OK, guys, here is where I get in trouble, big time.
The situation is a squib load and the bullet is stuck in the barrel.
Here is what NOT to do.
Don't use a wood dowel to try to drive it out. The dowel will splinter and leave you with chunks of wood in the barrel. So you use a brass or steel rod, right? OK, that will usually work. Some people will use lots of lubricant to help the process and there is no problem there, either. But some folks have gone far out, even recommending acid to dissolve the bullet! (It also dissolves the barrel steel, but it does get the stuck bullet out!)
There is an answer, which many gunsmiths secretly use, but which I have avoided so far just because I know I will be flamed and denounced as crazy.
Simply shoot out the bullet. REMOVE THE BULLET from a loaded round, dump half the powder and insert kapok or cotton to hold the powder back. Load the POWDER ONLY round and fire it. If the obstruction does not blow out, try with a full charge of powder. REMEMBER, NO BULLET.
For those who think I am nuts, check Hatcher's Notebook, where he does this many times, with no damage to the barrel.
Now, all of us have been told, many times, by "experts" that the barrel will burst. Why? Because that gas from the powder will hit the obstruction and stop and blow the barrel up and wipe out whole cities, and the country will be radioactive for a century. Well, not quite.
The "experts" don't understand why barrels burst with obstructions. It is not the gas pressure, which barrels are designed to withstand, but the heat which results when a BULLET is stopped by an obstruction. The kinetic energy of the bullet is instantly converted to heat, and that heat is what softens the steel of the barrel and allows it to bulge or split. Since the gas alone does not have enough energy to do that, the barrel will not bulge from firing a POWDER ONLY cartridge.
DON'T use a factory BLANK, though. That powder is very fast burning and can cause problems. Use the regular powder that is in the cartridges being used.
Let the flames begin.
Jim
The situation is a squib load and the bullet is stuck in the barrel.
Here is what NOT to do.
Don't use a wood dowel to try to drive it out. The dowel will splinter and leave you with chunks of wood in the barrel. So you use a brass or steel rod, right? OK, that will usually work. Some people will use lots of lubricant to help the process and there is no problem there, either. But some folks have gone far out, even recommending acid to dissolve the bullet! (It also dissolves the barrel steel, but it does get the stuck bullet out!)
There is an answer, which many gunsmiths secretly use, but which I have avoided so far just because I know I will be flamed and denounced as crazy.
Simply shoot out the bullet. REMOVE THE BULLET from a loaded round, dump half the powder and insert kapok or cotton to hold the powder back. Load the POWDER ONLY round and fire it. If the obstruction does not blow out, try with a full charge of powder. REMEMBER, NO BULLET.
For those who think I am nuts, check Hatcher's Notebook, where he does this many times, with no damage to the barrel.
Now, all of us have been told, many times, by "experts" that the barrel will burst. Why? Because that gas from the powder will hit the obstruction and stop and blow the barrel up and wipe out whole cities, and the country will be radioactive for a century. Well, not quite.
The "experts" don't understand why barrels burst with obstructions. It is not the gas pressure, which barrels are designed to withstand, but the heat which results when a BULLET is stopped by an obstruction. The kinetic energy of the bullet is instantly converted to heat, and that heat is what softens the steel of the barrel and allows it to bulge or split. Since the gas alone does not have enough energy to do that, the barrel will not bulge from firing a POWDER ONLY cartridge.
DON'T use a factory BLANK, though. That powder is very fast burning and can cause problems. Use the regular powder that is in the cartridges being used.
Let the flames begin.
Jim