Stuck round in rifle...

Wasnt quite sure which sub forum this would be appropriate for, so I figured that here is easiest.


Anyway, I stuck a round in my 308 a couple weeks ago and need confirmation on how to safely remove it. Rifle is a Savage model 10 with Criterion barrel. Round in question is a reload. All brass is batch processed in 500 round lots to avoid any major variances. Brass is sized, trimmed and tumbled in this operation. At this point in time Im about 350 pieces into this batch of brass and have had no issues. Im a fairly experienced reloader, ran about 8000 rounds last year, so this isnt my first rodeo on that end.


What happened was the round chambered easily enough, but the bolt closed a bit stiffer than normal. I raised the bolt handle but round would not extract. Tapped on bolt handle, and the extractor slipped off head of round, leaving the round stuck in the chamber.


Now, to remove the live round. Im not worried about setting off the round if I tap on the tip of the bullet from the muzzle end. Plans are to use a 1/4" (.250") brass rod with a small divot drilled into the end to slip over the tip off the bullet, and gently tap the round from the chamber. Ill also likely use black electrical tape every 6-8" wrapped on the brass rod to keep the rod from flexing. Ill obviously point the rifle in a safe direction while doing this.


Does this sound like a safe/sane idea?

I wouldn't worry about the tip of the bullet or wrapping the brass rod with electrical tape.

Drop the rod on it and tap it with a hammer.

I think id remove the scope and the stock.
Then fill the barrel with WD40, put the action end in a container and sit it barrel up in a safe place for at least a few days before trying anything.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaldor

Wasnt quite sure which sub forum this would be appropriate for, so I figured that here is easiest.


Anyway, I stuck a round in my 308 a couple weeks ago and need confirmation on how to safely remove it. Rifle is a Savage model 10 with Criterion barrel. Round in question is a reload. All brass is batch processed in 500 round lots to avoid any major variances. Brass is sized, trimmed and tumbled in this operation. At this point in time Im about 350 pieces into this batch of brass and have had no issues. Im a fairly experienced reloader, ran about 8000 rounds last year, so this isnt my first rodeo on that end.


What happened was the round chambered easily enough, but the bolt closed a bit stiffer than normal. I raised the bolt handle but round would not extract. Tapped on bolt handle, and the extractor slipped off head of round, leaving the round stuck in the chamber.


Now, to remove the live round. Im not worried about setting off the round if I tap on the tip of the bullet from the muzzle end. Plans are to use a 1/4" (.250") brass rod with a small divot drilled into the end to slip over the tip off the bullet, and gently tap the round from the chamber. Ill also likely use black electrical tape every 6-8" wrapped on the brass rod to keep the rod from flexing. Ill obviously point the rifle in a safe direction while doing this.


Does this sound like a safe/sane idea?

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I would do what you said no problem.

now to diagnose the problem. If you missed resizing it obviously you would have noticed it during bullet seating. I am sure you checked trim length. I think the brass would have to be pretty long before it would crimp in the throat. If the bullet was seated too long it would have probably just come out of the case during extraction and dumped powder everywhere. How long has it been since you did a thorough cleaning of the chamber.

Are you full length resizing or neck sizing. I would measure the lower part of the brass and see how it compares to rounds that chamber without a problem. Do you have your full length die set up for a shoulder bump or are you going all the way down to the shell holder. My suspicion is the lower portion of the brass is a little big.

I'm with yobucks, spay some penetrating oil down the barrel and tap away with the bare rod. It is probably due to the bullet being jammed in the lands. My bet is if you drop the rod from about 2 inches above the bullet a couple of times, it will fall right out.

Just a thought. I had this happen to me this summer with a .20 TAC. I have a Criterion barrel on a model 11 and a Wilson barrel on a Cooper, both in .20 TAC. I hauled the Cooper out to SD to shoot prairie dogs and it jammed on the second round. I beat the bolt open and tried ramming the cartridge the rest of the way in only succeeding in really jamming it up. I put that rifle away and tried pushing, tapping and beating the round back out of the chamber to no avail but did destroy an expensive carbon fiber cleaning rod. When I finally got home, I pulled the stock off, bolt out and dumped a bunch of Kroil down the tube and let it set overnight. Next day a simple tap with another cleaning rod and it popped right out. Measuring the base, I found the web was .0015" bigger than another round. I checked a bunch of other rounds and a lot were slightly oversized. I finally realized my Criterion barrel's chamber was reamed a touch bigger than the Wilson barrel and I had only neck sized my 500 rounds before reloading them. Went back and full length sized all my brass.

I have had this problem with a factory 11 heavy barrel in 308. Luckily I have never had one stick this bad but did find that I must use a Small Base resize die or I get difficult bolt lift on standard full length sized unfired cases. After firing it can be very stiff and fooled me into believing that I had a pressure problem even with light loads. The SB die has solved all my problems.

As long as you have the bolt out, there should be no problem tapping it out
with the long quarter inch rod. You can't really set off the primer from the
front of the gun, and even if the round were to somehow go off, during the
tapping, then the lightest part would depart first, which is the cartridge
case, and it should just blow out the back, no problem, since the heavy steel
or brass rod you are tapping is much heavier. It should just tap right out, in my
opinion, I would not worry a bit about doing this. It sounds sort of dangerous, but in
fact should be no problem.

This just happened to friend. He brought his AR over with a stuck round. I just inserted a small wood dowel and tapped on it with a hammer. When the loaded round came out the bullet was pushed into the case. Powder spilled all over.. Blew it out with air..