DustBuster

Right on. Good conclusion to the process... When the no go doesn’t close, you will feel more confident on a kick butt chamber. I did with mine...

I can’t remember how many slices scotch tape it took to add .004 to equal a no-go gauge... I’m thinking 2 slices was close. I only did it out of curiosity when I rented some gauges and wanted to see how many slices made up the difference. I now use a No-Go I bought and use that to accurately size a go sized brass casing. I’m not sure of the Creedmore size difference between the two gauges. Someone else will have more tape information. @Magwa, how did you remove the ejector pin(s) on your bolt? Was it easy for you? Calipers and a homemade comparator would be useful for this or future checks of various sorts

I just quoted this so you might be notified of my Tip I just wrote.... maybe you have already completed the task by now... it’s tricky to stabilize the bolt if it isn’t clamped fully in a vise, but what I did is I drilled a hole to accept the skinny tube part of the bolt, into a 3/4 inch piece of wood. Then with that against one jaw of the vise, and the cut casing on the other jaw of the vise, I cranked it nearly tight... then I slipped another block of wood under the bolt but on top of the bottom shaft of the vice. I think then I sort of had to use something else then on top to keep it from wiggling out. I wish I could remember more, but you’ll figure it out

The bolt I took apart from Sharps had one pin keeping both ejectors in place.... The other pin that you see may be for the extractor... but Regardless, One TIP: when I worked on both a single ejector and my dual ejector bolts, if you clamp or vise a cut off casing to depress the ejectors, you may want to if you can back off on the pressure of the vise so that if not fully depressed. When I first did it, with the case completely squished in there so it was straight just like a regular bullet would be, it caused too much shear friction on the pin so it would not pound out. Backing off on the ejector squish a tad lets the pin be loose in the ejector slot and won’t require nearly as much force. Good luck

Speer are pretty cheap but don’t go Neer the bullseye. Ive seen some cheap bullets called Armscor but have never tried them. ive been using some factory seconds a bit but they are only relatively cheaper... supposedly they are Hornady eld-m rejects for some minor reason. Others may know better possibilities

I’m glad I didn’t buy that online Varget... today I went in to buy an elk tag and lo and behold, lots of powder and Varget staring down at me from the shelf. I bought three there and saved a hundred bucks. I think our days of powder scarcity must be nearly over... Most of this summer lots of other powders were in stock at this small town gun store in my state. For primers though all they had were those damn BRs, just like the online situation...

Thanks for the tip, although buying three lbs with shipping and hazmat makes it 83$ per lb for me. I don’t need to try a popular powder that bad. Will have to wait a few years I suppose till I randomly see it for sale locally! Is it better than... IMR 4895 or 4064?

It’s a perfect name for this thread then; these rifles can be just like Ships of Theseus no doubt. It is fun to change em up with different parts, with a smidgen of the original somewhere beneath the surface.

Good careful acquisition of parts, mix and match and eventually you’ll get to the finish product that you like. Sounds like muzzle device and handgaurd are the last two to either keep or upgrade. I have two Guntec handgaurds now, a 12” and a 15”, and I think they are fairly good quality and light, but the screws suck pretty much. After several disassembles they are pretty much shot. May even twist off after tightening hard once. I may have to someday try a rifle length stock instead of my carbine collapsible magpul. I think several guys here prefer them, it seems. I take it Theseus built himself a ship of a hodge podge of parts and floated into the seas to slay the sea monsters?

My powder for those five shots was imr 4895 42.8 gr. Can’t remember the primer. Either CCI 34 or Fed Champ LP. But I’ve never shot dPete’s type of powder and certainly have never yet achieved 1moa with any of my barrels. Still trying to find a magic recipe

I’m not an expert or a great shot, but I was surprised by this 150 FMJ group at 100 with my 16” pencil barrel and a 4x scope

It could be. Maybe it is an oversimplified look at it... regardless, sounds like these other guys know how to solve the dirty inside case problem. I can’t shoot good enough to warrant that kind of case care for myself... I’m setup with walnut and corn dry tumbling with an extra sprinkling of some Bon Ami powder for some more abrasiveness. But who knows maybe if I did clean the inside by wet tumbling the charges would be more consistent upon ignition.

