HEADSPACE ON MOSIN?

[leedog]

How would I go about checking the headspace on my recently purchaced Mosin 91/30? I dont want to fire it if is not safe to do so.

[Muscles Glasses]

ak-builder has a go gauge for 7.62x54r as for a no go gauge i don't know what to tell ya.

[Peter.Steele]

How would I go about checking the headspace on my recently purchaced Mosin 91/30? I dont want to fire it if is not safe to do so.

Don't worry about it.

If you bought it from Big 5, you can be about 99.99999999% sure it's good to go. No matter that they put the scary warnings on there, these things have been checked over pretty well. There's too much liability involved for them to sell faulty weapons.

If you bought it second-hand, you're still almost certainly good. I've been around these things for about ten years now, and I've never even heard a rumor of a friend of a friend of a cousin's mother's uncle's next door neighbor's Mosin that had a problem with head space.

[Ronco]

I've read good things about these:

http://www.okiegauges.com/

[kcstott]

The worst thing that would happen with a rifle that has excessive headspace is the case head would separate from the body leaving a case in your chamber with no means of an easy removal.
so long as the ammunition you use is of god quality and reliability, It's not going to blow up or otherwise catastrophically fail. The action is design to fail in a way that prevents injury to the shooter. All bolt actions are designed this way.

Now that said that does nothing for hand loads or otherwise incorrect or bad ammunition.
And the rimmed round headspaces off the rim so there is little to worry about.

[leedog]

It sounds like I shouldn't worry to much about it. Thanks

[Chaos47]

If its numbers matching you should be fine. If it is not well you are probably fine still.

[Kerplow]

I've been around these things for about ten years now, and I've never even heard a rumor of a friend of a friend of a cousin's mother's uncle's next door neighbor's Mosin that had a problem with head space.

You have now, member jshoebot had a mosin blow up on him that was apparently the result of bad head space.

[Alex$]

You have now, member jshoebot had a mosin blow up on him that was apparently the result of bad head space.

Is there a thread on this? That would be a great read if it has photos too.

[Kerplow]

Is there a thread on this? That would be a great read if it has photos too.

I don't know, he doesn't post much on CGN anymore but he's around on some other forums. I'll try and get some details.

[kcstott]

I seriously doubt it was a head space issues that caused a rifle to "blow up"

And what exactly is meant by "blow up"?? Did just the case separate and vent badly or did the action split and crack??

I've seen a lot of cases blow up but i've only read about rifles blowing up and P.O. Ackley was the one blowing them up on purpose. To see how much each action would take.

[Kerplow]

I seriously doubt it was a head space issues that caused a rifle to "blow up"

And what exactly is meant by "blow up"?? Did just the case separate and vent badly or did the action split and crack??

I've seen a lot of cases blow up but i've only read about rifles blowing up and P.O. Ackley was the one blowing them up on purpose. To see how much each action would take.

I use the term "blow up" loosely. I do believe the rifle was ruined, but I'm not 100% sure. I also should have used the word "supposedly" instead of "apparently" in my first post, as this is just what I was told. All second hand info, here.

[jshoebot]

I don't know, he doesn't post much on CGN anymore but he's around on some other forums. I'll try and get some details.

Details inbound:

As I was closing the bolt while chambering a round, the rifle fired out of battery. I'm not sure what caused it, but basically as I closed the bolt (pushing forward and starting the downturn), the round fired. The projectile went down the barrel, the casing blew apart into two pieces, launching the bolt rearward and implanting the bottom of the casing in the center of my right hand. The bolt stayed in the rifle, and there was no visible receiver damage. Still not sure what caused it, but it was rather unpleasant. I don't have the rifle around to take pictures, but nothing was visibly damaged except for the magazine spring, the magazine itself, and the bottom plate.

Weird thing is, I had put about 60 rounds through the rifle the day before all of this happened with no problems.

[jshoebot]

Oh, it also gave me an awesome scar in the center of my hand that makes me look like what I imagine Jesus' hands looked like after that whole cross incident.

[Kerplow]

Details inbound:

As I was closing the bolt while chambering a round, the rifle fired out of battery. I'm not sure what caused it, but basically as I closed the bolt (pushing forward and starting the downturn), the round fired. The projectile went down the barrel, the casing blew apart into two pieces, launching the bolt rearward and implanting the bottom of the casing in the center of my right hand. The bolt stayed in the rifle, and there was no visible receiver damage. Still not sure what caused it, but it was rather unpleasant. I don't have the rifle around to take pictures, but nothing was visibly damaged except for the magazine spring, the magazine itself, and the bottom plate.

Weird thing is, I had put about 60 rounds through the rifle the day before all of this happened with no problems.

Ah, there you go. Not sure where I got the head space idea from, it was quite a while ago when we talked about it. Thanks for filling us in.