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I am about to start putting together all the bits and pieces I have aquired for my first Savage build. I have head spaced several short chambered Mausers. I understand I need to remove the ejector and the firing pin. How about the extractor? It might be handy for extracting the go gauge. I guess I could just elevate the barrel and tap on the barrel to have the gauge slide out. Thanks in advance for your time. New Savage guy.
Mark, Paperkiller
Dont worry about the extractor and what I do is grind a relief in the gage to leave the ejector in. You dont have to but it does save time.All you are doing is screwing the barrel in to the gage and tightening the nut.I would use a receiver wrench and barrel nut wrench. You can get those at northland supply 1-763-682-4296
I got most of my parts from Jim at Northland. I have the nut wrench and action wrench coming, so I'm good there. I bought a used action, so I will probably brake it all down for inspection anyway. I'll have to take the scope rail off anyway to do the head spacing. Just wanted to know if there was any positive to leaving the extractor on. I'd like to give Jim a shout out while I'm at it. He was really great to deal with.
I don't take anything out out of the bolt. Works Great. ;-))
I don't take anything out either, I have done it with ejector in and out and see no difference. Don't take the firing pin out unless you really think you are going to pull the trigger on a headspace gauge? I can't see why you can't just put the safety on if you're worried about bumping it. The PTG gauges I use will work with the extractor in, are there gauges out there that won't work with it in place?
Thanks for the input guys. I have only head spaced Mausers with short chambered barrels. It was suggested that I remove the firing pin and strip the bolt, so that is what I did. It did seem to make sense as I would have a better feel for the resistance as the bolt closed on the go gauge without any excess pressure on the bolt face. I will try to head space this setup with everything in place. If I feel any downside, I can always strip the bolt at that point. It certainly saves some time and hassle for sure!
Headspace it with the extractor and ejector in place, then remove them and check it again. That should ease your mind that there's no real need to remove them in the first place.
I have changed dozens of Savage barrels. I remove the ejector and the firing pin assembly, and scotch tape bolt assembly pin so it doesn't lock up the bolt. I find that the reduced effort to close the bolt makes headspacing easier. R&R ejector and bolt assy/disassy is easy and fast-or it gets easy and fast with practice.
The practice helps.
(I also change a wheel on a new car after purchase, because it's easier to figure out where and how to use spare and jack etc on a sunny 70 degree day than in rain or snow-when flats happen.)
Manson Reamers' headspace gauge already has a notch for the ejector.