Don't have one, merely curious. How far from the chamber does a primer send the bullet down the barrel if you forget the powder? Explain common procedures for removing stuck bullets. I've heard of grease gun method. If you knock out with a rod, what diameter and material for the rod? What lube for bore? I've heard you begin with a heavy hammer. Do you ever drill out bullet in place and pull with a slide hammer? Can you melt lead out without overheating barrel?

Give any info you have on stuck bullet causes, stories and remedies.

Not far. Use drill rod, as big as the bore. Steel. Small rods will bend. You can use brass too if you want. You won't need any lube. Yes, hit it hard. No need to drill it out but I have.
Yes. Lead melts easily and the barrels won't be hurt by heat; remember we solder on them without issue.
Lots of stories; I should write a book, but I don't have time.

How far? Just enough to be really damned annoying! Did it in my .40 when I first started loading. Got a piece of 3/8 copper tube and rammed a drill bit into the center for strength. Works like a charm. Never had it happen in a rifle. If so, see above post.....

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I do enough that I finally built a high pressure grease delivery. No chance of damaging anything that way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fVJP7oYAjc

I was trying out a 358 Win which I had built up and a packet of factory ammo that was probably 20+ years old.

Suddenly one round would not chamber. I kept trying & could not figure it out. Looked at the bore & it was black - no light.

Went home and used a cleaning rod to hammer out the bullet which was wedged tight in the throat - hence a new round would not chamber.

I checked my empties and found that one case was shiny new inside with a fired primer - the factory round had no powder!

To dislodge a throat stuck bullet, or one part way along the barrel, a partly charged case with projectile removed would probably do it. If I was doing it I would first pull the projectile, pour out some of the powder, wedge cotton wool into the neck to contain the remaining powder, take everything outside, insert the bullet-less case into the chamber and fire the rifle aimed at the ground. I'm sure long ago I read this advice somewhere which I thought practical.

Kinda like slugging a bore to retrieve its true caliber..drive it out with a drill rod..from the chamber or the muzzle depending on where the stuck bullet is located, there will be no powder to contend with as it fired by primer force only..If you stick a bullet in the throat because you seated it out too much and it hung on the lands at extraction and pulled the case out with powder going all over the action and magazine, knock it out the same way with a rod, then clean the action of the spillled powder. If you blow a case in half, use a 45 or 50 caliber brush on a rod pushed into the chamber and case and pull, the brush with come out with the case stuck on the brush, it that fails squirt WD40 in the chamber overnight then use a bigger brush..The brush goes in and it pushes all the brass bristles back, the catch coming out and pull the case out.

On my last hunt in South Africa, I had a bullet lodged in the barrel of my .300 Weatherby. The primer went off but did not ignite the powder, but it had enough force to tightly lodge the bullet in the barrel.

No one in camp had a solid cleaning rod, but I found a 1/4" diameter steel/iron welding rod in the maintenance shop.

Before I put the steel rod in my barrel, I put a couple of wraps of black electrical tape around the rod, about every 4". One stiff hit on the rod removed the bullet.

Now I keep a 1/4" x 9" piece of brass rod in the pocket of my soft guncase.

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:
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I do enough that I finally built a high pressure grease delivery. No chance of damaging anything that way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fVJP7oYAjc

That's a pretty impressive video!

quote:

Originally posted by Mark:



That's a pretty impressive video!

I like this one much besterestest Mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fimvzxZTpbU

My only experience with this was when my grandfather asked me to sight in his Rem 22Auto. Said he couldn't hit anything with it and wanted me to give it a try. I set up a target at 25 yards and it was not on the paper. Got down to 10 yards and still no joy. Came down to 10ft and there were holes in the target about 1/8 wide and 1 inch long. Turns out the barrel was so badly leaded that the bullets were extruding out of it.
Took it to a gunsmith who heated the barrel and melted out all the lead. Shot fine after that.

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:
.
I do enough that I finally built a high pressure grease delivery. No chance of damaging anything that way.

https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=6fVJP7oYAjc

I noticed in the video you had a hammer hanging on the lathe. I have always said that gunsmithing is easy, finding the right size hammer is the hard part Kudos on the removal setup.

quote:

Originally posted by Rolland:


I noticed in the video you had a hammer hanging on the lathe. I have always said that gunsmithing is easy, finding the right size hammer is the hard part Kudos on the removal setup.

That machine was set up to run Van Normans early in its life. Later 5Cs and now ER40s. The rawhide hammers are ideal for tightening and loosening the collet nuts. I was always taught that rapping on the collet wrench with iron or brass hammers was a no-no as it was hard on the spindle bearings. 35 years later I still use rawhide hammers for the task. There are a lot of silly machine myths like magnets and air compressors around machines that have turned out to be total BS and today magnetic dial indicators are stuck all over machines and high pressure mist and water systems blast crap all over the place. The soft hammer may just be another machine myth, but it works and like T shirts and glasses it's just become a habit.

Mine is a rubber one for bumping D series chucks loose and such. We have to have myths otherwise we would not have bought all that new nifty stuff to solve a problem that never existed.

quote:

Originally posted by Rolland:
Mine is a rubber one for bumping D series chucks loose and such. We have to have myths otherwise we would not have bought all that new nifty stuff to solve a problem that never existed.

Off topic as always but I once heard from an old European guy that the magnetic myth got started near the turn of the industrial revolution when factories were making the switch from drive lines to electric motors. The cost to switch was enormous and a lot of people who couldn't afford the switch, were too cheep or were just resistant to change used the excuse that the electric motors would magnetize the machines, swarf would stick to them and the machines would not run true after being magnetized. I don't know how good the shielding was in those old motors was but I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't cause those sorts of problems.

I'm not sure if that story is really true or not, but I guess it's as good as any.

Buffybr,
I carry a "Rapid Rod" in a nylon case on my cartridge belt. its a SS cleaning rod with cable run through it and it folds up into the size of a 3 inch pocket knife and you just pop it forward and presto you have a solid SS rod to clean a gun or punch out a case or bullet..It works very well indeed, and its not expensive. I wouldn't be without it.

Odd this topic should come up now on the forums. I have never had an issue with this until very recently. Two bullets became stuck in two different revolvers at different times. First was removed with a drill bit and steel rods (don't EVER do that) and the second was removed with a simple oak dowel.

I never thought this could be a problem until it happened to me. Then, I realized the multitude of products out there that take care of these things.