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

AMT · Mar 4, 2019

I am just getting into reloading and have been reading, searching, asking, etc.

I agree that even a small amount of powder in the shell should send the bullet out the barrel - especially what you are shooting.

A primer would get just enough pop to get it out of the shell and into the barrel.

I just popped on to Hodgden's website. They list loads for 9mm, 115gr, Tightgroup powder charge starting at 4.5gr and maxing at 4.8.

Set your sights on pistol reloading data | Hodgdon Reloading

That being said, 4.0gr should be good to get it out of the barrel. Deducing everything, I'd guess either bad powder or no powder in those few loads.

Could it be that you may get complacent while loading and "really" checking every single round? Maybe you overlooked a couple?

Just thoughts.

oli700 · Mar 4, 2019

9mm guy said:
OK, this has happened twice in about a thousand rounds. The bullet got stuck in my barrel.

All else being equal in that thousand rounds I'd wager two cases did not get poweder. Better than two cases getting double as long as you catch the squib and it isn't the first round of a double tap

edzz · Mar 4, 2019

If a bullet lodges in the barrel and when you rack the slide the case comes out without powder being dumped in the action surprisingly I'd suspect a missed powder charge.

If upon removing the case and powder spilled out guess what, the powder failed to ignite.
I would take a serious look at the function of the powder measure. I've had a lot of reloading setups over the years and the most problematic were from Lee. IMHO Lee equipment ages badly. I do like some of their designs, just wish they used better materials in manufacturing.

Two powders that can have ignition problems are H110 and 296. Usually bad or erratic ignition with H110 / 296 can usually be traced to the use of light bullets and or inadequate crimp. Both of these powders are known th ignite better with a heavy crimp. There are other powders that also require a heavy crimp H110 / 296 are the "two" I have had the most issues with.

oli700 · Mar 4, 2019

WAYNO said:
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.

bbbass · Mar 4, 2019

Hmmmm, all of my .45ACP squibs with no powder ejected the case but the next round wouldn't go into battery. There was no way to check for powder spillage.

Mistman · Mar 4, 2019

bbbass, that's right, the primer did make the slide cycle and eject the round and new round tried to chamber but couldn't.

I usually will never shoot someone else's reloads unless I'm with them and I know them well (good friends). A friend got a bag of 40 cal reloads on a trade but had no 40 so asked if I wanted them. I asked about them, he indicated they were factory reloads (local??). A buddy came over a couple weeks ago and I decided to get the 40 cal Hi-Power out and blast through some of them. I loaded up 5 mags and we started blasting away trading off between mags. I could tell once in a while there was a hotter pop, during the 3rd mag my friend was shooting and got a really loud report. He made some noise so I look over and his hands are all black and he's cussing about something. The slides locked back and one of the grips is crooked. His eyes are as big as saucers, he doesn't know what happened just that his hands are tingling. He ejects the mag and hands me the gun, both grips are loose and the slide is stuck open w/a 40 case in the chamber w/no rim on it. Double charge! No one was hurt, I was able to get the remains of the case out, re-attach the grips and fire off a mag of factory loads to see how it ran, it's fine.

Never again though. I've got about 200 of those 40's left but won't be shooting 1 more of them.

Member 34319 · Mar 4, 2019

9mm guy said:
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.

Titegroup is great for determining double charges.

Not so much for non charges.

Get a LED for your reloading press. Slowdown and make sure each round is actually getting a charge.

bbbass · Mar 4, 2019

Mistman said:
Never again though. I've got about 200 of those 40's left but won't be shooting 1 more of them.

I will NOT shoot anybody elses reloads, homebrewed or factory. I make enough mistakes on my own and don't need help making more. Before I developed the habit of looking in the shell at the powder drop stage of my RL550, I had a bunch of squibs and wound up pulling the bullets on 200 .45ACP shells I had loaded... out of 200 I found about 10 with no powder. It's not that the 550 was messing up, it was the process you mentioned with stuck primers not loading and then the process got all out of kilter. I was reloading on my single stage for awhile but switched back to the 550 now.

Titegroup works for me in my 9mm, but beware the 9mm is already a high pressure round and won't take kindly to extra powder.

I still have a couple 1lb cans of TiteWad I used to develop low recoil rounds for my .45ACP... It's something like 2gr of powder! El Cheapo!!!

Tilos · Mar 4, 2019

I have come across a couple of things that have helped in checking for powder during my reloading process.
Wet tumbling brass cleans/shines the inside of a case so it's not like looking into a black hole when doing the powder check.
Whether you stand or sit reloading, adding A MIRROR to go along with your light, will change the powder check from a peek to a full-on inspection.

I have this light:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051RKFDE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also, you can take another/last look into the case for powder as you place the bullet into it.
That, and any turret or progressive with auto index can be short stroked to index/skip a station, not a good thing.
good luck,

gmerkt · Mar 8, 2019

Mostly it's already been said. But I will add, this is a situation where a chronograph would come in handy. You could see what speed your getting out of your load; if the powder is bad, you'll see it in your velocity readings. Both as to avg. muzzle velocity and spreads. Like someone else said, I've fired some pretty slow loads in test mode that had no trouble clearing the barrel. But I suspect it isn't defective powder. More probably human factor. In government work, we used to call such lapses "speed errors."

P7M13 · Mar 10, 2019

Titegroup is a powder that will clump, preventing good flow into a Lee disk type powder measure.
I've had squibs when I used a lee, lodging the bullet in the barrel.
I've had light charges when using my LnL, but that's a result of improper adjustment.
Before I pour powder into the hopper, I will shake the bottle. If I am loading over multiple days, I will stir the powder in the hopper at the start of the 2nd day.
I just pulled a bunch of 147gr loads that I had done on my LnL using Titegroup. I had set them aside for pulling because they had variable powder charges due to an improperly adjusted powder throw arm. On each one, the powder inside the brass was a solid block that I had to loosen with a dental pick.