De-Nazified Yugo Mauser Headspace?

[EMC45]

I took the extractor and firing pin out of the bolt leaving just the bolt body. I then stacked clear scotch tape on the head of a loaded cartridge and did the headspace check. I had a little hard time closing the bolt on 5 pieces (.009). Would this indicate a headspace issue? The buddy who gave it to me gave me all his fired brass and the Commercial US made stuff had backed out primers, where the Sellier and Bellot had nice looking seated primers. Would it make a difference in doing my test with mil surp ammo as opposed to ammo I ran through my press? (handloaded)

[higgins]

It's not unusual to get slightly backed out primers on lower-pressure loads because the case is not thrust back as hard against the bolt face upon firing. I've scavenged a lot of once-fired brass over the years and I've seen this quite a bit on .30/30 and 8mm Mauser, as well as light to moderate handloads with jacketed bullets. The S&B factory loads are probably hotter than U.S. factory loads, and that's why you see the flatter primers on the S&B loads. Most of the Yugo mausers I've seen have the bolt numbered to the receiver; if you've got a match there you're probably safe on headspace. If you want to pursue the tape test for the sake of comparison, I think unfired surplus would be better than a sized case.

[MtGun44]

I put new to me milsurps in an unmounted tire, buttstock in one side, handguard resting
on the opposite side and fire a round with a lanyard. Tie a 6-8" loop thru the trigger guard
and around the stock wrist, stand back and pull. Examine the case and the gun.

If OK, you are probably good to go. If you start getting separation rings after a few
reloads, you may need to only minimally resize your brass, but this is kinda normal in
any rifle, esp milsurps.

Bill

[rtracy2001]

While I have used sized cases to check headspace in special circumstances, I would recommend that you go ahead and purchase, rent, or borrow a gauge set, especially if you see signs that worry you.

When installing a barrel, or when finish reaming a new chamber, using just a go-gauge, and then adding a layer of tape to make a no-go gauge is fine since you are expecting and working towards minimum headspace.

When checking a used firearm, the range of acceptable headspace is much larger than a piece of tape. Stacking multiple pieces of tape may seem like the thing to do in that case, but you will never get the exact same compression closing the bolt as measuring with a micrometer or vise-versa.

[spqrzilla]

Ammunition is not a gage. Especially not handloaded ammunition.

That said, I don't know that I would necessarily get too excited about checking headspace in the absence of an indication of an actual problem.