You sorted it out good, but now have enough parts to warrant 3 guns, haha. I actually have had three Faxon barrels now in my experience with Lr308. The first two Match series Fluted 18” were exactly the same and passed the tests with my first ever bolt. The last barrel now is a Supposedly looser spec Duty Series and Lo and Behold, it is the tightest chamber and required a looser bolt. You also have discovered this revelation of parts and pieces. I hope I don’t ever come across the Third size variant like you have, because it would take luck like winning the Lotto to find a match like you happened to have found. Good Job

Cancel your order, buy a No-go and make yourself a go sized brass. Make a comparator with a .4 inch shoulder hole to achieve this and other brass measurements. I rented the gauges before but I never had to wait as long as u did.

I have noticed this too before... maybe it is because the media works in concert with the brass and in between the mass of the brass tumbling around to polish and abrade the outside, but inside the individual cases there is only the media itself and it’s mass is little providing not much friction force. FrictionForce = Normal Force (i.e. Mass*g) * Coefficient of Friction. The Coedficient Of friction is the same in both case(inside and outside of case) but the Normal Force is different. Less inside the case. That would be my guess but I only got an B- in Dynamics

I have two Faxon barrels, both need their own unique sized bolts to pass the go/no-go tests. One bolt fits perfectly in one barrel and will fail in the opposite barrel, and visa versa. I just got lucky and had a bolt that worked for each. The spent brass from each I assume will end up being close to identical some where between 1.634 and 1.630. If you have a bolt that fits each barrel and passes both the tests, I’d say keep those bolts forever with those barrels, no prob. I still don’t know how I lucked out with my first barrel (a match chamber) and the first bolt I purchased. They fit perfectly. Then the second a Faxon Pencil barrel did not function with that first bolt, but a Sharps bolt fit that pencil barrel perfectly. Luck of the draw which cancelled out chamber differences from the same company.

@MtnMike “According to Leupold's website, the 50mm VX-Freedom 3-9 I have on there now is 14.6 oz. “. My weaver scope/w covers is 10.7 oz. Difference is 3.9 oz, equivalent to 4 of my live rounds plus an empty brass. So I added that into my magazine and The weight is 9 lb 0.3oz weight without bullets (Jockey handicap weight) is 8 lb 12.4 oz. So essentially my gun with the shorter barrel is the same as yours, but my Titaneum brake nocks me down roughly the 3oz. When I was throwing the gun up checking out my scope focal distance and stuff, the barrel with my 16 inch barrel almost wanted to tip upward it is so light. The center of gravity is now farther back than it used to be and is going to be much easier to hold on my target while standing. No way I’m going to spend 35 bucks on Titaneum receiver parts like takedown pins, so this will be as light as this LR is ever gonna get. I will have to shoot some more to see how it’s accuracy is like.

Glad you got a T brake too. Probably won’t work as good as your M4-72, but will be way quieter to you and your hunting spotter 🙂 The price was right for our new lightweight Muzzle Ornaments. I need to figure out a way I can push a button and my Mlok style bipod drops off in case of a standing shot. Others buy the picatinny bipod and put a mlok attached pic rail for quick release purposes. Good luck this hunting season for you. I’ll weigh my scope and add some bullet weight to match yours, will be weighing a similar outfitted gun tonight.

I’ll let you know MtnMike... I’ve got some scope rings showing up tomorrow, Medium height Warne Mntn tech rings which are also pretty light...just high enough for my old Weaver 4x scope. So my weight will be with that scope, which is much smaller, but I’ll add some bullets into the 10 round mag to compensate to match your scope weight. My bolt is not light weight, nor is my heavy 5.2oz buffer, but ohh well. I’ll send a picture maybe tomorrow,Friday or early next week. I’m just going to be glad the gun isn’t as front heavy as my other upper acted like last year. Of course I had the longer barrel on it, a magpul bipod, and metal unused backup sights on it. This new upper will be bare bones. I was lucky with my other setup as it was to hit a pizza pan off hand shooting at a hundred yards. Just couldn’t hold er steady.

