Headspace Question

[BearGuy]

Just wanna make sure I’m doing this correctly. I just spun on a PBB barrel onto my tikka action. With the go gauge everything operates perfectly. With the no-go gauge the bolt hits a very hard wall but I can force it closed with quite a bit of pressure. It doesn’t seem to fully seat everything though. This shows my headspace to be ok correct?

 

[BBob]

It should be fine. Tip for the future: Don't force a headspace gage closed. If it makes contact with resistance that's all you need to know.

 

[HandgunHTR]

It should be fine. Tip for the future: Don't force a headspace gage closed. If it makes contact with resistance that's all you need to know.

This^^^^

A no-go is usually about 0.004" longer than a go-gauge. SAAMI spec allows for up to 0.010".

Here is a pretty good write up on the different gauges and what it all means.

One takeaway from this when using prefits: Just because your bolt closes on a no-go doesn't mean that that the headspace is out of spec. If it closes on a field gauge (or a no-go with two pieces of scotch tape on the back), then it is.