

A factory round should not be tight like that. Something else to consider is that it would not be unheard of for McGowen to screw up a chamber...

 

[J E Custom]

Over the weekend I installed a new McGowen 6.5X55 barrel onto a Savage 110. I stripped the bolt and screwed the barrel down until it touched the Go gauge. When I put a loaded factory round in the chamber there was tight, crush fit on the factory round. I readjusted the barrel to get a slight crush fit on the factory round and checked the head space with a no go and the bolt would not close.

So my question is, is it normal for for a factory round to be so much longer than a go gauge?

Thanks for any insight.

A go gauge Is the minimum size and gives you 0 head space. So you should place a .002 or
.003 thousandth shim on the back of the go gauge to set your head space at somewhere
around .002.

Factory ammo is normally smaller than SAAMI spec. so it will chamber. if it won't go without
effort something is not correct.

If it is a pre chambered barrel, there are several things that could be wrong with it. I have seen
some of these barrels (Pre-chambered) that had tight necks, short necks, no free bore and
even a short chamber so the smith can head space with the reamer. With the Savage set up
,as you tighten the nut, dimensions will change, Hence the reason for the shims on the go gauge.

Some people use Scotch Tape to shim. I use brass shims stuck to the gauge with grease.

Something is not right, because normally if you set the head space to .000 with the go gauge
Factory ammo will work with little or no resistance on the bolt.

Also if the necks are to thick or to long for the chamber this could be some of the problem.

The last thing it could be, is the wrong head space gauge or just a bad one.

Some times you have to make a chamber cast with ''Cerrosafe'' from Brownells and measure it.

Let us know what you find so we can also learn something because just about the time you
think you have seen it all something else comes along.

J E CUSTOM

 

[aggie99]

I don't but know someone who might. The brass seems to be head spacing just slightly ahead of the case wall/shoulder junction. I will try to measure both the go gauge and the brass and see if either one is out of spec.

 

[JBerrington]

Maybe try cleaning the barrel with a patch? Maybe use FP-10 on it? Could try it and see what the patch looks like when you push it through.

 

[aggie99]

The chamber was clean. I measured the head space gauge and the factory ammo with a Hornady gauge and they were correct. The barrel and action are headed back to McGowen for inspection.