Case head seperation, stuck in the AR.

R

Rock Knocker

Active member
I was out at the range today and had a case head break off with the remaining brass still in the chamber.

These weren't hot reloads my any means and it is once fired Lake City brass.

At least it's after the coyote season. How do I get this thing removed?
 
My buddy had the same thing happen with factory loads. He bought a special tool to remove it. Not sure what it was though, never heard back. He said a Smith wanted over $75 to remove it.
 
Put a copper or bronze brush that will fit tightly in mouth of the case (maybe .243) on your cleaning rod and insert it into the stuck case from the chamber end. When the brush is about half way through the case mouth or a little more stop pushing and pull the rod and stuck case from the chamber. When you reverse the brush the bristles bind on the case mouth. May have to use a 6.5 brush but a 243 will probably work. Clean chamber thoroughly and inspect. Has happened several times to me but have never experienced any chamber damage. Good Luck.
 
RTY hit the mark. If that doesn't work, then a split second trying to turn a chamber reamer will give you plenty of bite to spin it out (not everybody has a reamer, though).

Do you see CHS's in that rifle? Extractor battering on the rim? Is it just a fluke for one piece of brass, or is the rifle overgassed right on the edge to do it again?
 
I have used a brass rod,put just a slight bend in the end, from the muzzle end you can feel the case mouth edge and light tap on the rod should free it.
 
just had the same problem with one of my leverguns the other day. i have no idea how hard it is to come by but a buddy of mine had some cerrosafe chamber casting alloy that we used. use small torch to heat up your chamber then put in a patch just ahead of your chamber to prevent it from going through the barrel, pour cerrosafe in, cerrosafe will harden and create a perfect mold of your chamber including the stuck case. after it hardens tap the cerrosafe out with a rod and your case should come with it. if for some reason your case is extremely jammed in there cerrosafe has a extremely low melting temp and with a bit of heat can be removed.
 
Save a bunch of head ache and order a case extractor for the AR...trying to remove the remainder of the case by 'jack leg' means can do more damage than good...It's a handy tool to keep in your range tool kit...I've loaned mine to others, more than I've needed it... but thoroughly cleaning your chamber will cut down the potential of this happening again...Debris build up from powder residue blow back in not uncommon in semi-autos and ARs with mil-spec chambers are really prone to it...

Also, I'm moving this thread to the AR topic...
 
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I only had a 6.5mm nylon brush but got lucky and a 30 caliber brass brush pulled it right out. I looked at one of those extractor tools and I will add one to my next order from Midway.

The chamber should have been clean, I only fired maybe 20 shots since the last cleaning including one of those chamber/lug brush deals then swabed out with denatured alcohol.

Thanks for the help.

Here's the results.


 
Originally Posted By: Rock KnockerI only had a 6.5mm nylon brush but got lucky and a 30 caliber brass brush pulled it right out. I looked at one of those extractor tools and I will add one to my next order from Midway.

The chamber should have been clean, I only fired maybe 20 shots since the last cleaning including one of those chamber/lug brush deals then swabed out with denatured alcohol.

Thanks for the help.

Here's the results.




I went to the range earlier this week testing loads using lake city brass. I HAD THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPEN. it also seperated in the same place which I also thought was high up. for me a loaded case when in on top of it. and the extractor grabbed the rim of the next case and when I pulled the charging handle it extracted the front of the seperated case.
 
The same thing happened to me but the round that made it partialy into the chamber didn't pull out the old one.

This sounds common but I've shot thousands of rounds with other brass loaded a lot hotter than these fur friendly rounds I was shooting. Not to mention I just got into the habit of cleaning the chamber with a brush instead of just swabing with alcohol.

My tin hat theory is going to cause me to watch this government brass closer. I haven't even shot this mid gas system rifle 100 rounds but all the other brass seems fine. My buddy is using the same reloads in his rifle he adjusted his gas block for cheap 55grn ammo and his AR is undergassed with these loads. 52gr Bergers, 25.5gr H335 and CCI 400 primers, shot around freezing temps. In tested I loaded up to 27gr H335 without issues.
 
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I've had near separations in that location on brass resized to 6x45 that I got with an upper a few years ago. I also thought it was a weird spot to happen.
 
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