Here's a question to ponder. A few years back I got hornswoggled into going hunting with a borrowed .243 Winchester M-70, including borrowed handloads. Opening morning after hiking about 2 hours up into the mountains I jumped a nice mule deer buck. As he started bouncing up the mountain ahead of me, I aimed and fired. Only problem was, instead of a boom, all I heard was FFTThhhhhhtttttt.

I forgot the deer and pulled the bolt to check my barrel. Sure enough, the bullet was lodged about a foot up the bore. My only "tool" was a large hunting knife which I was sorely tempted to use on the guy who loaned me the rifle and sloppy reloads.

What would you do? Wrap the rifle around a tree? Wrap the rifle around the owner's head? Hike 2 hours back down to the camp where he "thinks" he has a ramrod? Or just keep walking when you reach camp and go join a circus somewhere?

The challenge is how would you deal with this problem? (Answer to follow later)

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A well placed bullet is worth 1,000 ft/lbs of energy.

I wouldn't have borrowed the rifle let alone the reloads, so I would never have this problem.

Would have to agree with Ultramag on this one, anytime you pull the trigger on an unknown handload, your playing with more fire then I would like to deal with. Hunting is alot of work as well as a huge investment in time and money, don't bet it all on a borrowed rifle and ammo.

Good Hunting!!

50

Being a bit of a hot head, I would probly pick all of the above. Head, tree,long walk to join the circus
It's to bad your friends hand loads didn't go off. This is why I all ways hunt with my own hand loads in my gun. I have never had one go FFFFFFffffttttttt, but if I do I have no one to blame but me!
Hope it didn't ruin you on hunting all together. I seem to remember you saying in another thread you don't hunt. Is this incident why?
X-Ring

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Sinner, saved by God's unfailing grace!

Tell me again you did this because.....

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Handgun Hunter
LOVE THOSE .41s'

Maybe you should wrap the barrel around the guy who borrowed a rifle and loads of unknown quaility. ??????

Good luck and good shooting

Your dam lucky to have had a rifle let alone ammo. I keep a couple of old beat up mil suplus stuff around for guys to browwow. If you want better preformance get your own. So were you kind enough to remove the bullet with out ruining the barrel or were you ungratful and just give it back to him.

Gee guys! I didn't expect to be attacked and ripped to shreds just for asking a simple question here? But I guess attacking the messenger was easier than solving the problem...which was the point of this thread.

As for borrowing the rifle, sure I've got my own, but at the time of this incident, the situation was either hunt with what is handed with you or stay home. I took the .243, even though I've never liked them and I reckon most of you would have gone on the hunt as well.

THE ANSWER to this little hunting delima I found myself in, i.e. a bullet lodged in the barrel a long way from camp, was not as difficult to solve as one might think. Using what we had with us, we managed to wiggle, cuss and coherse a bullet from another .243 cartridge. Then we simply loaded the case WITHOUT THE BULLET into the gun, pointed it up to keep the powder where it belonged and shot the offending projectile out. Worked like a charm. And no it wasn't my clever idea. My brother came up with it. This trick may sound a bit spooky, but I've seen it employed a couple more times over my career and it's no big thing.

Anyhow, just thought MAYBE this nutty little trick might help somebody someday.

Oh X-Ring, yes, I still hunt although not anything like I used too. Time, age and opportunity catch up with all of us, I'm afraid.

OK, I'll hush and everyone can go back to telling me what a dumbass I was to hunt with a borrowed rifle.

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A well placed bullet is worth 1,000 ft/lbs of energy.

I try not to say stuff like this but I would be angry also at not getting the game.

How about loading another round in the rifle, securing it, and setting it off from a distance with your tow rope!

Pecos45:
These guys are being too hard an you. I have loaded tons of ammunition for other guys and never had a failure. More than likely, some of your critics here have done it also. It is however, my practice to NOT shoot someone elses handloads if I know the person or not. When it comes to hand loads I only trust ME. I pull the bullets,primers and powder and burn the powder (which is always fun). Reload cases with my own powder and primers. Reuse bullets for target practice. As far as the rifle goes, I have loaned rifles to people I've hunted with. With the stipulation they come to the range to become familure with it. Mostly just to see if they can hit something and operate it safely. I figure that some who wants to hunt but doesn't have a gun is probably a novice and the utmost scrutiny is in order. This may not be true in your case but it is my experience to be true. Sometimes the best lessons are the hardest.

