Bullet getting stuck in the barrel- why & how to prevent?

[9mm guy]

OK, this has happened twice in about a thousand rounds. The bullet got stuck in my barrel. I've been able to get this out using a mallet and a punch and placing my barrel in a vice. But why does this happen & how can I prevent it?

I'm hoping you reloading veterans can help. Is this an under-powered round? Do I need more powder in the round? I thought I'm already pretty close to the max (4.1) according to many recipes. Or is it the opposite where I need to back down the amount of powder? Or is it a bad primer? Or maybe the primer worked but the powder did not ignite? (Which would mean this is a bad powder?)

I'm shooting my Glock 43 with 4.0 grains of Titegroup, S&B primers, and Xtreme plated bullet with 115 grains. Thanks in advance for all your answers.

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[Greenbug]

Missed the powder charge maybe?

 

[erslll]

My guess would be either bad powder or no powder. Are you double checking the powder before you seat the bullet?

 

[RVTECH]

Missed the powder charge maybe?

Either this OR your powder measure is occasionally 'throwing' a light charge.
How do you check powder level in your cases before seating bullets?

 

[B5Ben]

How far down the barrel did the bullet go? If it was only and inch or so, my guess would be a squib, or no powder. If it went farther than that, it would say a way light charge.

What press and metering device are you using?

 

[Crohnos01]

As others have said, little or no powder. It should also sound and feel different from a normal load when fired... Bang, Bang, "Pop" type thing.

Are you loading with a single stage or a progressive?

 

[Mikej]

What kind of loading set-up you got? Powder measure? How old of powder? Does it smell right? Primers been in a damp basement/garage for 20 years?

 

[Mikej]

I suggest you don't shoot anymore of your reloads. It's possible the missing powder could be in other rounds! A double charge with Titegroup is possible to miss if you aren't carefully checking each case for powder level.

 

[kenboy]

Are you certain you are shooting correct bullets per recipe?

 

[Mistman]

I would think even w/a small amt of powder the bullets going to exit the barrel. 99% sure it's a squib, primer but no powder. Done it myself once. Means you gotta pay just a little more attention

I reloaded 500 9mm, then switched to SP 45 yesterday. My 1st loads w/SP 45 auto, finally got a couple K brass so dumped all my LP 45 acp brass. Only did 100 45, went out to shoot them and had 2 bad primers in the 1st 30 rnds. Shot close to 400 9mm w/out a hitch then get 2 bad primers within a couple mags of each other. Looked at the primers, they were hit hard, sent them back through the gun, neither went off, just bad primers. The box of 100 primers came out of the same box of Win primers I was using for the 9mm.

Just as an aside, whenever shooting and you have a round that 'doesn't go off' don't just immediately rack the slide to eject the bad and load up a good. With ear protection I didn't hear the primer go off on the squib I had reloaded, I assumed nothing happened, racked another round in which wouldn't load into battery due to a round being stuck in the chamber. If it had gone into battery a whole nother bunch of bad would have happened. When shooting fast is when the issue is more important as your not really thinking between shots.

 

[osprey]

You can go pretty low before sticking a bullet. I recently chronoed a bullet at 500 fps or so trying to develop sub loads for a 458 socom. I would guess you have a fouled charge or more likely a partial or no powder charge. Maybe throw them on the scale and anything 1.5grs or so under the heaviest ones, demil and check out the powder charge.

 

[9mm guy]

I'm using the Lee Classic Turret. Powder is a couple years old but I've kept it sealed & in a dark closet.

I see that this is most likely a missed charge & thus this round may have had no powder. However I'm having a cognitive dissonance moment because I visually check each round to make sure that there is powder as I push down the lever through each stage on my turret. I have a light shining on the middle of the press to ensure that I can see the powder. I don't reload quickly for speed, I only reload 50 or 100 at a time, & I've deliberately kept this turret press so that I can meticulously examine each round as opposed to any other type of press. And so while I understand that this is most likely a missed charged round, that seems so unlikely due to the reasons I've already mentioned. That's my cognitive dissonance moment.

Also due to the rotating nature of the turret, it seems unlikely that I've double charged the missed round. But I understand what you are all saying & I'll assess accordingly.

Most importantly, I'm grateful for this community of reloading veterans who responded so quickly with all of your knowledge. I don't think I could have enjoyed reloading orbits benefits without a lot of your answers. Thanks everyone.

