Help needed gun experts- bullet stuck in chamber

[jshen]

I was cleaning a Bushmaster M-7 223 rifle and noticed a bullet had parted from the casing and lodged in rifle chamber!! It is not a round that fired, as a new round will not chamber..This is the first time in 50 years I have seen this and attribute it to cheap ammo and poor gun handler- me.!

I had shot about 500 rounds at the range, and decided to quit. I dropped the mag. and cleared the chamber NOT looking at what came out. Apparently ? when I cleared the round- the bullet remained and the casing was extracted..My fault in not looking at the round but I have never had an issue with this rifle..My fault (2) I did not immediately clean the rifle as it is piston operated and clean chamber design. I accidently let a couple weeks go by and when I inserted cleaning rod found the obstruction and the damn this is stuck...penetrating oil doesn't move it.

Any ideas before I move this on to a gunsmith? Again, the round separated from casing without being fired. I think the heat from the chamber and my waiting to clean it caused the barrel to cool around bullet and lock it in.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[HMTDF]

My suggestion is that you get a brass rod that is longer than the barrel and insert it and use a small hammer and tap it out. That's what I have done in the past with stuck bullets. I had a reloading business for 33 years and retired several years ago and had seen
many different things happen to people who have asked for help.

 

[SolarYellow]

Use one of those carbon type cleaning rods with the screwdriver type handle on the end. Give it a few taps. Just double check and make sure it is just the head and not the full cart.

 

[LencoCS1]

Try to locate a proper squib rod for your rifle.

 

[CV355]

Tappa tappa tappa

 

[nxhappy]

beaver, potato, and a hammer





well.....just a hammer and rod lol

 

[oldmodman]

I worried about throat damage even with using soft brass.
So I got a piece of wooded dowel and banged the stuck bullet right out.
Clean the hell out of the bore afterward too.

 

[Thump_rrr]

Do not use anything other than a brass or steel rod for .223/5.56.
The rod must be 3/16" or so to goin the .223" bore.

It is rare that a rifle bullet gets stuck in the lands by simply chambering a round.
You typically will notice it because of all the powder which would have been dumped into the rifle.
The other possibility is that it was a squib load and there was no powder in the case and the bullet was propelled by the primer alone.
A squib in a pistol can propel the bullet far enough so that another round can be chambered with catastrophic results.
A squib in a rifle typically barely jams it in the lands.

 

[jshen]

Thank you all! Cheap ammo, hot barrel and my dropping a clip before finishing the contents. I ejected a cartridge without looking that the bullet had come off....then I waited to clean and barrel cooled. Thank goodness the about comments about small dowel rod worked after sitting up with a little penetrating oil sat in the bore. This bullet simply came apart and was in chamber so it prevented me from chambering new round. I cannot imagine the world of hell to those in combat having a misfire where bullet is lodged in barrel.
I buy ammo by the 1000rd case..."just in case" so to speak and case this came from is 1983 vintage- stored in vacuum bags.