Is there a difference, other than the obvious, between headspace gauges for specific calibers and the family of cartridges based on the same case? Specifically I'm looking at putting a new barrel on a Savage 110. There are headspace guages specifically for the .358 Winchester, which is the intended caliber, and there are guages that cover .243,.260,7-08,308, and the 358. The multi-caliber guages are actully less expensive than the single caliber units, but that could be chocked up to the larger quantity of multi-caliber sets that the company produces. These guages are made by Forster in both the "go" and "no-go" types. Any input on this will be greatly appreciated.
Headspace guage question
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Hi, kciH;
The regular gauges for the .308 family are all under the HG0243G-N-F family catalog number. There's a special 11 piece Match set listed too, but it's not described in the online catalog. Is this what you're refering to? IIRC, it's made in 1/2 thousandths increments. I'm not a gunsmith, but I have a Forster gauge here that showed that an old Savage 110L had a short chamber, and our reloading dies were good. Considering the ease of headspacing a Savage with the barrel nut, I would think that the HG0243G gauge is all you need.
http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/gages.htm
http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/pricelist.html#Anchor-46009
Brownells site is down, is that where you saw a special .358 gauge?
Bye
Jack
The regular gauges for the .308 family are all under the HG0243G-N-F family catalog number. There's a special 11 piece Match set listed too, but it's not described in the online catalog. Is this what you're refering to? IIRC, it's made in 1/2 thousandths increments. I'm not a gunsmith, but I have a Forster gauge here that showed that an old Savage 110L had a short chamber, and our reloading dies were good. Considering the ease of headspacing a Savage with the barrel nut, I would think that the HG0243G gauge is all you need.
http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/gages.htm
http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/pricelist.html#Anchor-46009
Brownells site is down, is that where you saw a special .358 gauge?
Bye
Jack
Jack,
I saw this on the Midway website. They had specific guages for the .358, as well as a single guage that covered the .308 family of cartridges. My notion is to purchase the guages (1 go, 1 no-go) for the .308 family as opposed to the gauge that is only for .358. Since even I don't know what I'll be playing with next, I figured they might come in handy in the future. I'm just curious to see if there are any downsides to having the guage that is universal to the .308 family as compared with the specific .358 guage.
I saw this on the Midway website. They had specific guages for the .358, as well as a single guage that covered the .308 family of cartridges. My notion is to purchase the guages (1 go, 1 no-go) for the .308 family as opposed to the gauge that is only for .358. Since even I don't know what I'll be playing with next, I figured they might come in handy in the future. I'm just curious to see if there are any downsides to having the guage that is universal to the .308 family as compared with the specific .358 guage.
kciH,
As long as we are talking about factory cartridges, that is standard variants on the .038 case and not wildcats, one guage will work for any of them. Unless you are going to be doing re-barrel or chamber work yourself, there is really no reason to have more than the NO-GO guage since that is the only safety issue. And if we are talking about the normal Ackley Improved line of cartridges made on the same basic case, the headspace guages for the standard work with the AI too. Ackley did nothing to move the Datum Line on his AI cartridges.
A bit of explanation for anyone going to call me on the Datum Line statement. Let's define the datum line first. The Datum Line is the point on the shoulder of the cartridge case or guage designated by SAAMI as the point to which the headspace measurement, taken on the shoulder (or other supporting location on the case) is measured. On some cartridges this can be a specific point such as junction of neck and shoulder, junction of body and sholuder, or a point somewhere midpoint on the shoulder which measures a specific diameter. In the case of many, if not most, rimless cartridges, the actual Datum Line is the last described. Ackley designed his AI line of cartridges so that the standard headspace guages for the caliber (.308. .30-06, etc.) can be used to check headspace on the AI based on that basic case.
As long as we are talking about factory cartridges, that is standard variants on the .038 case and not wildcats, one guage will work for any of them. Unless you are going to be doing re-barrel or chamber work yourself, there is really no reason to have more than the NO-GO guage since that is the only safety issue. And if we are talking about the normal Ackley Improved line of cartridges made on the same basic case, the headspace guages for the standard work with the AI too. Ackley did nothing to move the Datum Line on his AI cartridges.
A bit of explanation for anyone going to call me on the Datum Line statement. Let's define the datum line first. The Datum Line is the point on the shoulder of the cartridge case or guage designated by SAAMI as the point to which the headspace measurement, taken on the shoulder (or other supporting location on the case) is measured. On some cartridges this can be a specific point such as junction of neck and shoulder, junction of body and sholuder, or a point somewhere midpoint on the shoulder which measures a specific diameter. In the case of many, if not most, rimless cartridges, the actual Datum Line is the last described. Ackley designed his AI line of cartridges so that the standard headspace guages for the caliber (.308. .30-06, etc.) can be used to check headspace on the AI based on that basic case.
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