re-barreled Savage 110 question...

Just re-barreled my wife's rifle with a new 7mm-08 barrel. This is my 3rd rebarrel on a savage rifle. Anyways, I did the usual with a go and no-go gauge. Everything went smoothly. Bolt closes on go and does not close on No-go. Went shooting yesterday and noticed something. When I chamber a round(factory hornady ammo), there is the slightest bit of stiffness to the bolt. It closes fine though and seriously, you do not need much force at all to close it. We are talking just enough more force to close it that I can just barely notice it but it is there when compared to closing the bolt on an empty chamber. I shot it about a dozen times and everything looks fine. The cases show no ejector marks or bulging primers. There is no severe shoulder stretching leading toward indications of case head separation. The primers are a touch flattened (not bad though) but I have had that happen with a few factory rifles over the years with factory ammo (I do plan on reloading for this rifle). The cases all ejected fine and did not seem sticky at all when ejecting. I am thinking this chamber is simply a tight chamber. What are your thoughts? Anything I need to worry about?


Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Bigeclipse

1) We are talking just enough more force to close it that I can just barely notice it but it is there when compared to closing the bolt on an empty chamber.
2) The cases show no ejector marks or bulging primers.
3) There is no severe shoulder stretching leading toward indications of case head separation. The primers are a touch flattened (not bad though) but I have had that happen with a few factory rifles over the years with factory ammo (I do plan on reloading for this rifle).
4) The cases all ejected fine and did not seem sticky at all when ejecting. I am thinking this chamber is simply a tight chamber. What are your thoughts? Anything I need to worry about?

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I broke this down just to speak to the different observations for you.

1 - Hard to say, but *sounds* like you have a minimum amount of headspace. Did you really cinch down on the guage, or did the barrel turn-in when tightening the nut? That would shorten the headspace.
2 - That would be from VERY excessive pressures, or to much headspace, not too little.
3 - Again, this would be resulting from VERY excessive pressure, or excessive headspace. What you described was a minimum headspace, or slightly crushing the brass in the chamber. Other than VERY excessive pressure, brass and primers don't accurately tell you what pressures you are running; Velocities tell you that.
4 - Could be a tight chamber, or more likely is the barrel turned somewhat when you were tightening the nut. Try your gauges again, or FL size the brass and try to close the bolt on that empty sized brass. If the empty sized brass is fine, then you have some bad ammo. If the empty, sized brass has a little crush also; then you have a minimum headspace either from assembly or tight chamber.

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Originally Posted by darkker

I broke this down just to speak to the different observations for you.

1 - Hard to say, but *sounds* like you have a minimum amount of headspace. Did you really cinch down on the guage, or did the barrel turn-in when tightening the nut? That would shorten the headspace.
2 - That would be from VERY excessive pressures, or to much headspace, not too little.
3 - Again, this would be resulting from VERY excessive pressure, or excessive headspace. What you described was a minimum headspace, or slightly crushing the brass in the chamber. Other than VERY excessive pressure, brass and primers don't accurately tell you what pressures you are running; Velocities tell you that.
4 - Could be a tight chamber, or more likely is the barrel turned somewhat when you were tightening the nut. Try your gauges again, or FL size the brass and try to close the bolt on that empty sized brass. If the empty sized brass is fine, then you have some bad ammo. If the empty, sized brass has a little crush also; then you have a minimum headspace either from assembly or tight chamber.

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thanks for your comments. I checked with the gauges and the bolt closes fine on go and does not close on the no go. Do you think there is any safety issue or simply whether this bugs me enough to take the gun apart and redo the torquing again. I have lock tighter everything down and really don't want to have to take the scope off and such since it shot well.

What "darkker" says. You might try some other brand of ammo to see if you get the same result. I do not see that it would be a safety issue, just a nice snug headspace that will probably loosen up over time as things wear.

IMHO, better a little snug than loose. When you start reloading, you can size your brass exactly to that chamber. :-)