BULLET STUCK IN BBL in the field

I would not. Carry a bullet smaller than the bore of your rifle. Drop it down the bore and shake the rifle up and down striking the lodged bullet repeatedly till it dislodges. It would take an aweful lot of neck tention to make it tight enough not to come out . If neck tention were that tight it would pull out the bullet
 
While bear hunting a couple years ago I chambered a round in my 30-06 getting ready to shoot a nice looking sow. before I pulled the trigger my buddy spotted a cub so I passed on the shot. When I tried to remove the chambered round the bolt handle was stuck. After applying a reasonable amount of force the bolt opened and out came the brass but no bullet. My grandfather had reloaded these particular rounds for me and evidently he seated them to long for my rifle. Long story short I removed the bullet at home easily enough with a brass cleaning rod inserted from the muzzle and using my fist for a hammer. ended up giving the rest of the shells to my little brother being they didn't touch the lands in his rifle. Knowing what I know now I probably would have picked a target and fired the stuck round. seems like the safest and most controlled method assuming you do not have a cleaning rod available.
 
hera200 said:
I have seen references on this forum to getting a bullet stuck in the bbl when the bullet has been seated out to far into or touching the lands. I have never had this happen to me even though for many years I carried my BDL REM 22-250 in the field while searching for brave groundhogs that lived along railroad tracks out in the country. I always seated my silver tips touching the lands and never thought about getting a bullet dislodged and stuck. Maybe just lucky.The point of my post is to mention a technique that was brought to my attention a while back and get opinions on whether or not it works and would be a safe procedure. If no rod to dislodge a stuck bullet while hunting, remove a bullet from one of your spare rounds and trickle a small amount of powder into the chamber of the opened rifle. Now SPILL OUT THE REMAINING POWDER FROM THE CASING ONTO THE GROUND. Insert the EMPTY, live-primered ,CASING back into the chamber if it will fit. CLOSE the bolt and fire the rifle< This should dislodge the bullet to clear the end of the barrel. DOES THIS WORK?? Could save a hunt!.....BUD
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I wouldn't do it. I would wait till I got my hands on a cleaning rod.
Just last weekend, I was shooting at my range, and tried to extract a live round that I had chambered in order to let my barrel cool down. Well, of course the bullet stuck in the barrel, and the case came out, with powder spilling all over my shooting table and into the chamber. Then I couldn't even close the bolt again.
So back to the reloading bench to remove the bullet and clean the chamber.
As a result of this experience, I am no longer going to load hunting rounds with the bullets only .005" back from the lands!!
 
kiwikid said:
Many years ago I decided to see how much power a primer has so I loaded a 22-250 case with a live primer and a 55 grain bullet with no powder. Out of the shed I went with the round and my rifle, I aimed it at the ground and pulled the trigger. To my amazement the bullet lodged about 3/4 of the way up the 24" barrel. It took a long brass rod and a ball peen hammer to get the bullet out the muzzle.
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OMG, Kiwi, that sounds like a teenage boy experiment!!!
 
tony d willIiams said:
I have a concave rod tip, brass that I carry in my 4wd, just in case it occurs. I try hard not to make mistakes or repeat them.
If I had a bullet get stuck in my barrel while out hunting my day would be shot.
No, I would not apply powder and make a non-contained explosion.
Plenty of time would be used to reason why and ensure it never happened again. Plenty of science to keep us from making critical errors.
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TONY D I know where your coming from and I certainly get the decision to play it safe in this situation What I find incredible is the number of knowledgable people who have responded to my question with so many different yes or no answers and some in between! Most of the responses use a lot of common sense and yet disagree. I think this is rare on a site with so many competent people as this one Don't misunderstand, the last thing I am doing is complaining. I really appreciate all of the responses. I did not expect this question to generate this much interest. Could it be that maybe there is not really a right or wrong or yes or no answer because sometimes this could work but other times could cause damage or injury? That could explain the differences of opinion among so many firearm educated people. Also, it could be that some know that it was a workable idea but did not want to get involved in the legality of the safety factor? I really get worried when a guy like J E says he actually works on repairs to guns where this has been tried. Well I think we could go for page 7 but I don't feel like everyone is going to agree on this one. THANKS.....BUD
 
If this happens:
1. Range...embarassing...someone will have a rod.
2. In the field...have a rod in camp, or spare rifle.
Prevention:
1. Range...sometimes you can't help it.
2. Field....try to develop loads .010 off or more. Tape your muzzle in inclement weather or dusty conditions. Avoid super light neck tension and bullets just barely seated.

