Bullet jammed in barrel

GunsNotPuns

GunsNotPuns

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Not many times I can claim something new happened to me but I had my first squib (?) round today.

I took my Lee Enfield No. 1 Mk III out to the range this morning along with some recently reloaded ammunition. On the eighteenth round of the morning I heard a click and....nothing. After giving it a while in case of delayed kaboom I cycled the action and out came the brass case (took marginally but noticeably more effort to extract it than the previous seventeen rounds). The primer was struck but didn't go off and the powder that was inside the brass was clumped and yellow.

At any rate, nothing actually happened but the bullet decided it wanted to stay inside the barrel about two inches in. God Himself couldn't have pounded out that bullet -- or at least I couldn't with a crappy steel cleaning rod and my hand.

So, how do I remove this bloody bullet from the barrel?
 
Try using a length of dowel or brass rod that is close to the same diameter as the bore and tap it out with a hammer.
 
I would recommend locking your rifle on a vice, pour or spray whatever lube you may have down the barrel, let it sit for a few minutes and resume pounding with a stiffer rod and a rubber mallet. It'll come out. Just takes time and elbow grease.
 
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I had a squib for the first time since I started shooting In 1998 hundreds of thousands of rounds down range anyway I used a cleaning rod to gently push it out the muzzle. Takes a bit of pushing especially in a longer barrel like your dealing with.

Try your cleaning rod down from the muzzle and tapping rod of a solid surface ie the concrete and gradually increase your force used

You running reloads or factory rounds?
 
Load more ammo for next visit to the range. Bring with you one primed case and some powder in sealed container with about the same charge of what you were using. At the range charge the empty primed case with powder charge and with rifle pointing up in your left hand carefully insert charged case in to the chamber and close the bolt. Point rifle down range and fire at the target. Check bore after and if clear,
Load more rounds in the mag and blast away
 
You need a wider rod. Something just about the size of the bore that will provide the most surface area and slide right down. The skinny rifle rod probably is catching the side of the bullet. You need to get it right on the tip.

If its 2" in be easier to push it back, then the 22" it needs to travel.
 
Still alive said:
insult removed
Click to expand...

Ah, I miss him.

Jerry Champagne said:
You running reloads or factory rounds?
Click to expand...

Reloads. I have a feeling that I might have contaminated some powder in that particular round. What I don't get is how the primer was solidly struck but there was no detonation. I wonder if the contaminated power also made the primer inert.

gewehr76 said:
Load more ammo for next visit to the range. Bring with you one primed case and some powder in sealed container with about the same charge of what you were using. At the range charge the empty primed case with powder charge and with rifle pointing up in your left hand carefully insert charged case in to the chamber and close the bolt. Point rifle down range and fire at the target. Check bore after and if clear,
Load more rounds in the mag and blast away
Click to expand...

Certainly worth a try.

I did try pounding with my hand, a smaller hammer and the ground but it was no go. I have a feeling, like someone said earlier in this thread, that the rod was too slim to make full contact with the bullet. As I don't have any other rods I'll try gewehr's trick. What's the worst that can happen? (He says...)
 
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Had one in my 223 this summer and freed it with a long length of brass rod I had, probably would buy one larger for next time just in case
 
When I had my business, I had a set of drill rods in graduated diameters, so that I had a rod that would fit most bore sizes. Rigid, polished, straight and a good fit. Usually it doesn't take much force to push a stuck bullet back out with the proper rod. Even something like a steel GI rod should do it.
 
I had to slug a bore years ago to find the diameter on a Martini and I used a Brass rod . go buy a brass rod almost the diameter of your bore and pound it out with a mallet. load more powder next time . it could have been not so nice.
 
Brass rod will work. Likewise straight grained hardwood dowel cut into sections will also work - generally wood dowel isn't stiff enough under .30 cal, but above that it works well. Cutting into 6-12 inch sections reduces likelyhood of it splitting and jamming.
 
Ummm..??....
gewehr76 said:
Load more ammo for next visit to the range. Bring with you one primed case and some powder in sealed container with about the same charge of what you were using. At the range charge the empty primed case with powder charge and with rifle pointing up in your left hand carefully insert charged case in to the chamber and close the bolt. Point rifle down range and fire at the target. Check bore after and if clear,
Load more rounds in the mag and blast away
Click to expand...
 
I tried to use a wooden dowel to slug my Enfield bore. What a mess that made! I ended up with bits of wood jammed all in the bore. I was able to get *most* of it out with a cleaning rod/bronze brush, but even after many passes there was still a big chunk stuck in the rifling right near the middle of the barrel. After much pain trying to remove it without any luck, I finally said #### it and just shot it out (The wood not the lead ball I as using to slug the bore). NOT recommended, and a bit scary to pull the trigger on that one, but it all worked out in the end. Needless to say, I'll be getting a brass rod next time I try to slug a bore.
 
I think what you meant to say was that the primer went off, but did not ignite the powder.

It sounds like something prevented the load from reaching sufficient pressure to ignite the powder. What load were you using?

I've seen this in the 303 British under two different sets of circumstances: when I was using very light loads of H4227; and when I was using a light bullet that had a long jump to the rifling, causing it to pass through a point when the bullet was neither within the neck of the cartridge, not engaged with the rifling.
 
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