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Posted: 8/24/2010 7:11:43 AM EDT
| Is there an easy way to check headspace on an AR bolt/carrier assy. WITHOUT removing the ejector? |
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What concerns do you have about the headspacing in your rifle? Bolts have very tight manufacturing tolerances and are closely inspected. A manufacturer worth their reputation hold tight production tolerances in the barrel extention and chamber depth in the barrels they use.
Some after market barrels come with chambers that need to be reamed to size to appropriate headspacing. |
| I'm not REALLY all that concerned. I have two Bushmasters that I am going to replace the original (non shrouded FP type) bolt/carrier assys. with brand new BCM bolt carrier assys. One of the uppers has less than 500 rounds thru it, and the other has around 300 rounds thru it. I know Bushmaster and BCM both are good manufacturers, but I just wanted to be on the safe side. It just looks like a pain to pull the roll pin out of the ejectors just to do this. I may just go ahead and shoot the damn things. What do you all think? |
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You're father ahead upgrading the unshrouded carriers. Bushmaster and Bravo Company sell quality product, I wouldn't question their specs.
I have quite a few mil surp Colt and FN bolts and carriers. I am not worried about running them in any and all my ARs. Mix'em and match'em, even swap'em. |
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Its not very hard to do. Takes a few minutes effort to pull the parts and perform the check. Then you know for sure.
You can go the lazy route. Drop the new parts into the rifle and go shooting, you just won't know for sure about the headspace until you pull the trigger. 98.9% chance everything will work o.k. Lots of people care less about checking the headspace on their builds, because they end up working. Lots of other folks check the headspace, just like the factory does, to be sure. Its your rifle.......... |
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"98.9% chance everything will work o.k."
With odds like that, I'd own Vegas and Alantic City. "Lots of people care less about checking the headspace on their builds, because they end up working." Because they end up working perfectly 98.9% of the time. Barreled uppers are manufactured to tight tolerance so they work perfectly 98.9% of the time. I would check headspacing on a barrel sold seperately, often they come with short chambers and need to be reamed to headspace specs. "Lots of other folks check the headspace, just like the factory does, to be sure. Its your rifle.........." And according to service armorers that actually check all of their guns on a regular basis find no headspace issues 99% of the time. At the factory they call it quality control. Most bolt are more prone to break a locking lug or break at the cam pin hole before they ever show a headspace issue. More often than not in a military setting bolts carrier groups are disassembled, inspected and reassembled randomly while being batch cleaned and then randomly reloaded into the rifles. BCGs are designed to be totally interchangible, contrary to popular myth. Classic example: A Bravo Company USA bolt carrier group can drop into ANY M-16 or AR-15 and work perfectly without the least bit of concern. A Colt and FN BCG likewise. |
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Every time someone asks about checking headspace, there is a division between two camps: those that check & those that don't
I would check the headspace rifles I would use. Old barrel with new bolt or new barrel with old bolt....there can be a measured difference that pushes headspace too large or too small- both unsafe conditions. Even new bolt/barrel combination should be checked to ensure no problems. I would advise someone to follow established safety process by checking headspace as part of an inspection, but there are a bunch of folks who choose to not check....its their rifle and their problem if the stuff doesn't work right. As far as being good to go 99% of the time, Murphy's Law is a bitch so I would like to avoid the 1% chance of having a blown rifle. Have a good one. Quoted:
"98.9% chance everything will work o.k." With odds like that, I'd own Vegas and Alantic City. "Lots of people care less about checking the headspace on their builds, because they end up working." Because they end up working perfectly 98.9% of the time. Barreled uppers are manufactured to tight tolerance so they work perfectly 98.9% of the time. I would check headspacing on a barrel sold seperately, often they come with short chambers and need to be reamed to headspace specs. "Lots of other folks check the headspace, just like the factory does, to be sure. Its your rifle.........." And according to service armorers that actually check all of their guns on a regular basis find no headspace issues 99% of the time. At the factory they call it quality control. Most bolt are more prone to break a locking lug or break at the cam pin hole before they ever show a headspace issue. More often than not in a military setting bolts carrier groups are disassembled, inspected and reassembled randomly while being batch cleaned and then randomly reloaded into the rifles. BCGs are designed to be totally interchangible, contrary to popular myth. Classic example: A Bravo Company USA bolt carrier group can drop into ANY M-16 or AR-15 and work perfectly without the least bit of concern. A Colt and FN BCG likewise. |
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