 

[Mikej]

You can go pretty low before sticking a bullet. I recently chronoed a bullet at 500 fps or so trying to develop sub loads for a 458 socom. I would guess you have a fouled charge or more likely a partial or no powder charge. Maybe throw them on the scale and anything 1.5grs or so under the heaviest ones, demil and check out the powder charge.

That's ^^ a good point. I know from experience that the primer alone will put a .357 dia bullet into the forcing cone just past the point of locking up the cylinder. what's scary, way back then, was that missing powder was in one of the others in the box.

 

[Mikej]

I'm using the Lee Classic Turret. Powder is a couple years old but I've kept it sealed & in a dark closet.

I see that this is most likely a missed charge & thus this round may have had no powder. However I'm having a cognitive dissonance moment because I visually check each round to make sure that there is powder as I push down the lever through each stage on my turret. I have a light shining on the middle of the press to ensure that I can see the powder. I don't reload quickly for speed, I only reload 50 or 100 at a time, & I've deliberately kept this turret press so that I can meticulously examine each round as opposed to any other type of press. And so while I understand that this is most likely a missed charged round, that seems so unlikely due to the reasons I've already mentioned. That's my cognitive dissonance moment.

Also due to the rotating nature of the turret, it seems unlikely that I've double charged the missed round. But I understand what you are all saying & I'll assess accordingly.

Most importantly, I'm grateful for this community of reloading veterans who responded so quickly with all of your knowledge. I don't think I could have enjoyed reloading orbits benefits without a lot of your answers. Thanks everyone.

One of the reasons I prefer HS-6 for 9mm and .40, a double charge/no charge is much easier to see. Plus, a wider range of powder weight to play with.

 

[osprey]

Maybe skip the powder charging at a turret station and charge them in a case tray where you can visually look at them from above for no charge or double charge. You can charge fully prepped and primed cases in tray and then expand seat and crimp in turret. It will be no problem expanding with that powder charge in the 9mm cases. I have done it many times.

 

[Mooseman]

I got a bad batch of 296 Ball powder one time and using magnum pistol primers (.45 Colt) the primer would push the jacketed bullet 2 inches into the barrel and the powder poured out , it wouldn't ignite with a primer reliably. Even a Light charge should send the bullet thru the barrel , but a squib is usually caused by powder bridging in your powder measure .
I charge my primed cases with powder in a tray so i can visually see they are all at the same level, if one doesn't look right it gets checked on the scale.

 

[Mistman]

I know intuitively it doesn't make sense to miss a station on a turret. My 550 doesn't auto index so I get a 2nd chance to inspect before forwarding to the next station but I still made a squib somehow. I do have a low end Hornady progressive set-up for 40 that auto indexes. Nothings more frustrating than an auto indexing press that messes up a station, like missing a primer cause it's stuck in the tray or a bad powder drop, basically anything that interrupts the flow. You can't go back.

 

[thereddog]

I used to reload 20 ga, once in a while I either forgot the powder, or it got hung up in the hopper. When I'd pull the trigger, the primer would blow the crimp open and bb's would trickle out the barrel.

We called em "Fizzlers"

 

[RVTECH]

Maybe skip the powder charging at a turret station and charge them in a case tray where you can visually look at them from above for no charge or double charge.

Ditto this! A case tray (or loading block) allows you to quickly inspect all charged cases with a small flashlight and it is very easy to catch a shorted, or missed charge.

 

[WAYNO]

OP...Ignore the blowhards that have no answer, but will belittle a post to get their own post count up.

Yours is a good question, and yes, the most obvious answers might be found in a search, but I suspect your problem does not have an obvious answer. I am completely anal about double and triple checking every step of my loading processes, and that's what keeps me using a single stage press. Without watching your process, my guess is the powder step is being compromised. I have caught powder bridging on a couple occasions that created a no-powder case, and without my OCD checking, I might have missed it. Bad powder has been mentioned, but I cannot imagine bad powder only affecting one round, once in a while, when all the other loads fire as they should. Some powders, 296 for example, require a full charge, a hot primer, and a heavy bullet pull (crimp). But again, if the load ignites at all, I cannot imagine the bullet not leaving the barrel.

Go back and watch your process, every step, every time, and try to figure out if and why one case, once in a while, is missing a charge.