I have a Spanish FR8 (large-ring Mauser action), which I purchased as a general purpose hunting/plinking rifle. I've fired all manner of surplus and commercial ammo through it, to include my various reloads, and not had any issues, save some minor sticking of the bolt with one particular lot of German surplus 7.62x51. Nevertheless, I decided to purchase a .308 Winchester field gauge. Now I was/am aware of the dimensional difference between NATO and commercial chambers, but there is an overlap, and if it passed a commercial field gauge, then it would obviously pass a NATO max chamber gauge. Alas, the bolt closed easily upon my new Forster gauge. I now have a NATO gauge on the way. So, here's my dilemma:
If the rifle passes the NATO Max gauge, do I really need to stop shooting all commercial ammo? Or is that all made to the same specs anyway?
If she fails the Max gauge, what would be my best option in regards to having the headspace fixed? The neck-size-only method is not acceptable, as I like to use this thing as my 30-caliber garbage disposal. For reference, the 308 Field gauge is 1.638", and the NATO Max gauge will be 1.6455".