Are stuck cases normal for big bores?

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BearBrimstone

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I recently decided to take a second try at a big bore revolver. My first was a Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan in 480 Ruger. That revolver always had the cases get stuck in the cylinder hard. Multiple hits with a piece of wood to get them out hard. On about halfway through the 3rd cylinder it completely locked up because the fired case came back against the breach face and then stuck blocking the cylinder from turning or being popped out. After that I returned it to the gun shop that I bought it at and assumed it was just that gun. Fast forward to the present and I bought a Raging Judge. 45 Colt and 410 shells come out just fine but 454 Casull casings require a quick whack with a piece of wood to dislodge. They don’t stick as hard as the Alaskan did but it’s hard enough that doing it by hand gets painful long before they dislodge. Is this something that all guns with this high pressure of a round does or should I be worried that I’ve got a second dud in my hands?
 
BearBrimstone said:
I recently decided to take a second try at a big bore revolver. My first was a Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan in 480 Ruger. That revolver always had the cases get stuck in the cylinder hard. Multiple hits with a piece of wood to get them out hard. On about halfway through the 3rd cylinder it completely locked up because the fired case came back against the breach face and then stuck blocking the cylinder from turning or being popped out. After that I returned it to the gun shop that I bought it at and assumed it was just that gun. Fast forward to the present and I bought a Raging Judge. 45 Colt and 410 shells come out just fine but 454 Casull casings require a quick whack with a piece of wood to dislodge. They don’t stick as hard as the Alaskan did but it’s hard enough that doing it by hand gets painful long before they dislodge. Is this something that all guns with this high pressure of a round does or should I be worried that I’ve got a second dud in my hands?
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What are you shooting through it? Atomic magnum blasters will stick the cases.
 
Ditto on what do the cases look like ? What do the cylinder walls look like? They should be smooth and polished! Are you reloading the hot ones? If so, too hot of loads will make them stick like they are varying degrees of glued it. The hotter they, are the more glued in ! Do not care what the reloading manual says!
 
Both guns were firing Hornady factory ammunition. I don’t remember the specifics on the Alaskan but the 454 is 300 grain XTPs. The inside of the cylinders do look nice and polished. I will say that I fired 45 colt and 410 shells before the 454 and didn’t clean in between so it wouldn’t have been perfectly clean.

As far as the cases go, there is an obvious line between the expanded part of the brass and the part that didn’t expand when fired that isn’t on the 45 colt casings. I’ll include a photo to illustrate what I mean.
 

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I’ve had Buffalo Bore 460 Magnum cases stick before, but not Hornady.

Your chambers may be under polished. Shooting shorter cartridges first ain’t helping anything either.

If they need polishing a bore mop and Mother’s Mag Polish did the trick for me on a Ruger.
 
I've put a lot of rounds through my Ruger SRH Alaskan .454 Casull both before and after the conversion, as well as my Redhawk .45 Colt. Plenty of potent factory rounds and lots of top end hardcast handloads and never had a case get stuck in the chamber. I shot quite a few of the insane Winchester 260gr Partition Gold .454 Casull loads which had a velocity around 1,600 fps from the 2-1/2" barrel!!! :what:Never had a stuck case though.
 
It depends . I typically have easy extraction on my 454 SRH, but it will get harder after a few dozen rounds. Not many people shoot that many between cleanings so generally it's ok. My FA 83 is always a bit snug both before and after firing and have found that brass type matters in that gun cause it's just tight in every dimension. Factory hornady is not a top level load to be sure, sounds like your gun could use a cleaning, possibly polish if they're sticky right away. If it takes a few cylinders to get sticky with the same ammo you had been using, that answers your question on its own... Got dirty. Big bores are a different animal, as I said, few people shoot more than 20 454 casulls in an outing. Heck, some shoot 2 and sell the gun.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I think for now what I’m going to do is clean it real good and then try starting with the 454s rather than shooting the shorter rounds first. I also went ahead and bought a different brand and weight of 454 Casull because after googling the issue I did find that Hornady, especially the 300 grain, seems to have had some sticking cases issues in the past.
 
Your most likely aware shooting a shorter round could leave powder residue in the chamber that a longer case would be expanding against.
I rarely shoot 357 Magnum preferring the 38 special for just general target work. When I do shoot the longer case of the 357 it will occasionally chamber with difficulty.
Just a thought.
 
sparkyv said:
Sticky like bash out with a wooden dowel, or a mild rap on the extractor rod? :eek:
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Like ouch I hurt my hand kind of bash.

Actually the only smack it with a wood dowel kind of stuck I ever had was on a Ruger SP101 in 22lr.
 
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Update for everyone. I cleaned the cylinders until they were perfectly clean and shiny and also tried a new brand and weight of ammunition. The 300 grain Hornady still sticks but 260 grain Magtech extracts with no issue. The Hornady fired casings are also bulged a lot more than the Magtech. I think this was a case of the ammunition being the problem.
 
The ONLY time I had brass cases stick in any of my .44 Magnum revolvers was from that ammo was reloaded a bit too hot. I always use a brass brush to clean out the cylinders after letting them soak for a bit.

I did have some Tula .357 Magnum stick in my revolver, but that was because the cases are polymer coated and the polymer isn't as smooth as the slick brass. Rubbing the cases in oil before shooting fixed that.
 
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