Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing excessive headspace on a 280 Rem. rebarrel job

Geeez.. Look, I can sympathize with you for part of this deal.. But what you're trying to do now is only going to make this a never-ending series of 'corrections' on items you really have no clue as to what you're doing and why.. IMVHO you're only going to become a whole lot more frustrated...

IIWY, I'd immediately consider taking this rifle and sending it to the guy you had four rifles done well and have him get this straightened out..

Just my .02..

+1

just got back from the range and this is the target, shot with modified lug and new headspace, as we can see it seem's he may have sqaured it up, just got sloppy with reaming and went too deep ? anyhow with these result's I think I will order 2 lug's tommorrow with the appropriate thickness and proceed from their,my wife's gun shot well, mine o.k, the brass looked fine, no primer issue's, will try to post pick's of cases pre and post changes,anyhow at 2 hundred yard's thing's opened up a bit, possibly because of the slop in the lug and probrably my shooting, hoping this will tighten up with the new lug's, will keep you posted , thanks' sorry about the size of the picture I am new to this as well computer challenged, am trying though, wife's 3 shot measure's .245 and the 280 at .408 for three shot's at 100 yrd's, these are the first loads tried out of these gun's, Guy's am I way off line here with these result's and how I am thinking with correcting this??? as far as I see it if the chamber was cut too deep which is a no brainer here, than why wouldn't using new lug with the appropriate thickness compensate for the HS and correct thing's?? what am I missing???, I shouldn't have to mess with anything should I, the bolt face is a constant and there is enough room to thread the barrel in to compensate for the length issue then what am I missing, other than alot of experience here,

Here are the cases just shot, one on the left was brand new R/P , the other 2 are from previous firing's and as you can see the distinct line around the case on top of the web, as compared to the left one with new HS, beleive it or not the 2 on the right were fired a couple of times and I would imagine there was some brass flow back to the correct web size, you can see the left one is starting to think about web stretch, but that distinct line just isn't as pronounced, after seeing this , what do you guy's think, should I go ahead with my plan or just bite the bullet and send them to my other guy ???

I would order a new lug, box up the gun, and send it to a real smith for repair.

So the concensus is box it up and send it to my other smith for the real deal, this guy has been great to work with, I am going to call him tommorrow and see how busy he is, you know these are good components and I want it to be right for a lifetime's use , what chap's my asz is that this guy did 90% of the work and screw'd me on the last 10% , oh well live and learn , thank's everyone for your time and good advice ! you know the kicker is this , this guy is retired army and aware that my wife is active A/F , a lifer and a dam good one, and I was building her this 260 for her and he knew it and that I want to get her into long range shooting and hunting, do you think maybe he would have put forth a little extra for a fellow comrad, POS-- it will all work out in the end!!!

"Minor mistakes" in gunsmithing can reslt in serious consequences, that money can't replace or fix.

Quit messing with it, and put it in the hands of a 'smith you trust.

Or you could've just necked to 30 and back to 7 to get a proper crush fit........

Just because your wife is in the service means nothing about quality that a smith does. He should do it on all of his work. My Son just retired from the AF and his wife had 10yrs., I am very pro military.
Butch

I think you need to use shim stock before you fuxxor something up!

The tape trick works fine for rifles that have little or no camming action, like a FAL, but it doesn't work at all for bolt action rifles. Been there, done that. You need shim stock, even if it is pieces of cans that you cut up.

I have a Mauser that swallowed a Go + about 5 pieces of masking tape. Took it to a gunsmith and he stuck one piece of .004" shim on the Go with a little grease. It wouldn't close on that!

Barry these are all thing's I did not know and that is why it's going to a pro ! did anyone look at the picture's of the brass and do they confirm excess HS with what you see I would like to know for the future, and I am sure it wouldn't hurt the public to have an idea of what it look's like, theirfore maybe some DAD wont put his SON or daugther behind the wheel of something in question that looks similar and in potentially harms way, especially with guy's out there doing this kind of work and letting it go through their door's to the public, like I said he came highly recommended by a prominent member of the shooting community, a guy who makes his living at it everyday and is in touch with the public and sending them to this guy for work, that's the scary thing is this kind of work is being encouraged and that's why I felt so strongly about bringing it out, yea one I was p.o.D but two nobody should have to deal with a potential accident waiting to happen , one rifle maybe a mistake , but two, down right complacency or just poor technique and not to worry I am going to call him , so that perhaps he will be more careful in the future and to see if he will compensate me to correct his the shoody work, but with this kind of character I don't expect much .

As far as compensation goes, I wouldn't hold my finger in any particular body cavity waiting for that to happen since you've already altered the work. Either let him correct it or move on would be my suggestion at this point. Good luck though!

Yep.



Casey

Hey Malm did you look at the brass and is that indicative of such HS and if so did it appear excessive, I look at brass that come's out of the other rifle's built by the good smith and their is definitly a significant difference in what I see, if you saw the same from a rifle someone brought to you would you have concern??? or was this thing safe and I cost myself alot of time and anqiuse for nothin, like I said I just couldn't go back to this guy,

If the 'smith did indeed ream the chamber long then that should be readily apparent and no amount of fiddling with the recoil lug will alter that fact.

The 'smith who did this should at least be made aware of his error.

Just talked to my good smitty and he is gonna make everything right in the world, cause that 's the kind of guy he is , Thank you RWS --- not to worry nasqam he will get a call, and some cases to keep for his collection and a very polite note thanking him for his overwhelming concern for other peolpe's shiit and his professionalism on workmanship to all those thing's I will make him aware !! I,m sure he will have a much better day after hearing from me. Oh yea did I forget to mention that this guy took two years to make all this grand work happen, I don't remember him asking me to bendover at anytime in our business transaction??? I surely would have remember that !!

338ak,
You might want to invest in a no-go gauge if you want to check the headspace on your rifles.
You also might want to make a chamber cast.
When you say you wet sanded .010" off the recoil lug, do you mean you sanded the back of the locking lugs on the bolt?
First you say you measured it to be .010" over and then you say it could have been between .012" - .014"?
I wouldn't bad mouth this guy after you say you don't know a go from a no-go.
You really should have called him instead of buying a wrench and a go gauge.
You need to have your new gunsmith lap the locking lugs before he tries to install your barrel. There is no telling what you have done to it.
Remember a gun is a glorified pipe bomb. Respect it!
whelennut

Whelennut, 338ak had a chamber which was cut too long. On a Remington you can shorten headspace by making the recoil lug thinner. It's not the proper way to do it but a thinner lug will result in shorter headspace. This is true for all rifles with a recoil lug sandwiched between the barrel shoulder and the action (except for those with a barrel nut).

The tape on the back of a GO gauge is a long time trick to simulate a NO GO gauge. I don't like it but for most cartridges the difference between the GO and the NO GO is .004" and two layers of Scotch tape equals about .004". I don't like it because the tape is too compressible.

Thanks for clarifying. I guess I got lit up because he was trashing his gunsmith. I think you are right when you say trying to measure .014" with layers of tape would be tricky at best.
Especially when you are looking for a minimum spec chamber.
Actually I guess thinning the lug would work. I always thought the proper way was to correct a long chamber was to set the barrel back 1 turn and then proceed from there.
My brain was in Mauser mode I guess. I apologize!
whelennut