I’ve been offline for a while now. Once my first .308 build was done I began reloading and striving for accuracy. I never have quite figured out what shoots best, yet. But building and working on these guns sure is satisfying even if the best result is clean cycling and a 2 moa group. We have all most likely learned a lesson or trick or two and gather more experience with this Platform.... I just learned a few days ago to not so quickly blame a Bolt Carrier company for failed headspace, based on just one barrel alone. Even if that same barrel passed the Go No-go tests with another bolt. I learned this lesson with two Faxon barrels and two bolts from Daytona Tactical and Sharps. My first Faxon 18” Match series barrel fit perfectly with the Daytona bolt. A clymer go/No-go rental set was used to check the headspace. My Sharps backup bolt failed on this barrel and I cried foul to their company. Their gunsmith talked me out of an exchange, but I wasn’t convinced with his field gauge argument. So I thought I’d just end up with over stretched reloading brass if I ever used that bolt. I then got the build bug again, so I bought a Faxon Pencil 16” Duty Series and checked the headspace with both of those same bolts, and this time the Sharps passed the tests perfectly but the Daytona failed the Go Test! It was my lucky day I got this other Tighter chambered Pencil barrel which has its perfect match with the Sharps Bolt. I’ve read about different sized bolts and different sized “spec” chambers, but I have not seen the tolerance stacking or variables until just now. I sent an email apologizing to Sharps and I’m excited to have my lighter hunting LR-308 for the days to come. I got a Titanium Muzzle break for the light barrel for 35 bucks from 2a- armament and although it may not work as good as some others, it only weighs 1.7 oz. I partially broke in the pencil barrel today using just open sights at 35 yards, and am pleased with the results. First shot 1/2 inch under the Bullseye, second shot 1/2 under the bullseye, the next break in five shot group was bigger but probably fair for using open sights... about a radius of 3.5 inches at 35 yards... using bipod and laying prone. I do need to work on shooting open sights better than this but I’ll probably move on to a 4x scope When my rings show up in the mail. Moral of this story: Don’t jump the gun if a bolt or barrel fails the headspace tests, just pray that you get lucky and get another barrel/or bolt that does pass the tests. Adios Amigos

I would tape a note to that barrel and say FAILED No-Go when you send it back. I have bought two barrels in my life, both Faxon, and they both passed the go-no go routine perfectly. That means I got lucky with the bolt I used and it also was within spec. I have another bolt that failed (closed on no-go) and I did the scotch tape with that, and I figured the “Bad Bolt” was .002 out of spec. It didn’t close on the Tape Stuck to the Clymer No-go gauge. The bolt company used the Ol Field Gauge arguement. It makes me sad that brass will stretch an extra .002 on the first shots with that “bad bolt” I guess I could stick a piece of tape on all my new Brass that I buy (😳) Good luck with getting a nice tight proper spec’d chamber... My barrels and the good bolt were even from different manufacturers.

Is it me or are the primers looking cratered? Maybe like the load is too hot or not enough gas escaping backward through the gas tube. I used to use an adjustable gas block and my gun cycled excellent on everything. Then I switched to a Kak gas block and now I don’t have empty magazine bolt hold open on 60% of my shots. I wonder if the Kak block is a wee bit tighter inside. I still haven’t removed it to look at alignment or to double check the gas port diameter on the new barrel. The old barrel was exact same company as new barrel Faxon with a .093 verified gas diameter... so I’m thinking the Kak Block a little tighter than could be

Sounds like this problem has been solved, Ehall. I also discovered that my bolt catch was too “tall” and was coming up on an empty lancer mag and catching the bolt carrier in the same spot, not in front of the bolt lugs. I didn’t have any bolt stops to compare at the time, so I just shaved a tiny bit off the Plastic follower on my Lancer to solve that. For a different bolt that I have, I might buy one of the Forward Controls stops because it looks pretty wide, which might solve the different issue I’m having with the different bolt. Good investigative work, Sherlock... Better than mine

Take your hammer out and see if it still happens. Something messed up with seers maybe

I put my barrel into a vise wrapped in Thick Leather. I’ve done this twice now. I have a fluted Barrel and was a tad concerned over stress concentrations directly on the flutes, but I only cranked the Vice just tight enough. As I reached about 50 ft-lbs Everthing started to slip but I got it done. My barrel tong needed to be set hard against the receiver slot side for best feed ramp lineup, so the slop in that slot was no concern.. Same exact procedure as using a reaction rod. Vice closer to barrel extension when doing barrel nut and closer to gas port when doing muzzle brake, to eliminate more internal torsional distance on the barrel itself. I think if you had a solid non-fluted barrel you could crush the living snot out of the barrel and it wouldn’t hurt anything. If I had a reaction rod I would use that.. When I crank on my Vice really tight, I hear some weird sounds, but I’m pretty sure it’s just my Vice whining and not the barrel cracking. An engineer would do a calculation using Poissons Ratio. I don’t think I reached yield stress of the steel though. The slop in the slot of the receiver got me slightly misaligned the first barrel I did with this method but on this second time, it didn’t matter, I got lucky. So in a nutshell, I think my upper did not suffer any twisting forces on it.