Put a neck sized only reload from one rifle into a different rifle and it's stuck good in the chamber (duh). 223 40 gr Nosler BT in a Savage 10FP. Tried dropping a cleaning rod down the tube with no luck. Any sure fire solutions to try. Never had this before.

Dave

If the round is FULLY chambered and the bolt will lock fire it. The case will form to the new chamber and extract. If the round isn`t fully chambered and the bolt won`t lock take it to a smith.

Rifleman---

The barrel has to be pulled and the case taken out.

NEVER shoot a hard chambering round unless you KNOW *why* it chambered hard.

The cleaning rod is a BAD idea. There have been several deaths and many serious injuries caused by compression firing.

JBelk, I stand corrected. I was "assuming" the cause was Known.

Thanks for the quick responses guys, away to the smith I guess.

Dave

Dave,

Check your private messages...

Dan

J.Belk's response concerning compression firings interests me. Somewhere I read that the solution for stuck cases is to hammer them out using a cleaning rod or wooden dowel inserted from the muzzle. The only cautionary words I recall involved placing some cloth or tissue in front of the bolt face so the cartridge doesn't detonate when it comes flying out. It wasn't long after I read this that I made the same mistake as this fellow - put a reload in the wrong rifle - and used this method successfully.

What is a compression firing? Is is from sudden, violent compression of the propellant? A co-worker of mine lost an index finger as a kid making a 4th of July bomb out of two bolts and a nut - screw one bolt in part way, pack gun powder into the nut, then screw the other bolt in from the other side until tight. Go to a parking lot and toss the thing as high as you can and watch it go boom when it lands on end. The hobby ended when one went off on that last hard wrench turn of the second bolt. But until I read Mr. Belk's post, I'd always assumed my friend had been using black powder and that smokeless propellant wouldn't do this. Is this the kind of thing you're talking about when you mention compression firing?

I suggest removing bolt if taking to a smith.It would be classed as a loaded rifle here in the UK so be careful..

Here's how I did it when I was smithing.

Helps a lot to know what you are dealing with. Get another cartridge from the same batch and pull the bullet. If there is a reasonable amount of air space in the case, you are in luck.

Shoot some WD-40 down the bore and let sit and hour. Pull barrelled action from stock and bolt from action. Pad barrel and put in vise. (I used a barrel vise. Slide the largest diameter piece of drill rod that is an easy fit down the bore. Mark length of drill rod about an inch from the muzzle when the rod touches the bullet.

Tap on rod, don't bang, but tap. Three times out of five the case will come out. The other two the bullet will move back into the case. STOP!

Take gun out of the vise and stand it up in the corner. Squirt a LOT of WD-40 down the barrel and wait a week. (WD-40 is a fantastic primer and powder killer and this is the only time it should be allowed anywhere near your ammo.)

After the week, put the barrel back into the vise and pack sandbags around the action. Slide the drill rod back down the bore. Cut it off if you need to so that only about 3 inches protrude. Bang hard with a brass hammer.

I never had one blow on me, but I am convinced that the case head would have blown and the fragments been caught by the sandbags.

I charged $25 for that, easy or hard. Were I smithing for pay now, it would be $50 and maybe more.

Running a rod down a barrel from the muzzle to remove a stuck round here in Western Australia will get you thrown out of any competition immediately and probably off the range as well (if caught).

Rounds can and have gone "kablooey" when this was attempted.

Take it to a gunsmith.

[ 11-04-2002, 10:58: Message edited by: BIWOZ ]

I think if you take it to a 'smith, he'll do what leftoverdj just described, or something a helluva lot like that...

LODJ's method sounds reasonable to me... He asks you to first check another round to make sure you're not dealing with a compressed load.

You then run a caliber sized rod down the bore, and put a reference mark on the rod so that you can tell when it moves deeper.

If the rod does move deeper and the case doesn't come out, that simply means that the bullet has been driven into the case. With any spitzer type bullet, if you drive the point of that bullet to a level flush with the case mouth, it will likely fall into the case, leaving the powder charge and primer totally exposed to the penetrating oil.

If a penetrating oil is allowed to sit for a week, soaking into the powder and primer, I think the chances of the cartridge going off are extremely remote.

And in that one chance in a million, the case head would be the weakest point. It would rupture, sending the blast into the sandbags.

Overall a good idea. ...

Dan

Thank you, Dan.

I am often right, but seldom acknowleged.

I'm going to try and keep this short, but may be difficult to do.

First of all thanks for all the replies and help. I learned 2 lessons here. One, don't try to put neck sized only cartridges from one rifle into a 2nd rifle. Two, when a cartridge doesn't go into the chamber immediately, stop pushing it. I did both. It seemed so close to in all the way, but wouldn't go that last little bit. So, it was REALLY stuck.

It was a compressed load with little or no free space, 27.3 gr of Varget.

I ended up taking it to a gunsmith that I know from my high school days, and he had a tough time getting it out. Yep, $50.00 bucks was to price. He had to take the barrel off in the end.

A lesson for many beginning handloaders is in here.

As I was trying to get it out, I came to the conclusion that one of three things were going to happen. 1. I'd get the cartridge out. 2. I'd ruin the chamber or barrel getting it out. 3. I'd kill myself with an exploding cartridge.

I'll keep all your replies in mind in the future if I get a "lightly" stuck cartridge.

Thanks

Dave