Thanks for the input everyone.
I've called ten gunsmiths in a 30 mile radius of my house and no one has the tools on hand to check headspace for this pistol. I will keep trying until I find the right gunsmith. No worries, since I'm having problems Ill get it checked out.
About the gages that I'm using, they are rented from
Elk Ridge Reamer Rentals. This is a company that specializes in renting tools to gunsmiths so I have to assume that they are correct. (Imagine the liability of shipping bad gages.) They appear to be milled steel in roughly the shape of a round. The are hand engraved: "30 Luger GO PPG 3.00" and "30 Luger NO.GO PPG 3.00".
I am using page 28 of this as a guide:
http://www.saami.org/Publications/205.pdf
These are hard to measure, but distance from the rear of the gage to the beginning of the necks are: (See photo)
GO - 16.32mm
NO GO - 16.59mm
According to the SAAMI document, for a shell this distance is 15.893mm. Is that difference the required headspace?
I don't have any ammo for this. If FedEx is to believed, that will change Tuesday. I have to say though, that I am not comfortable using live ammo to test anything. I have Zoom snap caps for this purpose for the other firearms but am unable to find them in this caliber. I'll see if I can talk a reloader into making me some dummy rounds.