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From my cold, dead hands!
Thanks Chuck!

While you got he bullet out - IMHO - that was one very dangerous way to do it. I wouldn't recomend any one else try that. The bullet was essentially lodged in the lands - no throat to get a running start. Lord only knows what the pressure curve looked like.

Trigger, I think since the bullet was already started up the barrel the pressure might not be like a long round jammed into the rifling. I think it was a kinda neat trick. 'Course I'd let my bro pull the trigger.............

I have from time to time loaned a rifle to someone to hunt with, all I ask is that they bring it back in the same condition, except for cleaning, it was in when I loaned it. They can use my handloads or buy their own. Since my handloads always work for me I assume they will also work for them. If I were to borrow a rifle, I would rather use my handlods, unless I fully trust the rifle's owner.

Otto, I agree with your sentiment about borrowing guns/ammo etc. However, the group in question for this story were all relations who knew each other's capability, weapons and had hunted together extensively. I apologize if I gave another impression to anyone. This wasn't exactly like I just walked up to some guys on a street corner. This dud round of ammo was just one of those flukes for whatever reason.

Trigger, Beeman is quite right is his assessment of the "hazards" of this trick.
When you think about it, you have a bullet lodged half way up the barrel with the charged rifle case 8 or 10" below the thing, what you have done in effect is greatly REDUCE the load density of the round. Pressure was actually quite low, rather than going sky high.

And this early experience taught me another good lesson I've employed since. When I am going on a serious hunt, I take EXTRA pains loading and visually checking powder charge etc, and even making sure the rounds feed thru the rifle flawlessly. A penny's worth of extra preparation can surely save a pound's worth of trouble down the road.

We all forget things. In fact, a couple years later I found a Remington 222 RIFLE sitting on top of a mountain some excited hunter must have forgotten. It don't get much worse than that!

I've walked into work a few times with my pants unzipped, but so far I haven't forgotten a rifle or pistol. (Knock on wood.) Come to think of it, I'd rather walk into work without my pants than forget a gun!

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A well placed bullet is worth 1,000 ft/lbs of energy.

Pecos
I too think everybody is being to hard on you. I have loaned my guns to freinds and family to hunt with and also borrowed a gun when necessary. One of the lessons I have learned in 30+ years of hunting is Murphy was a optimist. Things can and will go wrong at the worst possible moment. When something does go wrong, fix the problem and continue on hunting even if you lose a day of hunting. Years later you will look back at these problems and laugh. It will probably be the best memory of the whole trip!

Is this a trick question? I was thinking that "joining the circus" thing sounded kinda neat.
I keep a couple of rifles for my kids to use and friends from out of town, and I handload every round of ammo that goes through my guns, so they would be stuck with my handiwork.(haven't had a problem yet)
Hey, what the heck, mistakes happen and even trusted friends, as well as factory ammo, can be wrong once in awhile. No harm was done and a valuable lesson was learned. Personally, I think I would shake each shell to see if it had powder in it, and take a little time to see if the rifle is sighted in for me.
Hope you at least gave the guy a good ribbing - every time you see him for the rest of his life! - Sheister

Got into this thread a bit late, but I'll offer my 0.02...

I don't know, but the only FFFFFFhhhht! I've ever heard while hunting is the cow standing on the other side of the stock pond behind me....

TXLoader

The bullet was a foot up the bore and you got it out how?? That is equal to an obstructed bore, and you are very lucky no one got their head blown off. I would have hoped that someone had brought a cleaning rod with them and you would have been able to pound it out with it. Please, don't EVER, I mean EVER let someone talk you into letting them do that again. And to prove that there are no absolutes in life, it could have been done if the load was greatly reduced, but still at a risk. I learned the hard way to always bring a cleaning rod to camp years ago.
Be careful out there.

Good luck and good shooting