Ever had a bullet pulled from case on an un-fired round in the chamber?

[3sport]

I got a gun on a trade (specs below), and wont' have a chance to shoot it for a few days/weeks, so i decided to rack a few rounds to make sure everything functioned correctly.

I stepped outside, and I put a couple of spent cartridges in the mag followed by a live round. Everything fed smooth until i got to the live round which was a 175gr FGMM. It wasn't hard to load, but wasn't smooth either. When I tried to eject the cartridge it was a little tough, and out came an empty cartridge and powder everywhere. Dropped a cleaning rod in the end of the barrel to remove the bullet, and tried again with another round, no issues. I ended up trying about 5 more (same box of FGMM) with no issues. I measured the round that got pulled, and it was not out of spec. I'll measure again and post the exact specs when i get home today.

Has anyone had something similar happen? Any suggestions/ideas?

Been a stalker here for a while, and this is my first 'custom' gun, so if it is something blatantly obvious, forgive the newbie!

- Remington Sportsman 78 action (700 SA)
- Douglas Barrel .308
- Timney Trigger

<img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc441/samson_ite/Projectile%20Throwers/FFED6CE7-2B51-4DAE-82A1-38CC06379C1E_zpszkmhbamo.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo FFED6CE7-2B51-4DAE-82A1-38CC06379C1E_zpszkmhbamo.jpg"/>

 

[shadydiesel]

Could you tell by looking at the stuck bullet if it made contact with the lands?

 

[PDXGS]

Yep, I've had it happen on several guns. If the cartridge overall length COAL is too long it can jam into the lands of the bore and get stuck. That's likely, but not the only reason you might have had this happen. Debris in the chamber or a damaged bullet can cause the same issue.
If you have access to reloading gear, I'd suggest that you load up several dummy rounds of different overall length. Run a black sharpie over the bullets after they have been seated in the brass and see which length make contact.
Remington 700 throats have been traditionally very very deep. The will allow you to chamber a round that's usually much longer than a detachable magazine can hold. I limit my rounds meant for my Remington to about 2.850" max- measured from the bullet tip to the tail to the brass. It looks like you're running this on an AICS system like I am...the 2.850" COAL works well for the AI mags.
Alternatively, you can loosely insert a bullet into a brass case and force it into the lands- then take a cleaning rod and insert in to the muzzle (carefully) and run it down until it hits the tip of the bullet. Mark the cleaning rod with a piece of electrical tape as close to the crown as possible. Extract that round and insert another dummy round-one that measure to the COAL of the FGMM-insert the cleaning rod again and mark it with a sharpie at the crown. The distance from the sharpie mark to the tape is your jump- on a Remington it will be large. Ideally it should be about .015" (and that's depending on who you talk to). The long Remington jump works fine but it's sloppy and tolerant of oversized rounds.
Another way to measure the chamber is to buy a Hornady tool meant for that purpose.

 

[3sport]

Could you tell by looking at the stuck bullet if it made contact with the lands?

I didn't notice, but I will check that out this afternoon. thanks.

 

[dcnyli]

yup, COAL was too long. Pain to clean up but I just adjusted my seating depth and we all good.

 

[3sport]

Yep, I've had it happen on several guns. If the cartridge overall length COAL is too long it can jam into the lands of the bore and get stuck. That's likely, but not the only reason you might have had this happen. Debris in the chamber or a damaged bullet can cause the same issue.
If you have access to reloading gear, I'd suggest that you load up several dummy rounds of different overall length. Run a black sharpie over the bullets after they have been seated in the brass and see which length make contact.
Remington 700 throats have been traditionally very very deep. The will allow you to chamber a round that's usually much longer than a detachable magazine can hold. I limit my rounds meant for my Remington to about 2.850" max- measured from the bullet tip to the tail to the brass.
Alternatively, you can loosely insert a bullet into a brass case and force it into the lands- then take a cleaning rod and insert in to the muzzle (carefully) and run it down until it hits the tip of the bullet. Mark the cleaning rod with a piece of electrical tape as close to the crown as possible. Extract that round and insert another dummy round-one that measure to the COAL of the FGMM-insert the clawing rod again and mark it with a sharpie at the crown. The distance from the sharpie mark to the take is you jump- on a Remington it will be large. Ideally it should be about .015" (and that's depending on who you talk to). The long Remington jump works fine but it's sloppy and tolerant of oversized rounds.
Another way to measure the chamber is to buy a Hornady tool meant for that purpose.

I do reload, and have a few that I have loaded up already with different lengths for another gun. I will use those to test. thanks for the help

 

[Pinkycatcher]

Remington 700 throats have been traditionally very very deep. The will allow you to chamber a round that's usually much longer than a detachable magazine can hold. I limit my rounds meant for my Remington to about 2.850" max- measured from the bullet tip to the tail to the brass. It looks like you're running this on an AICS system like I am...the 2.850" COAL works well for the AI mags.

Man I wish my 700 in .243 was too deep, currently I have to load to something like 2.65" and I'm only about .014 off the rifling, my coworker is the opposite, he's at 2.85" I've got no case capacity and no room for adjustment.

 

[PDXGS]

Man I wish my 700 in .243 was too deep, currently I have to load to something like 2.65" and I'm only about .014 off the rifling, my coworker is the opposite, he's at 2.85" I've got no case capacity and no room for adjustment.

take it to a smith and have it re-chambered...it's not a big deal...but it is a slippery slope!

 

[Pinkycatcher]

take it to a smith and have it re-chambered...it's not a big deal...but it is a slippery slope!

My Coworker with the opposite problem is a smith, but we don't really do that type of gunsmithing as business so we don't have a .243 reamer or a throat reamer on hand. Plus it's my first precision rifle and I'm just gonna shoot the barrel out anyway then re-barrel it with a good barrel so it's almost not worth it.

 

[3sport]

Thanks for all the replies fellas.

 

[7magsavage]

Short throat? My custom 308 has a short throat.

 

[3sport]

Looks like the round whose bullet got pulled had around a 2.815 COAL. The other FGMM's are anywhere 2.791 - 2.803. Tried the trick above and it looks like the longer ones are barely touching the lands and the one that got stuck probably was jammed in there. I'm still planning on loading some longer ones to see if I can make it happen again. I tried 20 rounds a minute ago, and they all fed fine.

Thanks again for the tips.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[shooterfpga]

Ive had half of two different boxes of fgmm 175gr do the same to me before. I chalked it up to a bad batch.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

 

[leadbullet]

Nope, never had it happen to me, couple buddies on the other hand should not be reloading.