Thread: headspace in a break open rifle

I repeatedly fired a single case in the 30-30 Baikal I had built because there was still a slight imperfection in the chamber from the original 30-06 shoulder.
The barrel was a 16" 30-06 Bush Pig take off and to get the 30-30 chamber into it I lost about 40mm
That put me within MMs of being under minimum legal length over all.
So I stopped with 2mm to spare ( depending on how you measure LOA ) and there was still a slight feature in the chamber.

I was naturally concerned that this would dramatically shorten brass life.
So I fired and sized and reloaded a single case without annealing it 10 times, with no obvious problems.
I got sick of the game and gave up before the brass gave up.

Admittedly this was merely a 30-30.
But it was a conversion in a 12 Gauge Baikal and the chamber was cut with a reamer I had made myself.

One day when I am bored ( hardly likely ) I might do a full destruction test on one of my Converted Baikals.

I have 9 break action center fire rifles and 8 of them are in high pressure rounds and brass stretch is not an issue with any of them.
Inside neck thickness is important with my 222R and 6.5x65R.
But this is due to Bertram 222R brass being overly thick. Inside neck reaming has solved this.
And the K95 6.5x65R creates doughnuts in the inside neck base which expands the neck when a bullet is seated. Easy fix also with inside neck reaming.
All these calibers are RIMMED CASES except for a Contender 6.8 SPC so that might be an important consideration.

Spacing off the rim means the case isn't forced forward by the firing pin, to ignite and grip the chamber and stretch back to the breech face