George,
Since you brought up unsafe firearms and I just happened to buy one that I have no idea if it is safe or not, I thought I would jump in here. It is a Spanish FR8 I was wondering if you could give me a ballpark figure for what adjusting the headspace on this rifle would cost. Standard large ring Mauser action with that funky 7.62 barrel the Spanish put on it. The dealer that I bought it at had it tagged as a "noneshooter 8mm parts gun" and said the headspace was way off. Didn't ask if it was off for 8 or for 7.62, at his price of $50 I figured I could either get it fixed, or just keep it the way it is for decor. It is in very good condition, and the bore looks good. I am going to do some more checking around here to see if I can locate a decent smith that I trust to do it, but so far I have found nobody that I would even trust to clean a gun let alone do this.
By the way, what do you think of checking headspace the way that the Gunplumber over on the FAL board (Mark at Arizona Response Systems) tell FAL builders to with a match cartridge and masking tape applied to the base as a gauge?
Thanks in advance
bergie