RC20,for the wear I was thinking more of 100 years of locking lug to receiver wear,or softer steel locking lug setback,or sustained overpressure loads.
Or even a mismatched bolt. But,I agree with you its unlikely a shoulder would erode to cause a reject.
Wartime standards? I'm thinking that's its own topic.In fact,I do not know what the QC was at the arsenal regarding GO vs NO GO chambers.I would GUESS/ASSUME they used the same 30-06 gauges.They also had 1917 steel,and 1917 eyeball heat treaters,too.The rifles lived in abrasive muck filled trenches,and were perhaps in two wars before we drop a field gauge in them and assume "sloppy wartime standards" I don't know.
I realize all sorts of strange things are done.I realize some folks headspace on the extractor. It goes "bang" . I don't do that. Its just another source of confusion for the person we are writing to help. YES!! If you put an 8x57 round in an 8mm-06 and shoot it...blah blah blah...supposedly one individual offers that as proof that …..blah blah.....I've read it too many times.
We also agree that a knowledgable handloader can make custom "workaround" ammo that ,from a "head clearance" standard,will work just fine in a rifle with out of spec headspace.We can load ammo with .002 head clearance for a rifle with .020 headspace. No problem!. But don't take that ammo hunting if you are shooting a different rifle.We have SAAMI standards so we can trust 30-06 ammo to work in 30-06 guns.
Nothing says we HAVE to follow SAAMI specs.
We might question what happened to cause the excessive headspace.Something moved if the rifle was properly chambered when new.
I had a woman friend with a Marlin 30-30.The fired brass showed the primer backed out about 1/32 of an inch. A mutual Old Guy friend had an eye for that 30-30. He put up some $ for a Savage 99 in .300 Savage I found for her.I put a used 4x Leupold on it It would shoot 2 MOA.She put venison on the table with it.
A Handloader can headspace the 30-30 on the fireformed shoulder rather than the rim IF the brass did not grow a stretch ring in the process. There are ways around that,too. That Old Man had the rifle in his truck and fired factory loads once. Done.
Last edited by HiBC; January 1, 2019 at 05:10 PM.
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