Stuck bullet mystery.

[A strange person]

First, I must say that I am VERY new to reloading.

Anyway, I started reloading mostly in order to produce small-game/plinking loads for my high powered rifles (the whole "one gun" survivalist thing). I have created an accurate load for my Ruger M77 .308WIN using a 150 gr. FMJ and 12 grs. of trailboss powder. I got the Idea from Col. Townsend Whelen's .30-06 "grouse" load that I read about (although mine is slower, about 1300 fps I'd guess).

I decided that I wanted to make a flatter-shooting load using a lighter bullet, and decided on the 86 gr. JSP bullets available from Hornady. It seems that they were designed for the .30 Mauser handgun cartridge, but there was no warning on Hornady's site not to use them in rifles; they are exactly .308 diameter. So I made a few rounds using the same powder and charge that had worked well with the 150 gr. FMJ's: 12 grs. of IMR trailboss, and went to the range.

I set up my target at 50 yds. loaded exactly 1 round into the chamber (I do not load the magazine when testing a new load), took aim, and fired. *click* was all I heard. It sounded like a misfire, but I put the rifle down and backed away, just in case of a "detonation" or something (though this should never happen with trailboss powder I'm told.) I waited 10 secs., and it seemed fine, so I ejected the round thinking it was a misfire. The case had no bullet, and was smoking; the round had indeed fired. So I removed the bolt, looked down the barrel, and sure enough, I had me a stuck bullet.

I was dumbfounded. This was not a subsonic load, it should have been going at least 1600 fps or so. The bullet had become stuck only about 4" from the lands. I knocked it out with a cleaning rod (it took some doin') and decided NOT to try another round.

Does anybody know what the heck happened?

 

[rcmodel]

Your Trailbass load seems very light, even with 150 grain jacketed bullets.
But jacketed bullets have a lot of bore friction.

I'd say you didn't have enough bore or bullet weight resistance with the 86 grain bullet to get it up to operating pressure for a complete burn.

The bullet had become stuck only about 4" from the lands.

I don't know what that means, but if the bullet was inside the barrel, it had to be touching the lands.

If you meant 4" from the chamber?
You forgot to put the powder in that one, and only the primer drove it into the rifling 4".

rc

 

[A strange person]

Yes, I meant 4" from the chamber, sorry.

The 150 gr. bullet load was actually from hodgdon's site, and it performed fine.

I highly doubt I forgot the powder, but I suppose it's possible. Maybe I'll try another round to see if that was the case. Worst case scenario: I'll have to push out another stuck bullet.

 

[rjrivero]

I highly doubt I forgot the powder, but I suppose it's possible. Maybe I'll try another round to see if that was the case. Worst case scenario: I'll have to push out another stuck bullet.

You forgot the powder. This is a classic squib story. Much better than adding the powder charge twice.

 

[Steve C]

I agree with rjrivero that you probably just didn't have any powder in the cartridge. 4" in the bore is typical of how far a bullet will be driven with just a primer.

 

[A strange person]

I've been known to be absent minded. I suppose I'll try another round. Hopefully that was the only problem.

 

[rcmodel]

Anything else but Trail Boss, I would suggest you pull them all and make 100% sure the missing charge didn't go in another one making it a double charge.

But too much Trail Boss won't fit.

rc

 

[Funshooter45]

One other possibility to throw out there. When you seated the little 86 gr bullets, how deep did you seat them? I don't know anything about that bullet but one thing I ran into when loading some 110 gr HP for my .308 is that I couldn't seat them very far into the case at all before the ogive was below the case mouth. Could it be that you had to seat them very shallow, so shallow that the case didn't have much to grab onto? Then when you chambered the cartridge, the impact was enough to dislodge the bullet? So when you pulled the trigger you essentially just had an open cartridge with a bit of Trail Boss fizzling away and not a whole lot of pressure?

 

[kingmt]

I agree with RC that the charge seems to light.

I don't see a primer shoving the bullet 4" into the lands. I can't find any data for what your using but that has to be to light of a load. Contact Hodgdon for help.

Well I just went & goggled it & seen comments between 8gr & 11gr so maybe I'm wrong. I still think you should contact Hodgdon.

 

[BADUNAME37]

I loaded for .308 for a while, 110g Hornady Hollow Points, IIRC.

I remember the bullets had to be almost on the verge of falling out of the case mouth I had to seat them so shallow, for one reason or another.

On one occasion, upon opening the bolt, the case came out with all the powder spilled all over and the bullet had to be knocked out of the chamber's entrance into the barrel.

^^^I think the poster that said your bullet may have become dislodged and then the powder just fizzled in there is right on.^^^

 

[A strange person]

I seated the bullets to the cannelure, and I'm fairly certain it was not dislodged.

There is no way there could be a double charge in another round, only about 14 grs. of trailboss powder will fit in the case. I use a lee loader exclusively (for now).

 

[Ol` Joe]

Using a charge recommended for a 150gr bullet with a lighter 86gr bullet will reduce pressures quite a bit. As example Speer lists in their #13 manual that a reduced load with a 150 gr bullet is between 21.0 and 25.0gr of SR4759. To reduce a 110gr bullet load with the same SR4759 you need from 26.0 to 30.0 gr of powder. That`s a grain more to start with the lighter bullet then the max for the heavier one
Lighter bullets don`t always offer the resistance to the pressure needed to get the peak pressure where it needs to be.

 

[A strange person]

That makes sense to me. I will try using 15 grs. of powder; the max load listed for the 150 gr. bullets.