Brass stuck in chamber...

I'm trying to understand how a piece of case; 1/3 of the circumference of the chamber gets stuck halfway down the chamber. If a case broke off, where's the rest of it? If it came halfway out it shouldn't be stuck. If a fingernail sized segment of a case somehow managed to break out of the side of the case, (not that I've even heard of such a thing) what's holding it there? If you stuck a 1/3 of a hula hoop inside another hula hoop it would fall off. It just doesn't add up unless there is something horrible holding it on.

How's this for complete and total speculation? Would it be possible to cram a 38-40 cartridge (or some equally ancient rimmed handgun cartridge) in a 38-55? That could lead to some interesting activity halfway down the chamber.
 
I'm with dogleg on this one.

Either the description is incorrect or for some reason a piece of the case sidewall is frozen to the chamber.

I've only seen that happen once and it was on a Trapdoor 1873 Springfield clone, made by H&R.

The rifle had been used exclusively with black powder and the owner decided to use a half dozen grains of HS6 over the primer to get a cleaner burn with less fouling residue left behind. All went well. Then he had a similar issue, one side of the case, about a centimeter in length stayed behind when the case was extracted.

We had to pull the barrel so we could get at it. A separated case tool wouldn't catch it. That piece of brass was quite literally welded to the side of the chamber.

As tiriag mentioned, we made up a brass tool to knock it free.

No, it wasn't chisel shaped. It doesn't take much to mark up a chamber. If the piece the OP is talking about is in there because of old black powder fouling and has been for decades it's not coming out easily.

The brass tool we made up was .010 thou over the normal factory spec for the 45-70 case and about a foot long, so we could tap it with a hammer once the edge reached the base of the offending bit.

The full round was necessary so the "punch" wouldn't slide off and make removal even more difficult.

The "punch" fit the chamber tightly where the piece was stuck and when it was given a couple of progressively heavy taps the piece broke loose. The area of the chamber it had stuck to had a BP fouling build up as well as a bit of roughness, likely from the BP fouling from a few thousand rounds.

The 38-55 cartridge was originally a BP cartridge and there is a good chance a very similar thing happened.

OP, without seeing your particular rifle, it may have substantial value and be well worth taking to a proper gunsmith and having the offending bit of brass properly removed or you may just end up having to source a new barrel or have the chamber sleeved and recut.

TURF THE LIBERALS IN 2019
 
I like Guntech’s suggestion of using a tap turned into it but add a cut off case with 1/3 side cut away to fit past the obstruction. It should support the tap on the opposite side of the chamber and allow it to “bite” into the broken piece.
 
If all else fails take it to a smith ,saving money may cost money in the end.
 
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cold spray

ht tps://www.amazon.ca/MG-Chemicals-Super-HFO-1234ZE-Aerosol/dp/B07CCHPC1R/ref=sr_1_50?ie=UTF8&qid=1533492977&sr=8-50&keywords=mg+chemicals
 
Take a 38-55 case, lube it well and run it into a sizer die to give it a bit more taper - a 303 Brit might be about right.

The idea is to run the new case into the piece of brass and have it stick there. Then put a vice grip on the new brass and tap it out of the chamber.

I have done this in various calibers and it works every time.

First, I soak the chamber in kroil, to help loosen the gunge.

Then I carefully de-grease the inside of the old stuck brass. Then I smear something like Devcon or JB Weld on the new brass and tap it into the old brass.

Then the epoxy has cured, it is easy to get it all out.
 
So far I’ve figured out Kroil is hard to get and freaking expensive.
When I find a minute I’ll take a picture on my bore cam and post it (warning, it’s very poor resolutio).
Thanks for all the ideas though, I can’t wait to try them.
 
To get rid of an unreachable piece of brass, I would try phosphoric acid. Easy find at beer brewing dealers ( STARSAN) ist at 50% in the container. Steel will be safe as long it has cupper to play with. Then it has to be neutralised.
 