Happened to me once at my home range with jam condition...no problem...no body knew.
Happened to me once in deer woods when snow filled trees iced up the barrel.
Walked home, cleared barrel with rod, went back out....no body knew.
Always approach any problem with a contingent plan...no place for trial & error when firing a weapon.
My .02,
Randy

Ps; As teens my hunting buddy dropped his M600 rem into the red clay once and plugged the barrel. Luckily he didn't try to shoot it out, but instead he found some small sappling willow or aspen and proceeded to break off about 16 inches of it off in the 18" 30-06 barrel.
Morrow of the story; He drove his car that day and three of us went home early!
 
Never pour powder directly into the chamber (that only works for a muzzle loader) Place the cartridge in the chamber and fire just like any other round. It is safe to do. Also if you're removed case did not lose that much power, it is safe to put it back into the chamber and fire. It is just a light round. However, don't try this if you fire a dud (i.e... primer only or powder charge was incomplete or wet powder due to weather) and the bullet is down the barrel. This is when pressures are unpredictable and it is not safe.
 
Some of the recommendations I've seen on here make me wonder if all of you guys have all of you digits and both of your eyes (not counting brains).
Stop...you made a mistake, screwed up. Go home or to the hunting shack and correct it the right way. Then start over knowing you have learned something.
 
hera200 said:
I have seen references on this forum to getting a bullet stuck in the bbl when the bullet has been seated out to far into or touching the lands. I have never had this happen to me even though for many years I carried my BDL REM 22-250 in the field while searching for brave groundhogs that lived along railroad tracks out in the country. I always seated my silver tips touching the lands and never thought about getting a bullet dislodged and stuck. Maybe just lucky.The point of my post is to mention a technique that was brought to my attention a while back and get opinions on whether or not it works and would be a safe procedure. If no rod to dislodge a stuck bullet while hunting, remove a bullet from one of your spare rounds and trickle a small amount of powder into the chamber of the opened rifle. Now SPILL OUT THE REMAINING POWDER FROM THE CASING ONTO THE GROUND. Insert the EMPTY, live-primered ,CASING back into the chamber if it will fit. CLOSE the bolt and fire the rifle< This should dislodge the bullet to clear the end of the barrel. DOES THIS WORK?? Could save a hunt!.....BUD
Click to expand...
One (you or me) might be considered ill prepared to have gone afiekd with NO means of clearing an obstructed barrel. When you go with loads that jam the lands you must consider the possibility of having to eject a loaded round and perhaps leaving the bullet stuck in the rifling. I like to carry a 6-8 inch sliding fit brass rod just for that occasion. They are never real stuck.Once the bolt is open/unlocked, the bullet may come unstuck just from the weight of the rod
 
crkckr said:
No, No, NO!!! You're procedure is mostly correct but you left out a critical step! The ball/bullet MUST be pushed back against whatever powder charge you get in the chamber! Leaving a gap between the powder and ball can create the "blocked barrel" syndrome and can be downright dangerous!

To the OP & his situation, I would think that smacking the butt of the rifle would dislodge even a .22 bullet from the throat but that still leaves a lot of powder floating around in the action, never a good situation with lots of very dangerous possibilities.

If you just absolutely must seat against the lands, the rifle must be held upright when removing a loaded round, just to avoid the powder problem. Of course, if you jam the bullet into the throat far enough, then you would of course have a means to remove said jammed bullet very high on your check list of things to bring with you... right?

Removing the bullet using a partially or fully loaded case is asking for trouble... bad trouble! It might work, maybe even a few times but the one time you crush the neck of the case because it didn't line up perfectly to seat the bullet in the case and... well, I certainly don't want to be around when that little bomb goes off! Reloaders all know how easy it is to mess up a case with the wrong die or just having the case not fully inserted into the shell holder. No way I would try getting that bullet out with any method other than something going down the barrel to push the bullet out. Period!
Cheers,
crkckr
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You're dead on. I had one of Speer's new(at the time) deep curl bullets get stuck in a 30-06 because I didn't check depth. I tapped the butt of the rifle on my truck tailgate and dislodged it. We blew the powder out of he action and barrel with a can of air and went to a different load. Turned out the Deep Curl had a different ogive, and had to be seated deeper in the casing to keep it out of the lands. That's the only time I've ever had that problem, and it was many years ago, but I'm a lot more cautious about seating depth, since that happened. I also keep a cleaning rod either at camp or in the truck just for something like that.
 
Here is a little advice that I read on the net and follow:

BEFORE going afield, (especially on a big-game hunt) "run each round through your rifle to ensure that it feeds and ejects smoothly/properly. "

There - problem prevented and no spare rifles or tools needed

FWIW, I'm in the camp with posters who would not try to shoot the bullet out.
 
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