JDinFbg
Member
My neighbor decided to test some light loads in his 257 Roberts that he had read about in a gun magazine article that were based on using 12 gr. of Unique to drive an 85 gr. Nosler ballistic tip bullet. He loaded up a small batch and took to the range to test, but unfortunately the third round he fired did not go bang. After ejecting the case he could see the base of the bullet stuck in the barrel just ahead of the chamber with about an 1/8" of rifling visible behind it. He assumed he missed powdering that cartridge, and just the primer force had driven in the bullet. This was bad enough, but he decided to add insult to injury by trying to use a wooden dowel rod inserted from the muzzle to drive out the bullet. This only resulted in the dowel rod breaking in the barrel, leaving a fragment of dowel in the barrel just ahead of the bullet.
My neighbor asked me if I knew how to remove a stuck bullet, so I did some online research and found a very useful response to a bullet removal question posted on the practicalmachinest.com web site. A response from a gunsmith noted two high pressure grease methods for removing stuck bullets that he had used, one of which had always been successful. I had the means to implement these methods and would have used them if all else failed, but I thought I'd try a more basic approach first.
My first task was to remove the wooden dowel rod fragment. I was able to do this using a brass rod onto which I had soldered a #10 brass screw. The dowel had already been splintered into pieces by my neighbor in his attempt to extract the dowel, but the brass screw allowed me to hook all the pieces and get them out of the barrel. This was followed by a good flushing with brake cleaner to flush out any remaining pieces.
My simple approach was to fabricate a tool using a 3/16" brass rod onto which I had soldered about a 2" long tip closely machined to fit the rifle bore. I also machined multiple brass collars to closely fit the rifle bore and soldered them on the 3/16" brass rod at about 2" intervals. I thought this would provide enough mechanical strength to keep the rod from bending inside the barrel - wrong. I quickly realized this was not going to get the bullet to budge, and should have taken the extra time to machine a brass rod that closely fit the bore for its entire length.
My thought was that if I could get some lubrication between the bullet and the barrel that might allow me to successfully drive out the bullet. I clamped the barreled action in a padded vise and ran some Kroil down the barrel to soak. Kroil is advertised as "The Oil That Creeps", so I assumed if anything was going to be successful at working in, this would be it. To amplify the 'creeping' process I rigged up a fixture using a vinyl tube that I hose clamped on the end of the barrel (there was no front sight) that would allow me to pressurize the barrel with my 135psi shop air supply. I had intended to let this set for a week before again trying to drive out the bullet, but with other distractions occupying my time, this pressure soaking went on for 4 weeks.
After this amount of Kroil soaking, I was successful at driving out the bullet using the brass driving rod I had fabricated with just a few whacks with a hammer. Upon extracting the bullet I noted that it had a steel sleeve around the tip of the bullet with some wooden dowel rod inside. Where this steel sleeve came from I don't know, but assume it must have been squeezed around the tip of the wooden dowel rod my neighbor used. Thus, the barrel is now unobstructed, but after cleaning the bore well with Hoppe's, a bronze bore brush, followed by multiple patches, I could see a ring left around the circumference of the rifling from the steel band. How this may affect the rifle is yet to be determined. Had the bullet been lodged much further forward in the barrel, I would have gone straight to using one of the high pressure grease methods.
My neighbor asked me if I knew how to remove a stuck bullet, so I did some online research and found a very useful response to a bullet removal question posted on the practicalmachinest.com web site. A response from a gunsmith noted two high pressure grease methods for removing stuck bullets that he had used, one of which had always been successful. I had the means to implement these methods and would have used them if all else failed, but I thought I'd try a more basic approach first.
My first task was to remove the wooden dowel rod fragment. I was able to do this using a brass rod onto which I had soldered a #10 brass screw. The dowel had already been splintered into pieces by my neighbor in his attempt to extract the dowel, but the brass screw allowed me to hook all the pieces and get them out of the barrel. This was followed by a good flushing with brake cleaner to flush out any remaining pieces.
My simple approach was to fabricate a tool using a 3/16" brass rod onto which I had soldered about a 2" long tip closely machined to fit the rifle bore. I also machined multiple brass collars to closely fit the rifle bore and soldered them on the 3/16" brass rod at about 2" intervals. I thought this would provide enough mechanical strength to keep the rod from bending inside the barrel - wrong. I quickly realized this was not going to get the bullet to budge, and should have taken the extra time to machine a brass rod that closely fit the bore for its entire length.
My thought was that if I could get some lubrication between the bullet and the barrel that might allow me to successfully drive out the bullet. I clamped the barreled action in a padded vise and ran some Kroil down the barrel to soak. Kroil is advertised as "The Oil That Creeps", so I assumed if anything was going to be successful at working in, this would be it. To amplify the 'creeping' process I rigged up a fixture using a vinyl tube that I hose clamped on the end of the barrel (there was no front sight) that would allow me to pressurize the barrel with my 135psi shop air supply. I had intended to let this set for a week before again trying to drive out the bullet, but with other distractions occupying my time, this pressure soaking went on for 4 weeks.
After this amount of Kroil soaking, I was successful at driving out the bullet using the brass driving rod I had fabricated with just a few whacks with a hammer. Upon extracting the bullet I noted that it had a steel sleeve around the tip of the bullet with some wooden dowel rod inside. Where this steel sleeve came from I don't know, but assume it must have been squeezed around the tip of the wooden dowel rod my neighbor used. Thus, the barrel is now unobstructed, but after cleaning the bore well with Hoppe's, a bronze bore brush, followed by multiple patches, I could see a ring left around the circumference of the rifling from the steel band. How this may affect the rifle is yet to be determined. Had the bullet been lodged much further forward in the barrel, I would have gone straight to using one of the high pressure grease methods.