Stuck a boolit today..... wondering why

[c1skout]

I loaded up 21 unsized Lee 124rn tl in 38 special brass to try in my Charter Arms Police Bulldog. This gun has tight throats, I can't easily push a .356 boolit through them. I used 2.9gn of Bullseye and put a slight roll crimp into the upper lube groove. First six shots I had one that sounded "off". Next six were fine, then the next shot just went poof. I opened the cylinder and verified the stuck boolit, about an inch down the bore.

Back at home I drizzled some oil down the barrel, then tried some light tapping. Tapping didn't work so I ended up building a quick bore guide from a piece of carbon arrow shaft wrapped with masking tape, drilling through the boolit, then knocked it out with a 1/4" steel rod through my bore guide.

I had 8 loaded rounds left so I tore them down with an impact puller. All had 2.9gn of powder, the powder didn't look odd, nothing strange looking in the brass either. I did notice that they were all over the place in regards to how many knocks they took to dislodge the boolits. I didn't think to count on the first one I separated, but the last 7 needed from 3 to 9 smacks to get the boolits out.

Could the light crimp have let those couple boolits jump out before the powder really got going? Or do I have something else going on that I'm not thinking of ?

[mozeppa]

honestly...i'm inclined to place the blame on an empty case...no powder.

happens to the best of us....just make sure you don't have 2 powder loads in one case! ((((((((KA-BOOM)))))))

[LUCKYDAWG13]

^^^^^ what he said ^^^^^

[Bzcraig]

What size are the boolits unsized from your mold? Have you slugged your bore? What kind of equipment did you use to load these? Might help explain things in the event you are 100% sure you had powder in all cases. Having said that, I too lean toward just a primer launching the boolit. As far as the changing whacks using an inertia puller, your reloader should be a whole bunch more consistent crimping then you are at whacking.

[tomme boy]

What powder measure? I have problems with my Lee measure with the adjustable disk. Bullseye is one on them that does not fill the hole well. I tap on the measure 2-3 times each time before I run the case into it. Before this, I had the same problems as what you say.

[c1skout]

I batch load on my single-stage press. I use 2 loading blocks, grab an empty case and charge it from the powder measure, then place it in the other loading block. Every 5th case gets charged, then dumped into the scale pan to get weighed. That case sits on the bench until I pour the weighed powder back into it with a funnel, then it's put into the second loading block. I then use a light and visually inspect them as a group to be sure the powder looks the same in each before I seat any boolits.

These boolits drop at .356. I haven't slugged this barrel. All my equipment is Lee.

More food for thought... I didn't take a picture, but there were ugly greenish-yellow powder flakes on the inside of the barrel, from the forcing cone all the way to the base of the boolit. Lots of black soot on the 2 suspect brass also.

[tomme boy]

That is what happens to the powder when the graphite burns off and the powder itself does not burn.

[tazman]

I had that exact thing happen to me a few months ago. I found that it happened because I got in a hurry and didn't let my tumble lubed bullets dry completely. I loaded them while the lube was still very sticky. The lube had enough moisture in it to degrade the powder.
The primer fired but that was only enough to move the boolit into the barrel. The back of the boolit and the inside of the case were covered with unburned, nasty looking powder and soot. It was my own fault for getting in a hurry.
I used a brass rod and a plastic hammer to tap the boolit out of the barrel with no damage to the weapon.
One good aspect is I now have an excellent slug from the rear of the barrel to measure.

[gpidaho]

I've heard more than once both here and elsewhere that a primed case with no powder will jump a boolit into the bore of a revolver when fired. That may be true in some instances but hasn't been my experience. Over the twenty five years or so I've been loading the empty case thing has occurred two or three times(thankfully no double charges) and all that happened was a very muffled pop and no more. I've never had a boolit exit the case with a missing charge. FWIW GP

[daniel lawecki]

A primer will send a bullet in the bore. I know this because it happened to me. And it was in a 38 special round in my GP 100. I now load every round using the Hornady Powder Cop Die.

[bedbugbilly]

Sounds to me like an empty case as well. I've only had one "squib" (so far - knock on wood) and I know it was my screw up - I got interrupted while loading by my wife - didn't drop a charge - taught me to always "start over" after being interrupted. Anyway . . my primer sent the cast wadcutter into the barrel and it stopped I'm guessing about 1/4" ahead of the the forcing cone in the rifling.

Hey . . . it happens and now you have to look and see "why?" Check your loading procedure and check your powder measure . . any possibility it didn't drop a charge? I use a Lee Perfect Powder Measure attached to my "powder through/expander" die. It has always been accurate to + or _ .1 grains of Bulls Eye - I load on a 4 hole turret press and I have to trip the measure. That is where concentration comes in and I have sometimes wondered "Did I trip a charge in?". I know it's time to stop - pull the slug and then do something else of a while. Kind of go over your loading procedure and see if there maybe was a "operator error" or 'measure error" - I have a feeling that a charge just didn't get dropped. Your crimp should have been fine and if the boolit was oversize, a charged should have pushed it through. Good luck!

[tomme boy]

Having firelapped a few guns, I try to stick the bullets on purpose. As I want the bullet to just exit. I found most pistols need 0.7-0.9 grs of bullseye. For it to exit the bore. Just a primer with no crimp sometimes entered the bore. Mostly it did nothing. For me anyway.

[JSnover]

A magnum primer will also unstick a jacketed bullet from a 6" revolver barrel, should you manage to get one stuck in there. I've done it three times.

