Got my new Savage 12BVSS-S in .223 to the range yesterday. All was fine until about round 40, which didn't chamber all the way, sticking back into the chamber about .25" and preventing the bolt from closing. Had one hell of a time slapping the bolt open to take it out.

The cartridge is still stuck and I'm leery of really banging at it, so off to a smith I suppose. What normally would account for this? I was shooting handloads which were all full-length sized and bullets seated to a COL of 2.26." Of course, a bad one could have slipped through, but are there other possible reasons for this? Don't want a repeat of this.

The smith is a fine idea.. he'll take the barrel off and pull the round.

dunno on the future it holds

jeffe

Bob, lot's of possibilities here. If you have gotten it to a smith, I'd leave it to him, but a couple of thoughts. I had a buddy have a similar thing happen to him with a .243 and the culprit was a piece of debris, we think it was plastic from the shell holder in the factory ammo box, and it seized/melted to the side of the chamber when he started to close the bolt.

I don't know if it was retarded or not, but we had a hardwood dowel (smaller than .243 cal. obviously) and we tapped on it with a small brass hammer until the round dislodged. We had pulled the bolt and it actually wouldn't budge, so we took the spring and pin out of the bolt and then tapped the whole system out, when the bolt got to the extractor the round ejected as it would normally.

Another possible cause might be that you had a case get through your 'process' without getting sized and it was just large enough to get stuck. If it was a round that had been fire formjed in that rifle though than obviously that shouldn't be the case.

At any rate, perhaps others will chime in, but if your rifle isn't to the smith yet I don't think it is that risky to try and TAP it out, but I am absolutely not an expert, and I suppose it might be more prudent to actuall tap on the bolt as opposed to what me and my friend did with the dowell.

Good Luck and be careful--Don

Sounds like the case may not have been fully resized or resized at all. I made the stupid mistake of checking the COL in a friend's rifle with a fired brass from my gun and the thing jammed before the bolt would close. I managed to release the extractor to get the bolt out and beat the case out from the muzzle with a cleaning rod. I then resized it and it chambered fine afterwards.

Brass has a thermal expansion rate that is much faster than steel...so rapid cooling can sometimes free a stuck case.

You can remove the barreled action from the stock and stick it in the freezer for a bit...or you can use a spray can of freon (get it at an auto parts store) to rapidly get the case cold.

Most times they will come free on there own, and other times with a very slight tap from a cleaning rod down the bore.

DO NOT POUND ON A BULLET WITH A ROD IN THE BARREL ON A LIVE ROUND!!! This has been done at a match and the round ignited and caused serious injury. If you succeed in pounding the bullet back into the case remember that the powder is pressure sensitive and could ignite!

Who said anything about “pounding†on anything? I said a “slight tap.â€

quote:

Originally posted by Old Elk Hunter:
DO NOT POUND ON A BULLET WITH A ROD IN THE BARREL ON A LIVE ROUND!!! This has been done at a match and the round ignited and caused serious injury. If you succeed in pounding the bullet back into the case remember that the powder is pressure sensitive and could ignite!

As I recall, the injury was caused by the cartridge case, not the bullet!

At least one person has been killed in Aust. when someone tapped a loaded round out from the muzzel end.
The bolt was out and the case blew out of the action and hit someone in the stomach and killed them.
JL.

I just had a similar problem caused by riveting the shoulder when crimping. One 8 Mauser round got through with a neck way too long and I didn't notice the expanded shoulder when I filled the magazine.

most often this is caused by a bulge in the foreward end of the case just behind the neck. The bulge is from not chamfering the case neck and the bullet can push the neck back in seating and cause a small bulge. This is easy to do and if you watch for it you can catch it quickly.

The darn things will definitely jam in the chamber and any attempt to push it with the bolt makes it worse.

It's happened to me a couple times but not since I discovered what caused it.