I proposed (on GGVG board) to someone who didn't powder a case and the primer just lodged the bullet in the barrel that
he could just chamber a BULLET-LESS loaded case and fire it out. maybe even dumping out a little powder first.

I was warned that the extra volume or light load could create a pressure spike and blow up the barrel.

Can someone explain the mechanics of this?

I was under the impression that a flamefront travels faster under greater pressure, and slower under less.
-So I would have thought that having more empty volume would result in a slower burn and even lower pressures.

I do see, with a very light weight tapered barrel, that the pressures might be a bit high for the barrel if the bullet was lodged near the end.
but even that seems like a stretch.

Thanks

You probably won't blow up the barrel but you will surely ring it (air cushion between gases and bullet = barrel obstruction). In both cases the barrel will be gone. Don't do it and push/tap out that lodged bullet with a cleaning rod, being careful not to nick the muzzle.

NONESENSE On THREE seperate occasions I have seen bullets fired out of rifles by a bulletless cartridge. A slight amout of powder was dumped, but I frankly do not believe this is necessary.

On all three occasions, there were no ill effects to the gun whatsoever. Nor were there any signs of high pressure.

The notion this is going to blow up or "ring" a rifle barrel is absurd. LONG BEFORE any dangerous pressures are reached, the bullet will start moving down the barrel as always. This airspace does NOT constitute an obstruction for the simple reason air can be compressed. If the barrel were full of oil or water between the case and the bullet, substances which cannot be compressed for all practical purposes, then you might have a case for danger.

This is no different from seating a bullet a little long in the case.

But, let me tell you a story of a jacketed bullet I lodged about 12 inches up my rifle barrel that I tried to tap out. I suspect anyone who suggests this silly proceedure to you has never actually "tapped out" a bullet well and truly lodged half way up a barrel.

When it happened to me at about the age of 17 and caused by a dumb reloading mistake I made...rifle was a 30/06 by the way...bullet was 150 gr jacketed soft point........I went and got my cleaning rod with the notion I would "tap" the bullet back out the way it had come.

After a few hard taps with my hand, all I had managed to do was bruise my hand! Next I unscrewed the plastic handle from my cleaning rod and got a hammer and began "tapping" on the bullet with the hammer. Ultimately I was POUNDING on the cleaning rod with the hammer before things SEEMED to start moving. But after a few such hard blows, something didn't seem right and I pulled the cleaning rod out. To my surprise, all that was moving was the front portion of my cleaning rod! It was mushrooming and collapsing back over the cleaning rod! I had not budged the bullet.

This was going to take something serious! So I drove to my fathers store and found a steel rod small enough to fit in my .30 caliber barrel.
Only by pounding on this STEEL ROD with a hammer was I able to push the bullet back out the barrel.

Now you tell me which proceedure is likely to do more damage to your rifle barrel.

"Tapping" a bullet back out of the barrel IF it has barely left the case and engaged the rifling is one thing. (And you may ruin a cleaning rod in the process.) But driving a jacketed bullet firmly lodged half-way down the barrel is a horse of a different color! You will not believe the force it takes to beat it back out.

I'll gladly shoot them out!

In other words, Sergi, what you are worrying about happening will never happen. There HAVE been a few strange incidents of certain rifle cartridges seeming to "detonate" when fired with reduced loads...but it has been such an illusive phenomenon that to my knowledge, no one has ever been able to duplicate it in labs tests. Makes one wonder if these instances were actually "double charges" rather than reduced loads.

Hope this helps.

[ 06-13-2002, 22:44: Message edited by: Pecos45 ]