[al bundy]

Squib load for sure. Buy a micro vibrating motor from Radio Shack ($10 or less) and epoxy it on the bottom of your powder measure.

[44man]

Empty case or a primer too strong to drive boolit out into the barrel.

[c1skout]

Thanks for all the opinions guys. I've loaded 10's of thousands of rounds over the last 25 years and other than one primer that didn't go off on a 270 round this is the first problem I've had that I didn't catch at the loading bench.

I'm still hesitant to believe with my loading regimen that I completely missed the powder in 2 cases. I think it's more likely that 2 were lightly charged or somehow contaminated.

If I have time later today I'll pound a sinker through this barrel and cylinders to see what I have for sure. I hate to keep feeding it J-words.

[w5pv]

On squibs don't be afraid to admit mistakes.I have had one but caught it before another round was fired.This was years ago and the reason I single load all of my bullets.I double check the charge of powder,once after the case is charged and then again before I seat the bullet.This save on empty cases and double charges.

[tomme boy]

I've had 3 9mm's do the same thing this fall. Using CCI primers. And had a few in 223 not ignite even after 4-5 hits to the primer. It may just be a primer problem and you did not do anything wrong. I thought the same thing, " I must have done something wrong " But I am starting to think otherwise.

[kweidner]

I agree with empty case. Could be severe powder contamination but seems it would have been on more than one.

[tazman]

A magnum primer will also unstick a jacketed bullet from a 6" revolver barrel, should you manage to get one stuck in there. I've done it three times.

I'll have to try that the next time I stick one. I usually use a brass rod and a small soft face hammer.
I carry the rod and hammer in my range bag just in case.

[roverboy]

Glad you got the boolit out. I got a 158 gr. SWC stuck once because the powder didn't ignite for some reason. I was loading at .38 Special levels and I heard it sound kind of strange. I also had unburned powder all over my hands and the gun.

[c1skout]

Okay, I had time tonight so I did some slugging. I've got 2 holes in the cylinder that are .3565, the other 4 are in the .3570 to .3585 range. My barrel measures .3555 across the grooves (the high parts on the slug). I slugged it twice to be sure.

[mozeppa]

bought a new box of winchester 44 mags ....loaded the 629 ....bang bang pop.

there it was halfway out the cylinder into the forcing cone.

[osteodoc08]

If you didn't have powder everywhere, then the case wasn't charged. I think most of us have done it at one poit or another. A double charge, well, I've never done that.

[Zouave 58]

I seem to remember that Bullseye was known for rare ignition issues due to the stacking of the powder column inside the case causing the primer flame path to be erratic. Most of the reported issues were unexplained detonation/blowup phenominons but partial ignitions were also reported. Maybe?

[44man]

Powder contamination is the very last thing to consider. How does that happen when we shoot powders over 60 years old? Need to pour water in the can.
Failure from a primer might be the loss of the anvil. Seen a few fall out.
Look at the cheap .22's that fail, no compound spun in the rim.
I have never had a primer fail to fire but had many fail to light powder after driving the powder and boolit into the barrel because of the wrong primer.
Do you know why I refuse to use a mag primer in the .44 mag?

[tomme boy]

When fire lapping, if you stick a bullet, you will also have what looks like unburned powder. So my guess is you had about .2-.5 grs of powder and it was just not enough to make it out the barrel.

[olafhardt]

One or two cases could pick up a small amount of contaminant like a drop of sweat or a little flying snot from a sneeze which might could kill a primer or contaminate powder. Quote Saint Plumbus, patron of boolit makers, "Here lies a shell unshot. A victim of flying snot."

[BattleRife]

I once bought a batch of Remington "once-fired" cases that had low case neck tension. I started shooting, and within short order had 2 squibs where the bullet bridged the cylinder and forcing cone, tying up the gun. In both cases dirty unburnt or partially burnt powder granules were in obvious evidence. If you have these it is clear as day that an uncharged case was NOT the problem.

I went back through the batch and found several cartridges where I could spin the bullet in the case with my fingers, even with a reasonable generous crimp. I scrapped the batch of brass and the problem went away. But there is no doubt in my mind that light charges of powder can fail to ignite if there is insuffucient back pressure.

[targetfreak]

The simplest answer to the reason for the problem is usually the correct one: there wasn't any powder in the case. To prevent both that and the (even worse) double charge, I always weigh every charge, and always do a "flashlight check" of all the cases before adding the bullets. Even a quick scan with a flashlight will instantly show empty cases or double-charged ones.

[kweidner]

The simplest answer to the reason for the problem is usually the correct one: there wasn't any powder in the case. To prevent both that and the (even worse) double charge, I always weigh every charge, and always do a "flashlight check" of all the cases before adding the bullets. Even a quick scan with a flashlight will instantly show empty cases or double-charged ones.

op said that is what he did. Only murphy knows for sure but suspect says empty case.

[Petrol & Powder]

1. Good job on checking the bore after that suspect shot went off ! That bit of good sense saved you a lot of trouble and maybe more.

2. I'm going to say light powder charge or more likely, no powder. A primer alone will send the bullet out of the cylinder and into the barrel but not much farther. There's some possibility of contaminated powder (bullet lube, oil in the casing, etc. ). I don't think a light crimp would reduce the pressure enough that the bullet wouldn't exit the barrel, particularly on a short barreled revolver.

Your reloading procedure seems to be a safe one but it's still possible you didn't charge that case.
When using a single stage press and loading blocks, I examine all of the charged casings in the loading block before seating bullets. I don't weigh every charge, I've got better things to do with my time. I haven't blown anything up, still have both eyes and all of my fingers.