New bolt question

[Dom13]

I just purchased a staight handle bolt for my 03, I put a clymers field gauge in the chamber and removed the internals from the bolt, with very little pressure i close the bolt and it stops. However I notice if I apply a little more pressure the bolt closes on the gauge. Does this mean I have to ream the chamber? Thanks

[Dan Shapiro]

If the bolt will NOT close on the field gauge with light finger pressure, it's good to go.

[chuckindenver]

field reject..think about those 2 words for a minute..
why would you want to open up a chamber more then the reject.
should close on a go
not close on a no go.
not close on a field reject.
dont force it..

[Dom13]

thanks for the help

[George in NH]

Please obtain the book "Hatcher's Notebook" by MG Julian Hatcher. His book describes in proper detail how to use headspace gauges. These directions should be followed to the letter to avoid damage to the chamber or to the gauges. Also, any chamber that is going to be gauged should be as perfectly clean as possible. This book should still be available through the NRA Book store. HTH
George in NH

[Dom13]

Please obtain the book "Hatcher's Notebook" by MG Julian Hatcher. His book describes in proper detail how to use headspace gauges. These directions should be followed to the letter to avoid damage to the chamber or to the gauges. Also, any chamber that is going to be gauged should be as perfectly clean as possible. This book should still be available through the NRA Book store. HTH
George in NH

I just ordered it.

[zeewad]

After reading the forums, I tried my 3 different bolts last night. I had recently purchased some used Forster Gauges, Go, No-Go, and Field. They are like new.

I have a Remington 03, RAP rebuild with scant stock, probably after WWII. The bolt that came with the gun is a C2 marked bolt. That puts the bolt about 1912. I had bought 2 other bolts for shooting. One is a B&S and one is BF44.

When I put the Go gauge in, the C2 bolt closed perfectly and would not close on the other two gauges. When I checked the other two bolts they would not close on the Go gauge unless I pushed a bit harder. Not extremely hard, but definitely harder. Could this be because of the bolts being new and needing a bit of "wear in"?

None of the 3 bolts close on the No-Go or the Field gauges.

I bought some 165gr. Core-Lokt Remington 30-06 Springfield ammo. I compared the 165gr. with the HXP using the C2 bolt and the B&S bolt, minus firing pin assemblies, and loaded the ammo from the rifle magazine. Either bolt using either round still had some light force required to load the rounds.

I want to use the B&S bolt for shooting because when you rotate the bolt down the handle doesn't contact the wood of the stock like the other 2 bolts do.

Since I have never shot an 03 rifle before, should there be some light force when you rotate the bolt down to lock in the rounds?
I better make sure to grease the lugs, there's only oil on them right now.

I would prefer not to ream the rifle out since it seems so close. If I try shooting some rounds through to "wear in" the new bolts, will that cause even more problems?

[ClaudeH]

Did instructions come with those Forster guages? Surely they mentioned "light, fingertip pressure". Surely they did not mention pushing a bit harder.

If the other bolts will close on the loaded rounds you want to use they should work fine. (But I'm a tax expert, not a gun expert!) Again keeping in mind that I am not a gun expert, I suspect that they may wear in during first use by only a fraction of a thousandth of an inch.

[fguffey]

04-02-2013 11:03 #7
zeewad
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After reading the forums, I tried my 3 different bolts last night. I had recently purchased some used Forster Gauges, Go, No-Go, and Field. They are like new.

I have a Remington 03, RAP rebuild with scant stock, probably after WWII. The bolt that came with the gun is a C2 marked bolt. That puts the bolt about 1912. I had bought 2 other bolts for shooting. One is a B&S and one is BF44.

When I put the Go gauge in, the C2 bolt closed perfectly and would not close on the other two gauges. When I checked the other two bolts they would not close on the Go gauge unless I pushed a bit harder. Not extremely hard, but definitely harder. Could this be because of the bolts being new and needing a bit of "wear in"?
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“Could this be because of the bolts being new and needing a bit of "wear in"?”