A long overdue update and conclusion to this dilemma:
So I tried a few of the suggestions here and had no luck.
Beyond my better judgement I ordered a finishing chamber reamer and got the correct pilot from the chamber casting I made.
It was a lengthy wait as it wasn’t on the shelf, but I’m to busy so no big deal.
So I carefully cut the offending protrusion out only to discover it was a small portion of the chamberwall that Flaked off (poor metallurgy or a flaw in the steel I’m guessing).
I was left with a chamber with a small pocket in it. Not good.
So I relegated it to wall hanger status but the curiosity in me demanded “I wonder what will happen if...” and seeing I had some factory ammo that came with it and figured why not shoot it (if it was a higher pressure cartridge I would not have done this).
The chamber flaw appeared small and isolated so I figured it was safe enough but the first firing was one handed at arms reach off the bags (with all the PPE normally used).
It went bang but I could only cycle the bolt a minimal amount, the brass expanded and filled the divot...
So I wrapped a piece of ready rod in tape and with hammer in hand got it open.
Never one to stop in the face of adversity I loaded it up and shot 4 more through it and while the lever was hard it did operate and function.
So what to do?
I was past my budget already and didn’t think any acceptable repair was cost effective. So I deemed it a wall hanger that I can’t do much worse with.
That’s when I ordered the Devcon steel epoxy.
So I cleaned the chamber of all oils and epoxied the divot, gave it a week to set up then reamed it out and finished honed it to 600 grit.
While it was apart I carefully went through the rest of the action and honed any burrs, removed a century of solidified oil, cleaned it up reassembled it for the final time.
I took it to the range and so far it functioned smooth, operated perfectly, ejected the shells easily and the brass appears perfect as does the epoxy.
How long will it last, no idea.
Not really concerned at this point as I’ve deemed it essentially a wall hanger, albeit one the functions.
Pics of the brass prior to repair;
tgwKW5R.jpg

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Picture of the repaired chamber (the dark area is the Devcon, but hard to see);
4TolvYG.jpg


My new wall hanger;
RlJ0nVz.jpg
 
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Thanks for the update. It's nice to hear what you came up with.

That's an interesting approach to epoxy up the divot... I'm not a materials expert but I suspect that might actually be a pretty effective repair with the quality of some modern epoxies now-a-days.
 
vagrantviking said:
That's an interesting approach to epoxy up the divot... I'm not a materials expert but I suspect that might actually be a pretty effective repair with the quality of some modern epoxies now-a-days.
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not...
I don’t plan on using it much and only light loads at the range so maybe (?).
If it fails I’ll update this post, if not in a year will update it as well (assuming I can remember this, lol).
 
wasrupzuk said:
No, not into the expense.
Plus to remove the area in question almost an inch would have to go, this would require magazine shortening and the whole operation would be obviously visible (might as well rebarrel).
Click to expand...

With some time and fiddle-farting around, I would likely consider a section of sleeve in to the chamber area, sweated in place with solder.

I know there are a couple outfits States-side that will reline a barrel like that, too, done so that the liner is essentially invisible. Should we ever get to a point where we are treated like adults again, and able to ship old guns back and forth for work without the blessings of seven different gods, that might be a decent option to consider. Dunno what the paperwork to do it privately looks like these days.

Seems a pretty benign fix. Worst case of failure is like to be more of what you started with.
 
I would consider the gun a wall hanger , The big issue to my thinking is what is behind the divot that came out? Is this the tip of the iceberg in crack land, and an immanent catastrophic failure of exploding steel about to happen on the next firing, and what about anyone near you when steel starts flying.

I think you are right to hang it on the wall, but what about after you are gone and some unsuspecting person gets it when the estate is sold to bury you?? You might want to make it impossible to shoot.
 
Interested to know how you make out with this one. Be sure to tell. Good luck. The only thing I could bring to the table is maybe soak in some oil and get a little heat on it.
 
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