Hi,

I've got a 1950 Long Branch I bought about 12 years ago; finally got around to cleaning it up and discovered it's difficult to chamber a factory round. The bolt will close on a Prvi Partisan round with a bit of force, and then it takes quite a bit of force to open the action (with an unfired round, haven't fired the gun yet).

Its got a mismatched Long branch bolt with a #3 bolt head (.637), which over rotates (clocks? not sure which is the correct term) a bit. The right side of the extractor notch in the bolt head aligns with the left side of the bolt column. The bolt and bolt head appear to be in good shape with little wear, and since the action and barrel still had cosmolineicon in them I don't think its been fired since it was pieced together.

In trying to figure this out I've come across a few posts that mention head space increasing by about .003 after a newly fitted bolt head has been fired a few times, and over rotation diminishing as the bolt and head adjust to one another.

Does this sound about right? I could set the shoulder back on few once fired cases that came with my .303 dies and shoot a box to see if it settles in, or should I just get a shorter bolt head, like a .634 or so?

Thanks for any advice,

Jim
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