Quote Originally Posted by STR513 View Post
OK well I picked it up and need to post up some photos. When we tried the "safety check" at the shop ( part of California rules...) we could not chamber a cheap AZOOM snap cap. Bolt was just shy of closing. Will clean it up and clean the chamber and check back.

I do have a set of .243 Win dies and some brass, I will resize some of the brass I have acquired and check back in. I do not have any other chamber gauges, just the drop in Lyman gauge for loaded rounds.

Sounds like some nice glass on those guns. Hope my Balvar is clean and bright.
So I had the same issue with my pre-66 in 30-06. Factory brass and some factory loads were very hard to chamber. Some were impossible to chamber. I had to return a box of Federal Premium ammo because I could not get the bolt closed. The head space was very, very tight. After the first shot on factory reloading brass (star-line) and a full-length resizing, all my rounds chambered just fine. I never had a go gauge to check it, but it sounds like yours might have the same issue. If that's the case, don't give up on it until you've tried once-fired (from that gun) full-length resized brass in it.