Live cartridge stuck in my AR

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skidooman603

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I have been most careful to resize my cases properly and maintain the rifle to the 9's and somehow I have a case stuck in the chamber. I tried dislodging with a cleaning rod I tried putting the rifle in the freezer hoping the case would contract. No budge. What next? She's in there tight. Any ideas from the experts?????
 
happens all the time. Just slam the butt of the rifle on the ground. Works best on concrete. sometimes it takes a pretty good slam. If you have a carbine stock make sure it is on the shortest setting so you dont break it. If that doesn't work then your extractor will probably break or your extractor will pull the rim off and then you can get a professional to help. When you do this please make sure that the muzzle never points at your face or at anything important. Either that or you can just shoot it. This always happened to me when it wouldn't chamber the round all the way and I tried to push it in with the forward assist. That just gets it more stuck.

A good way to avoid this for me is to make sure my bolt and carrier are dripping wet. For some reason that has kept this from happening to me.
 
Is the bolt closing all the way??? I've had a few get stuck also, but I always manage to get the bolt to close all the way and fire the round... but, since you've tried to push it out with a cleaning rod... I don't know...
 
did you try hitting it on the floor like I said? you may want to pad the bottom so as not to scratch it.

If you dont mind, what maker of rifle is it? Mine is a RRA and it happend on the first 1000 rounds every now and then.
 
+1 with my rra.

Mine was a fired round (wolf) that wouldn come out. The extractor ripped the lip off the bullet. I put a cleaning rod down and then holding the gun i hit the cleaning rod into something hard, as to put a lot of pressure in the case and force it out...rather than just trying to push with my hands.

But yes, if you extractor is still attached, butt into hard ground with pad. Also you could pull on the charging handle at the same time to try to help.
 
Same advice. Slam the butt while holding the charging handle latch open and pulling on the handle.

BE CAREFUL and don't point the muzzle at anything that you'd miss terribly!

That happened to me when I used CLP (first mistake) and let it get dry and sticky (main problem).

Now I use Militec, and I won't let the gun get completely dry before I lube it.:)
 
Make sure the charge handle latch is held down / unlatched.
And you should pull back on it hard also when you slam the butt down.

You can't knock it out with a cleaning rod because the bolt is probably already partially locked.

Only way to unlock it is by getting the bolt carrier to move back until the cam pin unlocks it.

If slamming it fails, pop the pins and take the upper off.

Then you can whack the bolt carrier from the bottom with a wood block & hammer.

I have been most careful to resize my cases properly
Click to expand...
Two things can cause this with reloads.
1. Not lubing the inside neck slightly before sizing.
The expander button grabs and pulls the shoulder forward slightly. IE = Headspace is too tight for the bolt to lock.

2. You are crimping the loads.
Unless cases are trimmed to all the same length, a long case will buckle the shoulder imperceptibly when you crimp it. You can't see it, but it will lock up an AR-15 tighter then a bulls patootie.

You can get around it by not crimping, or using a Lee FCD collet die to crimp with. It is not length dependent.

Also, get a Dillon or L.E. Wilson case guage and drop-check your ammo after you reload it.
http://www.lockstock.com/prodinfo.asp?number=WCG223

rc
 
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Take out both pins.

I know it won't hinge open normally at the back but should come off with both front & rear pins out.

(Unless there is an auto-sear block web in the lower that is too far back to clear the rear pin lug)

rc
 
Also, get a Dillon or L.E. Wilson case guage and drop-check your ammo after you reload it.
http://www.lockstock.com/prodinfo.asp?number=WCG223
Click to expand...

I think it was RC who first gave me this advice as well. Let me underscore it. I learned a lot about .223 (and bottle necks in general) by having one. I had a bunch of Lake City brass that had out-of-round rims. I never would have known without that case gauge.
 
Did you drip any oil down onto the cartridge? Something nice and penetrating like CLP, WD40, or Liquid Wrench may do the trick, as you need to lube the cartridge up just enough to budge it out. Naturally, you would also have to clean the gun afterwards, but I'm sure that goes without saying.

-e-: Never mind, see you already got it out. Congrats!
 
Once again thanks to all. Don't know what I did before "The High Road" I have shot my whole life but now with my level of involvement in the shooting sports it turns out there are so many things I "didn't" know. I thought I knew so much. Every question I have gets answered here, in short order. Thanks :D
 
Once again thanks to all. Don't know what I did before "The High Road" I have shot my whole life but now with my level of involvement in the shooting sports it turns out there are so many things I "didn't" know. I thought I knew so much. Every question I have gets answered here, in short order. Thanks
Click to expand...

You wandered aimlessly in the wilderness, alone and blinded in the dark, until the light of this site brought you inner peace and tranquility and a knowledge not yet known by mere mortal men...:D
 
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