Bought Old Corp Weaponry / have head space issue

[Ultra12]

Picked up Old Corp Weaponry m1 in 308. Overall great condition. During the FFL transfer gunsmith measured head space and both go and no-go fit. However field gage did not close the bolt. I was told to go shoot it 3-4 rounds and inspect brass for stress. It seems weird that suck a custom gun have that particular issue. The seller said when I called him that he never had an issue and gun shoots great. I’ll have to go check at the range soon. If in fact it’s not safe I am being told I can either re-barrel (I would prefer not to loose all the engravings Beaver put on the gun ) or try a dozen bolts and see if that will fix the 4/100 diff. Any suggestions ?

[Orlando]

Maybe you need a new gunsmith, the bolt should not close on a Field Gage

[RDS]

Was the gunsmith using .308 Winchester gauges or 7.62 Nato gauges? There is a difference. Nato headspace specs are different than .308 Winchester specs.

[Ultra12]

I believe it was 308.

[RDS]

Recheck it using 7.62 Nato gauges. I think you will find it to be with in Nato specs.

[lapriester]

Closing on a No-Go does not make the rifle unsafe. If it closed on a Field it would be a different story. THERE ARE NO NATO NO-GO GAUGES to check it with but typically using a 308 Winchester No-Go on a chamber that has NATO headspace will result in the bolt closing on it. If you were to check headspace with NATO gauges the bolt would close on a NATO Minimum and probably not close on a NATO Maximum making it pass 7.62 NATO headspace. The one any only issue with a chamber that has 7.62 NATO headspace and easily closes on a 308 No-Go is that you are going to have to shoot military 7.62 NATO ammo in it or reload with 7.62 NATO cases. Commercial 308 Winchester ammo or reloads using 308 Winchester cases will result in short case life or, in the case of commercial ammo, the cases could fail on the first firing. Is the barrel marked 308 or 308 Winchester or is it marked 7.62 NATO? If not marked it's a good bet it was over reamed and it essentially ended up within NATO specs. Does if fail the 308 No-Go miserably or barely. That can make a huge difference in what you might expect as far as commercial brass life. Also, what bolt is in the rifle? You could easily correct that headspace "problem" if it doesn't have a 65 series bolt in place and you switch to one. Of course if you were to switch bolts to a longer one you'd need to verify headspace before shooting it. On my Winchester Navy 7.62 NATO rifle the original -12 bolt I installed closed on a 308 Win No-Go. I tried a 65 series bolt and still came close to closing but did not. It passed NATO Minimum even with the different bolt. I have shot both commercial and NATO ammo in that one without any ill effects on the brass. Some of the RP commercial brass I've reloaded for it with is on the 4th cycle already.

It's hard for me to believe ant competent Gunsmith would tell you to just go out and shoot it to check for brass "stress". Do you really know what that is and how to recognize it? BTW, any such thing might not even show until the brass fails and it could fail miserably and possibly unsafely. Especially with commercial 308 ammo and a chamber that fails the No-Go miserably.

[RDS]

Forster makes a headspace gauge marked 7.62 NATO 1.6455 Max. Have your rifle checked with this gauge. If it closes on this gauge you have a problem. I use this gauge anytime I purchase a rifle chambered in 7.62 NATO. Bolts made by SA marked -2, -19 or start with 65 are all on the long side. What is the markings on your bolt? Forster also makes a headspace gauge marked 7.62 NATO 1.6355 min.