Measured Headspace - Now What?

[Edward Horton]

"Does this spark any more comments?"

Yes. I think we obsess about headspace because it's possible to tinker with it. I don't hear mauser collectors talk much about it.

This is the British Enfield forum, and we don’t care what the National Socialist German Workers' Party thinks about head space.
(They “LOST” WWII and head space just doesn’t matter when you’re a looser.)

[whiterider]

"Does this spark any more comments?"

Yes. I think we obsess about headspace because it's possible to tinker with it. I don't hear mauser collectors talk much about it.

maybe thats 'cause Mauser collectors dont have Edward Horton annoying the crap out of them about it..... (headspace...)

[Edward Horton]

maybe thats 'cause Mauser collectors dont have Edward Horton annoying the crap out of them about it..... (headspace...)

Dear (expletive deleted) Whiterider

I woke up with a smile on my face and I’m on my 3rd cup of coffee, you on the other hand are on the opposite side of the globe in Australia, its past your bed time and you are grumpy.

American SAAMI commercial ammunition was never designed to shoot in large diameter, long head spaced military rifles like the British Enfield. And American military ammunition is thicker in the base web area and was designed to shoot in military chambers.

As long as American SAAMI commercial ammunition stretches and thins in the base web area over .009 (nine thousandths) when fired in an Enfield with the head space set at .067 I’m going to keep bugging you.





As long as American SAAMI commercial ammunition doesn’t stake or crimp their primers like military ammunition does, I’m going to keep bugging you.



As long as people with a head space sticky tell everyone to grease or oil their cartridge cases when they fire their ammo, I’m going to keep bugging you.

As long as the ammunition manufactures, firearms manufactures and reloading manufactures tell you to keep your ammunition and chambers grease and oil free, I’m going to keep bugging you.

As long as Son the Australian over at Gunboards tells people that .074 is good enough when he is reloading military Greek HXP ammunition, I’m going to keep bugging you.

And last but not least as long as the Australian National Shooting Champion James Sweet tells you to set your head space between .064 and .067 AND the Australians Ian Skinnerton and Brian Labudda tell you to set your head space .003 (three thousandths) over your rim thickness I’m going to keep bugging you.



I like you Whiterider, BUT as long as long as (expletive deleted) pilots like you keep breaking aircraft when you fly them…………then (expletive deleted) aircraft mechanics like me are going to keep bugging you.

[Brian Dick]

Ed, Are those Arrowmark gauges from Australia? If so Gents, those are the ONLY ones to purchase. They are correct British and Commonwealth MILITARY specification and NOT SAAMI which cause more problems than good.

Bolt heads need to be select fitted. Purchasing one and just screwing it in is a crap shoot. You might get lucky but.... Factories and Armourers had bins with hundreds from which to select fit. Brian

[Peter Laidler]

You are SO right Brian. A monkey can unscrew a bolt head and screw another on but the bolt head is interrelated with and controls other things too such as firing pin protrusion, cocking piece lift. I could go on. Don't change it if it ain't broke

[Edward Horton]

Ed, Are those Arrowmark gauges from Australia? If so Gents, those are the ONLY ones to purchase. They are correct British and Commonwealth MILITARY specification and NOT SAAMI which cause more problems than good.

Bolt heads need to be select fitted. Purchasing one and just screwing it in is a crap shoot. You might get lucky but.... Factories and Armourers had bins with hundreds from which to select fit. Brian

Brian

I bought all three head space gauges for $35.00 (yes I’m a cheap bastard) and for $35.00 dollars I didn’t ask where they were made or who he robbed to get them.

And Enfield head space gauges come in many diffrent sizes for very good reasons.

[gravityfan]

British Military head space
If you reload and fire form your cases using the rubber o-ring method of an o-ring slipped around the rim of the case the word head space becomes meaningless.

As An example I lapped a zero bolt head to a head space of .084 and fired factory loaded Prvi Partizan ammunition without any ill effects using the rubber o-ring to control headspace. Actually it is zero headspace even at .084 because the o-ring is holding the case against the bolt face.

I am intrigued. I have been reloading .303 for a while, but I've not heard of this O-ring thing. Please tell me/us more; size, type, source, etc. Or would anyone like me to make a separate thread of this?

[Brian Dick]

They certainly look like Arrowmark gauges. If so, you stole them for sure @ $35 as they retail for close to $100 now! Good on ya.

[Edward Horton]

They certainly look like Arrowmark gauges. If so, you stole them for sure @ $35 as they retail for close to $100 now! Good on ya.

With the utmost respect for you Brian Dick and Mr. Laidler after getting out of the service I fell into the clutches of a co-worker who was a machinist and avid bench rest shooter.

As a reloader I will never loose my preference for tight chambers and tight head space, having said this, good brass and the o-ring method of fire forming Enfield cases is the only way to go with the .303 Enfield rifle.

BUT the L-42 7.62 Enfield has tighter head space standards than the American commercial SAAMI for the .308. (I read about this tight head space in a little green book)

[trooper554877]

Brian

I bought all three head space gauges for $35.00 (yes I’m a cheap bastard) and for $35.00 dollars I didn’t ask where they were made or who he robbed to get them.

And Enfield head space gauges come in many diffrent sizes for very good reasons.

before this gets out of hand again, a quick word on the rim thickness gauges and 2 boltheads.
When these where in vogue the ammo was ALL factory stuff or as you yanks call it ex milsurp. Each rifle club would submit a forecast as to how many rounds where going to be needed for the years shooting. This was mostly over exaggerated as you would do and then it was railed to the club, picked up at the local rail siding. The club captain would issue the ammo to the shooters as needed and THEN the shooter would check the rim thickness and batch them to as close as possible to his rifle. The 2 boltheads where used if the batch of ammo was of a different size. remember this was all ex WW2 and later mil ammo so all factory spec length but with varying rim thickness due to manufacturing tolerences.As we can research and know that when we use reloaded ammo we fire form the cases to our own rifle after the first firing and if only neck sized then the headspace and overall length of the case is tailor fitted to each individual rifle, negating the need for the rim thickness gauge and batching ammo due to rim thickness.
A common theme today is rimfire competition shooters do the same batching of thier favourite ammo for each rifle, they need to achieve the same thing as the old target rifle shooters using factory ammo.
Hope this helps.
Cheers