Stuck .45 A.C.P. round

[Standing Wolf]

I'm in the middle of loading a batch of .45 A.C.P. rounds.

It turns out the last batch were too short. They fed and fired and extracted without problems, but some of the case mouths were slightly chewed up. This time, carefully measuring the overall length, I adjusted the seater and crimp die, and compared overall length to that of factory rounds.

I checked several rounds to make sure they'd feed and extract properly. Everything was fine. I finished loading 150 rounds, and checked three more cartridges just to be double-sure. Two worked fine. The third fed properly, but I can't extract it. I can't pull the slide back. I've tried to eject the round with the magazine in and out, but the slide goes back about a third of an inch and stops with a clank. I carefully removed the barrel bushing and spring and wiggled the guide rod this way and that, but the slide is still stuck.

What do I do now? Ideas, anyone? I'd rather not drive fifteen miles to the range, pay $10, pull the trigger, and see what happens, then drive home. There's got to be an easier way to do this!

 

[Edward429451]

What you describe is similar to a problem I had awhile back, with 45 ACP and Colt & Glock pistols. Which wasn't the pistols at all, it was my reloads.

The problem arose when I bought the Dillon 45 case gauge. My typical (colt functional) reloads would not seat all the way into the case gauge so I cranked down the crimp die until they would. The resulting failures were exactly as you describe. Rifiling marks on the case mouth, hard to almost impossible extraction. Caused by over crimping and losing headspacing of the case mouth which would go past the stop and engage the rifiling. Backed off the crimp and all was well again.

Mike the diameter of the outside of the case up by the casemouth and see if it matches the book specs (IIRC, 0.473?)

Another way to check is a chamber check using a factory round as a control round. Fieldstrip your pistol and use just the barrel, drop in a factory round and look closely at the depth it goes to. Now try it with your reload and compare.

Or maybe not but it sounded similar. Hope this helps.

 

[HSMITH]

If you have a fixed rear sight you are in luck. Take the gun and put the rear sight against a bench or something solid that won't scratch the gun, then with both hands on the grip forcibly open the slide by shoving the grip forward/down.

If you have a sight that will not take that sort of pressure you can take a wooden dowel or a brass punch and put it in the bore. Tap the dowel down on a hard surface while holding it in the bore. The impact will cam the barrel open when the bullet/case is released from the rifling and nothing should be harmed in any way.

Edited to say: Put the gun back together before attempting any further to get the round out.

 

[sm]

Using the rear sight and the dowel works, as mentioned.

For future (hopefully not) info, like caught afield. Pointing in a Safe direction,mag removed, Get a real firm grip on the slide with weak hand. Now using the web of strong hand smack the rear of frame where you would grip it. Often a sharp smack and under a grip ( beavertail) will eject.

I managed to get two LEO's HK's in .40 open at the range on the same day.
Have been fortunate on other occasions too.

Good Luck

 

[Standing Wolf]

Thank you, one and all!

I've just tried re1973's method, which worked on the fourth smack. My hand hurts like @#$%^&!, but at least the round is out. I'll have to dig the calipers back out of the closet and figure out what I did wrong. The round looks just like the rest, but my eyes aren't calibrated in thousandths of an inch.

 

[Archie]

Now that you've beat your hand up....

The painless way to do what you needed is to hold the pistol in firing position (finger off trigger, of course) and jam the bottom front edge of the slide into a wood surface. Like the edge of your loading bench.

If you have a full length guide rod, one must adjust the angle, but it still works.

If you have to, you can use a concrete or metal edge of something... but wood won't mar the bluing.

 

[Clark]

This happens to me all too often.
I put the slide in a wooden vice and slam my hand into the pistol grip.

The limit of human slide pullling force is the grip on the slide. That limiit is ~40 ~50 pounds. A guy can shove the grip with 100 pounds constant force or a 200 pound peak slap using the fore arm and hand as a hammer.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Thanks, all!

It turns out the round that stuck was about .003" wider than the rest. That shouldn't have been enough to make it stick, especially considering it drops into and falls out of the barrel removed from the slide, but I'm sure stranger things have happened.

The help is appreciated!