bangswitch
Member
I've been spending a lot of time at the loading bench lately, and I screwed up a batch of .357 Magnum loads from not paying full attention to what I was doing. I have a stack of storage bins I keep my ready-to load brass and bullets in. Everything is clearly marked, but I didn't look as closely as I should have when pulling out the bin with .357 bullets. I was planning to load 158 grain JHP (Hornady XTP), had my cases charged, and instead, pulled out the bin containing 125 grain XTP's. With the powder load I had charged the cases, 158's should have given me around 1300 fps. With 125's, though, it was off the low end of the scale, something like a mid power .38 Spl load. I had 50 of them finished before I realized my mistake. I load by the Hornady 10th Ed. manual, BTW. The powder was 300-MP.
Rather than tear down all the loads, I selected one at random, went to the lower end of the pasture with my M19 (4" barrel), single-loaded one round and fired it. It went bang, but there was hardly any recoil, a .38 Spl would have made more recoil. At any rate, the bullet cleared the barrel and hit the tree I aimed at, so I figured I could use these at the range and get rid of them.
Today, I went to the range, taking all three of my revolvers with me, and several boxes of ammo. I figured to get rid of these miss-loaded rounds using the M19. Loaded three, every other chamber, took aim at the steel hanging targets at 15 yards, and pulled the trigger single action. 1st round went Pfffft, and the gun was locked up. So, I put that box of ammo up, got out another I knew to be good, and took out the M28 and made some noise. I also had fun with the M57.
When I got home, I took the M19 and put a wooden dowel down the barrel and measured to see where the bullet was. It had almost made it through the B-C gap, and was lodged in the forcing cone with just enough of the bullet still in the cylinder to jam it. I've never had this happen, so I was at somewhat of a loss as to how to go about getting the bullet either back in the cylinder, or far enough into the barrel that I could get the cylinder open to get the two live rounds out and proceed with getting the bullet out of the barrel. I laid the pistol into my rifle sandbag, which has a long groove for the barrel. I took a plastic mechanic's mallet, tipped the gun down a bit, and smacked the muzzle a couple of good hits. This had the same effect as using a kinetic bullet puller, and the bullet lodged in the forcing cone was driven into the barrel far enough that I could open the cylinder, remove the two live rounds, and then clean out the partially-burned powder and remove the fired case. After that, it was a fairly simple matter of driving the stuck bullet backwards to the forcing cone by using the wooden dowel and mallet. No damage to the revolver, thank goodness.
So, I suppose I now have about 48 rounds of bad ammo to take apart and reload.
Note to self: pay better attention next time, it could have been much worse.
Rather than tear down all the loads, I selected one at random, went to the lower end of the pasture with my M19 (4" barrel), single-loaded one round and fired it. It went bang, but there was hardly any recoil, a .38 Spl would have made more recoil. At any rate, the bullet cleared the barrel and hit the tree I aimed at, so I figured I could use these at the range and get rid of them.
Today, I went to the range, taking all three of my revolvers with me, and several boxes of ammo. I figured to get rid of these miss-loaded rounds using the M19. Loaded three, every other chamber, took aim at the steel hanging targets at 15 yards, and pulled the trigger single action. 1st round went Pfffft, and the gun was locked up. So, I put that box of ammo up, got out another I knew to be good, and took out the M28 and made some noise. I also had fun with the M57.
When I got home, I took the M19 and put a wooden dowel down the barrel and measured to see where the bullet was. It had almost made it through the B-C gap, and was lodged in the forcing cone with just enough of the bullet still in the cylinder to jam it. I've never had this happen, so I was at somewhat of a loss as to how to go about getting the bullet either back in the cylinder, or far enough into the barrel that I could get the cylinder open to get the two live rounds out and proceed with getting the bullet out of the barrel. I laid the pistol into my rifle sandbag, which has a long groove for the barrel. I took a plastic mechanic's mallet, tipped the gun down a bit, and smacked the muzzle a couple of good hits. This had the same effect as using a kinetic bullet puller, and the bullet lodged in the forcing cone was driven into the barrel far enough that I could open the cylinder, remove the two live rounds, and then clean out the partially-burned powder and remove the fired case. After that, it was a fairly simple matter of driving the stuck bullet backwards to the forcing cone by using the wooden dowel and mallet. No damage to the revolver, thank goodness.
So, I suppose I now have about 48 rounds of bad ammo to take apart and reload.
Note to self: pay better attention next time, it could have been much worse.
