Ok here's my thoughts. Obviously, after spending big bucks on a barrel I would like to be able to safely install it without the added expense of buying a no go gauge. While I've been wrong plenty of times I think that as long as I screw it snugly to a go gauge I will have minimum head space , which is what I'm going for. When you think about it you can have quite a bit of head space before anything gets dangerous hence the field gauge. Theoretically, as long as I get it snugly onto the go gauge the shimming would really only be required for peace of mind. While it is good practice to use both, the barrel nut system used by Savage make it much less necessary in my opinion. Now if I were to be finish cutting a short chamber on a barrelled action, I would be definitely be using both go and an actual no go to insure I didn't cut to much and create excess space. Hell, I wonder if they even use no go's at the Savage factory. Every Savage I've owned has had minimum headspace and non were even close to no go specs. I know this because the bolt doesn't just fall shut on factory ammo. There's ever so slight resistance when closing which tells me the chamber is tight.
As I mentioned earlier, Yes, I should use both, but given the system Savage uses, my thoughts were of wondering if it were actually "necessary".
I only posed this question because this will be the first barrel swap I have done myself.
Now for my next question, What have any of you used as an expedient method of clamping the barrel without going out and spending more $ on an actual barrel vise? I was thinking of clamping a couple of 2x4 pieces together and then boring a hole between them to use as blocks and then using them in my bench vise. Think that would work?