It has never been necessary to use a head space go, no or beyond gage ‘from the beginning’. It is possible to measure the difference between bolts with out installing them in the rifle, gages and the 03, I have never used anyghing but a feeler gage to determine the difference between the length of the case from the shoulder to the head of the case and the chamber from the shoulder to the bolt face. The 03 (types) have an exposed (third lug), to measure the difference in length between the chamber and case from the usual places, checking is as simple as pulling the bolt back to seat the lugs then measure the gap between the rear receiver ring and the back of the safety lug ‘THEN! Chamber a round OR a head space gage then push the bolt forward THEN! measure the gap again, subtract A from B to get the difference in length between the case and chamber between the usual places.

Even though the bolt will not close on the go-gage the rifle could still have ‘HEAD SPACE’ as in the bolt could close on a minimum length/full length sized case/ammo.

Closing the bolt on a head space gage is a bad habit. Head space gages are nice, I have head space gages, I would be hard pressed to find most of them, I want to know the length of the chamber in thousandths from the shoulder of the chamber back to the bolt face, I have little interest in knowing if the bolt will close on a no go-gage. the no go-gage is .009” longer than a minimum length/full length sized case.

Again, I do have a M1917 that has .016 added to the length of the chamber between the shoulder of the chamber to the bolt face, I off set the length of the chamber with a case with .014” added to the case between the shoulder of the case and case head.

F. Guffey

[fguffey]

“Could this be because of the bolts being new and needing a bit of "wear in"?”

No.

F. Guffey

[chuckindenver]

try this..put the gauges down,
remove the firing pin assembly from what ever bolt your going to use.
feed a live factory round..not a handload.. from the magazine box.
bolt should close easy, with no problems...if it wont close easy on a live factory round. then you have an issue.
best case...if you have a Brownells action proving round..use that..safety 3rd.

[fguffey]

Topic Review (Newest First)




04-03-2013 05:57
chuckindenver

try this..put the gauges down,
remove the firing pin assembly from what ever bolt your going to use.
feed a live factory round..not a handload.. from the magazine box.
bolt should close easy, with no problems...if it wont close easy on a live factory round. then you have an issue.
best case...if you have a Brownells action proving round..use that..safety 3rd.

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Or, you could become a member of the world of reloading, all of my dies and presses have threads, threads make my dies adjustable, meaning? I control the length of the case from the shoulder/datum to the head of the case, I use the length of the case to off set the length of the chamber. Problem? For most, finding long cases that will not chamber because they are too long from the shoulder back to the head of the case, I solve that problem with 280 Remington cases, the 280 Remington case length between the shoulder of the case and head of the case is .051” longer than the the 30/06 case when measured from the shoulder back to the case head. I simply adjust the die off the shell holder to prevent full length sizing the case back to minimum length. A good start would be to adjust the die off the shell holder .005” when using once fired or new cases.

Then there is the old wildcat method and or technique, simple neck the case up to 338/06 and or 35 Whelen, then start sizing the necked up case back to 30/06 until the bolt will close with slight resistance. Another skill, learn to measure the length of the case from the datum back to the head of the case, tools are available for money, the tools are nice but it is possible for a reloader/smith to make tools that measure the case length from the datum to the head of the case.

Then there are shooting ranges, I have purchases 30/06 cases for .08 cents each, my favorite fired 30/06 cases are those that have been fired in trashy old chambers, I adjust my die to avoid returning the case to minimum length/full length sized, with home made tools for checking case length I can sort the fired cases in sets, more often than not the fired cases sort in groups of 20. Then the 3rd favorite case, the cases that have been fired in machine guns, the one thing I can not do is ‘bump’, although my sizing dies are called/labeled and stampeded F.L. for full length sizing my dies are shoulder erasers, when I size a 280 Remington case to 30/06 the 280 Remington shoulder does not move, it is erased, meaning? part of the shoulder becomes part of the neck and part of the shoulder becomes part of the case body, again, my shoulder does not move, the old shoulder is still there, the new shoulder is formed, even thought my dies are stamped F.L..

F. Guffey