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Posted: 6/8/2005 8:29:31 PM EDT
| Is mating a bolt with a round count of around 1000 rounds to a new barrel pushing it as far as incompatible headspace risk goes? Both parts are Colt. Thanks. |
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I'd say your probably okay headspace wise. That said ALL my AR15 rifles/uppers begin their lives w/ a NEW b/bc/ch which stays with them for as long as their in my care and are sold with them to avoid non-function issues to the new owner. I'll let others experiment. Mike |
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I bought a go/no go gauge from brownells. I don't know if this is the best to buy, but it works good enough for me. The military also uses a throat erosion guage, but i don't know where you can get one of those, I've never really looked for one. Or you can take it to a compitent gunsmith and he might check for you for free, or for a buck or 2. it's not brain surgury, so if you go the route of the gunsmith don't let him charge you much. |
USGI is the only one to get IMHO if you have anything BUT a match rifle. The .223 gauges Brownells and others sell are for bolt action and match rifles - a perfectly fine AR with a M16 chamber can swallow a .223 Field gauge yet still be 'in spec'. Besides the USGI gauge doesn't require you disassemble the bolt like the .233 comercial gagues do. You can get the USGI gauge from Fulton-Armory still in the foil wrapper with calibration card. |
If it's a Colt bolt, absolutely  Some years back I bought a batch of 5 milsurp M16 bolts. All were Colt. I headspaced each one of them in four different ARs, all of which were relatively new. All but one of them wouldn't close on a No Go guage, and the one that did wouldn't close on the GI field guage; so it too was perfectly safe to use. I have to assume that every one of these pieces had been used multiple thousands of rounds, and yet every one of them was perfectly servicable. If you have money to burn, or are going to do a number of swaps like I did, get headspace guages. For a one time swap, though, I'd put the bucks into some extra ammo.
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Headspacing isn't really too much of an issue if you use quality bolts, barrel extensions, etc. But I'd have to agree w/ Mr. Wilson, that it's an experiment if you start mating new and used togeher w/ high round counts, might work great, might not work at all. Plus bolts are fairly cheap in the grand scheme of things....my .02
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| You would have to have a HIDEOUSLY worn bolt for the Colt field guage not to work, and I mean thousands upon thousands (as in tens of) of rounds. I wasted some money on some headspace gauges, I only use them for entertainment as I have yet to come across a combination mixing bolts and barrels that did not headspace, and I have check a lot of them. Of course YMMV, I know someone who ran across two that didn't headspace, so he says. Many times people will use the gauges, correct ones or not (.223 vs .556 vs Colt Field) and the indication is failure but they are never the less within tolerance for headspace. Go figure. |
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