I have a question but need to explain the situation first, so I’m sorry for what is going to be a long read.

I recently traded the 223 barrel off my LRPV for a take off 204. I finally got the chance to put the barrel on and had quite a time setting the head space. I ordered a set of go/no go gauges but only the go gauge was in stock. I ran the barrel up against the go gauge and then hand tightened the barrel nut. Since I didn’t have the no go gauge I placed a piece of scotch tape on the end and tested it and the bolt would not close. So, all seemed good. I set the action in the action vise and tightened the barrel up and gave the wrench a solid whap with a rubber mallet. I then took the tape off the gauge and tried the go gauge again, the bolt would not close. After a couple of times going through setting the head space I found that when tightening the barrel nut, the barrel would turn slightly at first thus changing the head spacing. Once I found this I compensated and now the head space is set for both go and no go.

While going through all this I noticed that after I screwed the barrel up against the bolt it was about 2 or 3 turns from being up against the barrel nut which I had ran all the way to the end of the threads. Seems that the treaded part of the barrel is short. I initially thought that the chamber may have been set back for some reason but I’m pretty sure the barrel has not been modified. I did notice that the recoil lug is quite a bit larger then the ones on my other small shank savages. This may have accounted for what seams to be short threads.

Now for my question ….. looking at the two situations together, is there anything I should be concerned about? I am thinking of not shooting it until the actual no go gauge comes in, hopefully soon, just to make sure the head spacing is correct. As far as the threads, I assume that as long as the head spacing is correct it’s a non issue.