Bullet jammed in barrel

bigedp51 said:
If you try to shoot the stuck bullet out you risk the chance of a bulged barrel, I'm not questioning Ganderite's advice but this same procedure has resulted in bulged barrels in the past.

The powder charge would depend on where the bullet is stuck and how thick the barrel is at this point. Meaning there is a reason why the chamber has the thickest metal surrounding it and where the peak pressure develops.

Do you use a quick burning powder like trail Boss or a slow power like H4831?

Below is my practice load for my AR15 rifles and the pressure peaks at three inches down the barrel.

288_zps26698a67.jpg


Below is my lite practice load for my .44 magnum and the pressure peaks at less than 1 1/2 inches down the barrel.

fastpowder_zps6bd696c6.jpg


So my question is at what chamber pressure and at what point down the barrel is safe to shoot a stuck bullet. Meaning at what point do you want to reach peak pressure and also "how" much pressure.

I was too chicken to try this and shoot out the bullet and just used a brass rod to pound out the bullet.
Click to expand...

Glad you were able to remove your sqib.


The only time you will bulge a barrel "shooting a squib out" is if you use a loaded round (with a projectile) to remove it.....

What ganderite is talking about is a charged case, with a slightly reduced charge to "push" the projectile out if the bore.....

This will result in a lower pressure situation every single time, not an increase. As the effective chamber dimensions are quite a bit larger than an enclosed cartridge case.

I myself have done this numerous times, for friends, clients and for myself. Never an issue.
 
An update to the story:

I brought it to one of my local gunatoriums this afternoon and we managed to get the bullet out. We quickly lathed down a steel rod to the correct bore diameter -- we wanted to avoid mushrooming the bullet and make as much contact with it as possible -- and cut it down to about two inches in length and slid it down the barrel. We then took a longer steel rod that we placed down the barrel after the short piece of steel rod. With a heavy hammer we gave it a couple of good wacks and the bullet came out.

There was no damage to the barrel -- thank God.
 
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...
A light load to pop it out easily enough, No pressure issue due to the space/ maybe a little wadding to hold the powder in
 
The replies saying that the primer fired are quite correct. When you have clumped, discolored powder, the primer has fired. As mentioned, this can happen with very light loads, but also can happen with spoiled powder, like when the powder has been exposed to air for a length of time letting the solvent evaporate out of it.
 
Droopy78 said:
Out of curiosity. Why the short piece and not just the long piece?
Click to expand...

The long piece was a little thin and we were worried that it would pierce the tip of the bullet and then mushroom it out, making it that much harder to knock it out. We had a short length of steel rod that was a bit thicker than the bore so we lathed it down to the correct diameter so that it wouldn't pierce the tip. Seemed to work.

Fargone4sure said:
The replies saying that the primer fired are quite correct. When you have clumped, discolored powder, the primer has fired. As mentioned, this can happen with very light loads, but also can happen with spoiled powder, like when the powder has been exposed to air for a length of time letting the solvent evaporate out of it.
Click to expand...

My suspicion is the powder was contaminated.
 
Ed Smurf said:
"the powder that was inside the brass was clumped and yellow."
I am not a reloader, but what powder is yellow?
Click to expand...


Fired primer without total ignition is a RPITA and one that I've suffered here in yUK with Fiocchi primers, bought as a stop-gap when there was a hiccup in the delivery of the usual CCI #200 that I use. Sixty misfires out of a hundred 45-70 Govt cartridges makes for a pretty ruined day shooting, specially as I'd travelled over 500km to do it.

tac
 
Last edited:
When this happened to me, I got a length of 1/4" steel rod, deburred the ends, and used scotch tape at three points on the rod to bring the diameter up to a slip fit. The taped sections act as guides to prevent steel-on steel contact. If the bullet is just lodged in the throat, simply dropping the rod down the bore from the muzzle will usually dislodge it. If it has gone further, hammering will be required.

If you are using surplus bullets from 7.62x39 in your .303, make sure your sizing die is giving you enough neck tension. They are typically .310" instead of .311" or .312" normally used for bullets intended for the .303. If the bullet is not held securely by the neck, it may not be able to build up sufficient pressure and will stick in the bore.
 
Last edited:
Incidentally, there was another reason why we used a short piece of rod that we hit with another. The short piece served as a pusher of the bullet. It's like using a hammer to hit another hammer hitting a nail. The hammer being struck is pushing the nail rather than simply hammering it.

I don't know if that makes sense but it was also to avoid piercing or mushrooming the bullet (a worry as it was a soft rounded tip).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom