Ruger 77 357 bullet stuck in barrel

A-zone said:
"light load" + Jacketed bullet +long barrel = problem

Three things come to mind, First: jacketed bullets produce significantly more resistance going through a barrel than do lead bullets.

Second: why the light load? You're shooting it in a rifle, so there's a so much longer barrel (and more friction) to overcome than in a revolver. Deliberately choosing a light load and combining it with a jacketed bullet is simply inviting trouble ("do it yourself" barrel obstruction). (People get bullets stuck in pistol barrels. You are dealing with a way longer barrel and thus, way more friction).

Lastly: Is it possible that you inadvertently neglected to charge the case? (a squib).
Many years ago, I picked up a Ruger P85 from a guy who was new to handloading and didn't have a method for ensuring that all of his cases contained powder. One of his squibs was followed by a normal cartridge and led to a bulged barrel. (he was shooting lead bullets).

The simple, "no fail" fix, (shared with me by an old mentor): put all of your primed cases upside-down in one loading block (on your left) and, once you have charged them with powder, set them into another loading block, on your right. You will never have a mix-up leading to a "no powder" squib.

You've got a nice little rifle. No need to baby it with powderpuff loads.
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My 45 yrs of reloading & shooting 10's of thousands of light .38 loads (both lead & jacketed) in rifles don't agree with that "theory". By light load I mean 600 to 650 fps. with many different powders used over the years.

I have cleared a few "squib" bullets for shooters at match's, both jacketed & cast...once the rifling is engraved in the bullet there is very little difference in the amount of effort needed to remove either slug (in the OP's own words he "tapped" the bullet free) from a rifle length or pistol length barrel . When slugging a bore with pure lead, once the rifling is engraved in the slug, it can literally be pushed through with very little effort, A harder bullet from wheel weight material & a jacketed bullet tap out with almost the same force required.

Even a very light "Pistol" load will generate 15,000 lbs pressure. this will push any engraveable bullet full length of a rifle barrel, no exceptions ever.

To the OP...your first two loads were quiet in the rifle because of the longer barrel but still had the powder to force exit... The third round simply had no powder, just the primer. With the extra weight of the rifle there probably was no noticeable difference in recoil between the light loads and the squib. The remaining loads you said you shot them through a pistol and they all acted normal...normal recoil in a pistol and in a rifle are two very different things with the very same load. Muzzle blast from a pistol, even with a light load is noticeable, not even a factor with a rifle length barrel. I have a 32-20 rifle that I shoot pistol loads thru it and the hammer striking the firing pin generates more gun movement than the shell going off.

Plain and simple you had a cartridge with no powder
 
Congrats on checking the bore. That is what saved the barrel from a ring, or worse.

Thank you for sharing. This post might prompt someone else to check the bore after a mild shot.

Well done.

4756 is a flake powder. I find that flake powder sometimes bridges in the thrower or the funnel, so a case may not get a full dose. If you use a loading block, it is good practice to scan up and down the rows, looking to see that they all appear to have a similar amount of powder.
 
I run a very light load in my 38spl so I can shoot cowboy. I use it both in my revolvers and my 73 rifle. 3.3gr titegroup vs 4.0 grain min in the loading tables with 130gr LRNFP. I have even gone as low as 3.1gr and never had a problem. The rifle is good for both 38 and 357. It is hard for me to believe that it is rifle related. May be the specific type of bullet or maybe a bit light on the powder. When I am setting up a new reload I find the initial powder weight is often higher than when you have run 10 rounds. My press seems to take a while to settle down so I usually run 20 or so measured powder charges through before I actually start putting bullets in.
 
Bittereinder said:
I never blamed the gun and I don't know where that impression came from.

I used a hand scoop and funnel and checked with a bright flashlight. Like I said earlier, after the two quiet shots and the one that got stuck, I used the rest of the rounds (40 or so) in my revolver and they were pretty consistent. It's possible that I mistakenly put too light a scoop in three of the rounds, but it's highly unlikely that those three happened to be the ones I put in the rifle.

Now, if it's true that ANY 357 load, done properly, from a reputable source, has GOT to push any bullet at least 20 inches, then I suppose I must have loaded those three too lightly. I can't say that's impossible, but it's unlikely as explained above.
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If you are using the little yellow scoops that come with lee dies that could be your problem. They can be used to measure powder accurately but they also are finicky. If you didn't weigh a couple of loads you could be really light and not know it.
 
Fingers284: do you remember Speer half-jacket pistol bullets? They used to include a manufacturer's warning for handloaders not to use light loads due to the risk of jacket separation within the bore and the consequent stuck jacket. (The lesson that sunk in for me as a young handloader in the early 1970's was that a copper jacket creates more resistance in the bore than lead).

My personal experience is that jacketed bullets simply require more energy to engrave the rifling. My personal advice to a novice handloader would be to use a fool-proof technique of charging his primed cases. This would be to avoid the risk of making a squib (which is pretty likely what he produced).

The OP is clearly new to the game and has likely made a simple error in charging his cases. The potentially disastrous consequences of a double-charge with a fast-burning pistol powder (for example, Bullseye) should be reason enough to keep your uncharged cases upside-down in your loading block.

Ringing your barrel or otherwise wrecking your firearm because of a squib is, of course, yet another way to complicate your day.

Hopefully, the OP will apply some of the generous free advice that he has received here and will continue to learn and enjoy his hobby.
 
The OP certainly appreciates all the advice, thanks A-zone and others.

I've read confident assertions from experienced people that it could have been just a primer, or just too low a load. Because I remember checking, I favour the latter explanation. KRJ's guess is bang on. I did use a little yellow scoop, and with that first batch I didn't weigh any. So it's quite possible that the packing of the grains was such that some of the loads, especially the one that caused the stuck bullet, were way too low. If I was using a heavier recipe to begin with, such variations probably wouldn't have had the same effect. I was too close to the edge to begin with, so to speak, and there was no tolerance for a lighter hand scoop on some loads.

Or maybe some of you are right and a primer cap can drive copper 17 inches down the barrel and I missed that one load!
 
A-zone said:
Fingers284: do you remember Speer half-jacket pistol bullets? They used to include a manufacturer's warning for handloaders not to use light loads due to the risk of jacket separation within the bore and the consequent stuck jacket. (The lesson that sunk in for me as a young handloader in the early 1970's was that a copper jacket creates more resistance in the bore than lead).My personal experience is that jacketed bullets simply require more energy to engrave the rifling. My personal advice to a novice handloader would be to use a fool-proof technique of charging his primed cases. This would be to avoid the risk of making a squib (which is pretty likely what he produced).

The OP is clearly new to the game and has likely made a simple error in charging his cases. The potentially disastrous consequences of a double-charge with a fast-burning pistol powder (for example, Bullseye) should be reason enough to keep your uncharged cases upside-down in your loading block.

Ringing your barrel or otherwise wrecking your firearm because of a squib is, of course, yet another way to complicate your day.

Hopefully, the OP will apply some of the generous free advice that he has received here and will continue to learn and enjoy his hobby.
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Sure do remember them, 146 gr FN, shot many hundreds of them in the 70 & 80's. Never could make sense or understand the reasoning behind that warning. The copper jacket had a full coverage base which would be subjected to the full force of the gases. If a 15,000 lb low pressure round would separate or punch the lead core from the copper jacket, a 35,000 lb high pressure round should do the same thing every time a shot is fired. The only way their warning could be a reality is if the bullet base was perforated by the blast and the lead core pushed from the jacket...much more likely to happen at 35,000 than 15,000.

Bullet friction can't have any bearing or effect on their warning as it was written, because without a perforated base the entire bullet would stick fully intact. It is just impossible for the lead core to separate from and continue down the barrel if all the blast pressure is contained /absorbed by the stuck jacket.

Basically everything they claim would happen much more often/readily at a regular pressure load than a low one.

I wish I had a box of those bullets left to run a test on their warning.
 
I wish I had a box of those bullets left to run a test on their warning.
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If I run across an old box of the 146 gr .357"s in my old stuff, I'll let you know! ( I haven't reloaded .357/38 for many years).

Always made me wonder why a manufacturer would place the warning on their product unless they knew that there was a products liability risk...
 
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