[Rustyiron]

I pulled out the new Poly today and started to look over the rifle to see what would need to be changed or fixed to put it in an operational state.
I noticed the guide rod and bolt stop pins will need to be changed.
The flash supressor really must go. I was looking at the bolt and noticed the bolt has a lot of lateral slop/movement. I measured it with my trusty calipers and it will move back and fourth .015. With this information I am guessing the only real fix short of a bolt streaching device is to replace the bolt with a USGI.

I still need to order the HS gauges to verify where it is at now but I am thinking that it is a little on the loose side.

 

[82nd ABN]

The bolt should have some core and aft slop in it. If you plan on changing the bolt to a gi bolt HS gauges are a good idea. I did a conversion on a friends Norinco and his HS initially was pretty short. Only a couple of thousandths. Lapping took care of that, I was speaking to a buddy and he said a lot of the conversions he did the HS was real short like 1.625. Not sure why or what others have experienced.

 

[Gus Fisher]

Before you replace the bolt, I would blacken the rear of the bolt lugs with magic marker. Then put the bolt in the receiver and work the bolt up and down a few times while applying a little rearward pressure on the bolt. Then pull the bolt out and see how much wear is on the rear of both bolt lugs.

After that, you NEED good Headspace Gages BEFORE you go swapping bolts.

If you have good contact on both sides of the rear of the bolt lugs and there is no dinging or obvious distortion of the rear of the bolt lugs, AND the bolt headspaces correctly, you may not need to change the bolt.