Criterion No.4 barrel testing

[Brian Dick]

Another tidbit I forgot to mention to prove a point is that I set the rifle up originally on the loose side with the bolt almost closing on the .074 H.S. gauge. I fitted another bolt head to bring the H.S. on the tight side to try the match hand loads. Guess what, accuracy was exactly the same which dispells much of the back and forth we've been hearing about for years about accuracy vs headspace. Now I DO realize that tighter is better when you want maximum case life but the fact is a lot of shooters worry needlessly about headspace on these rifles. As long as it's in spec with .064 GO and .074 NO GO, these old girls will shoot just fine.

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[ssj]

Another tidbit I forgot to mention to prove a point is that I set the rifle up originally on the loose side with the bolt almost closing on the .074 H.S. gauge. I fitted another bolt head to bring the H.S. on the tight side to try the match hand loads. Guess what, accuracy was exactly the same which dispells much of the back and forth we've been hearing about for years about accuracy vs headspace. Now I DO realize that tighter is better when you want maximum case life but the fact is a lot of shooters worry needlessly about headspace on these rifles. As long as it's in spec with .064 GO and .074 NO GO, these old girls will shoot just fine.

I think it may depend on the rifle, somehow they seem individuals. however I recently got one of my ones inspected to enter a competition and it was getting a bit close to closing on a field and no1 head, swapped in a no2 and it now wont close on a no go and I got no noticable difference in accuracy.