snap cap LSWC stuck in chamber/barrel?

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sqroot3

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I seem to be getting lots of things stuck these days...

I made some 200gr LSWC snap caps with my lee pro 1000 (OAL 1.229, taper crimp to .470). I checked it with the drop test on my RIA tactical's chamber and the headspace was flush.

I then put my gun back together and went to chamber the round. slide went into battery, i had fun dry-firing...and then i tried to retract the slide to eject my snap cap. it wouldn't budge more than 2-3 mm backwards. After some grunting and forcing, I was finally able to pull the slide all the way back and eject my snap cap.

What happened? I read one post online that this was due to the bullet catching the barrel's rifling.

My questions:
If I don't change any of the cartridge dimensions, are live rounds likely safe to use?
Did the bullet really get stuck on the rifling--is why racking the slide required a lot of force?
Should I be using LSWC for snap caps, should I stick to my plated bullets, or does it not matter?
 
Look at the bullet and see if it has any marks on the LSWC bullet. That will tell you if the bullet is touching the lands. A snap cap should eject just as smooth as a normal bullet.
 
Is the bullet seated and crimped the same as you do loaded rounds? You just have to find out what is different. One more (remote) possibility. If you used something like RTV to fill the primer pocket, it is possible it set up a bit and temporarily glued the case to the face of the breech.
 
A similar thing happened when I first started reloading for the .40S&W years ago. There was just enough case bulge toward the rim to wedge the reloaded case tightly in the chamber. Difference though was that this was with a live round in the chamber, not a snap. I had to strike the grip of the gun against a 2X4 while holding the gun by the slide, AND keeping it pointed in a safe direction. Had to carefully adjust the sizing die more than usual to get reloaded rounds to chamber. That might be your problem too. Look for a bulge in the case down towards the rim.
 
thank you for the replies. the slide sticking happened one with one of my plated HP snap caps too, but then when i re-cycled all of my snap caps, INCLUDING the ones that had originally stuck, i didn't have any problems whatsoever. OALs were not affected before and after the chambering of the snap caps.

i don't think i see any lands marks...that's a good point.

i DO have a case bulge at the bottom of the seated bullet (about 2/5 of the way down the case). it's pretty far away from the rim. i'll have to readjust my seating/crimping die to see if i can minimize the bulge, but after reading various posts online, i understand this may or may not cause problems based on the particular chamber. my rounds have so far all passed the chamber drop test.

to the range later to see how they shoot...
 
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