Tried my stoner out today and got a stuck round...suggestions?

Dultimatpredator

Dultimatpredator

Well-known member
First three rounds smooth as silk. The fourth round “click”. The bolt carrier wasn’t completely shut. It was open about a 1/2” or so. The bolt was open just far enough that the assist wouldn’t engage. I tried to pull the charging handle with everything I had and it wasn’t coming. I had a guy at the range try as well. I did manage to remove the lower before we tried so the trigger group was removed for safety purposes. I ended up taking it home and used a wooden ruler to remove it. I inserted it into the bolt carrier group slot and gently tapped it out the bolt holding onto the casing. The case came out slowly dumping powder and lodged bullet stayed stuck in the lands in the barrel. I then tapped out the projectile out with my dewy rod With one light hit of my hand.

Well, the ammo I used(my fault) was a 90 grain Sierra FMJ that I loaded long for my bolt 700. I loaded these about a decade ago and forgot I loaded them long. I take it the case must have expanded a little with the bolt slamming? Or maybe it felt that way because pulled it from the stuck bullet as I tapped it out? The case did have scratch marks all the way around it like it might have been to big in diameter as well which is weird since I full length size my brass.

Well, I learned my lesson, to load to Sami spec or shorter in my AR243.
 
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This is just something I wonder, is there any chance you put in a round without the bullet being fully seated? If the gun did not go into battery and the bolt stuck back because of sizing issue. Then how did the bullet get driven into the lands! It should have been short of getting there.
 
The bolt didn’t get stuck back it slammed the extra long round into the chamber and didn’t completely close staying open about a half inch or so.

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Yes... I wonder if there might have not been enough neck tension on the 4th round and recoil pulled it out? All I know is they were loaded longer than Sami.
 
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But if the bullet came loose or seated too long the case itself was stuck and all scratched up when a tapped it out. You could see a couple of worn buldges where it got stuck. I’m just going to load up some fresh ammo to spec and start over.
 
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It was either the bullet jammed in the lands or your brass was work-hardened and you had some spring back and you lost some of your shoulder setback. Sounds like you're on the right track but I would just get new brass and start again. However if you want to go on the cheap just order up some 70 grain Dogtown mine seems to really like it. On top of that I don't think you can even load for that price
 
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Is advised from the above poster I took one of my spent casings and smoked one of my projectiles and inserted it into my action. I shut the carrier and had to tap it out since the expanded, spent casing stuck again. I did this four times and took measurements every time. The measurements...2.623, 2.649, 2.621, and 2.623.

There lies my problem. The rounds I shot through the rifle were 2.688”...to long. Two of three spent casings had cracked necks as well. That brass was purchased new in 99’ by me and never counted how many times fired...and I never annealed it as I do as a common practice now.

I loaded up 20 to try at 2.585” in some federal once fired casings given to me recently. I FL sized them and pin tumbled. I didn’t bother trimming the case necks because all I wanted to do was test functionality of the rifle. I do have a ladder test of 55 grain Nosier‘s that I’ll take with to try once I make sure the rifle works fine with the new test ammo. I’ll make sure to take the rifle apart and clean it first as well.



I think I’ve only cracked one case in the thousands of thousands of rounds I’ve shot in the past and then had two in a row yesterday.

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Stuck case and projectile....

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Thanks for the help. I almost winged it and was going to load at recommended max Sami length and try again. If I did I’d been in the same boat. Didn’t expect my chamber to be as short as it was. Lesson learned.
 
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If I recall the ogive sits way back on the 70 grain Nosler ballistic tip and I think the 55 as well. You should be able to load them longer then a lot of other bullets.
 
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Originally Posted By: varminter .223If I recall the ogive sits way back on the 70 grain Nosler ballistic tip and I think the 55 as well. You should be able to load them longer then a lot of other bullets.


Not the 55’s there’s no bullet to seat. You have no choice than to load it Way shorter than Sami just because the bullet is half the length of a normal size 243 projectile. I believe they are about the shortest 243 projectile made.


There are also no crimp grooves on any of the projectiles I use so crimping is out. My AR10 is so heavy there is virtually no recoil to knock the bullets loose. If I was shooting an extremely light AR or 450 bushmaster I would consider crimping even though it hinders accuracy and will open groups up. How many competitor target shooter do you know that crimp their loads...zero. My lighter POF P415 I don’t crimp and have zero problems with.


I crimp all my straight wall pistol loads and cartridges as well...and 35 rem when it gets loaded in my 336. I don't crimp them in my special run 7600 carbine though.


I’m going to guess my necks cracked because the loaded ammo wasn’t all the way chambered and over expanded the necks when fired in guessing? You can tell from the picture that the shoulders are almost round VS a sharp edge as I normally would see in a fired case.
 
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No, the ones that fired were fully chambered or they wouldn't have fired. The necks cracked because it's old work hardened brass, and you're chamber neck might be on the big side, and the bullets were jammed causing high pressure. Pick one, two, or all three.

They were all loaded too long for the chamber, and the first three jammed the bullet into the lands. That massive bcg has a lot of force when it slams shut. The fourth case had some spring back memory and was slightly too fat for the chamber. That, coupled with the bullet being jammed, caused it to stick.

Are these the first rounds in this upper that I've read so much about since last winter?
 
Going forward, try your resized brass in the chamber, before filling with powder or seating a bullet. If it doesn't chamber, and extract easily, stop and figure out why.

Now find where the bullet hits the lands, and stay somewhere short of that. I like at least 5 thousandths short for an ar that will be used for hunting as I want unfired rounds to extract easily, and I want no possibility of a round not chambering fully. Probaby 10 thousandths is more like it unless accuracy suffers a bunch.

There's lots of methods of doing this, I feel chambering a bullet in a split neck casing and extracting and measuring is the least reliable but some have good luck I suppose.
 
Yes, same one, I never received a scope mount for it till a couple weeks ago so I never got around to firing till now. I did put a spent case with the same bullet in the chamber and closed the bolt carrier so I could measure where it touched the lands. The shortest measurement I got was 2.621” so I loaded 20 rounds up in newer brass that I anealed first at 2.585”. I figured that should be short enough for a good clearance. I tried chambering a couple different spent rounds with besides the one with the split neck case and got the same readings with the 90 grain FMJBT. It’s the way I’ve always done it since I’ve reloaded for the past couple decades. Just forgot these were old rounds that I loaded long...so my fault, not the gun’s...and those casings I bought back in 99’. They were never anealed and shot so many times I lost count. Thanks for the advise and answers to my problem. Hopefully the neck chamber is not a little large and just caused by the high pressured loads and old brass. Fingers crossed. I’ll have to go try it Tuesday after the busy holiday weekend is over.
 
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I’ll remove my upper as well and drop in the newly loaded rounds to make sure they drop all the way in as well. If not I’ll be pulling them and resizing with my sizer die turned down another quarter turn( for a total of a half turn down) and testing again. My common practice has always been to turn a quarter turn down after bottoming out on the shell plate with my bolt actions.
 
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I would definately invest in a Hornady headspace guage so you can check fired length and bump shoulder accordingly. So simple and so slick to use. Takes all the guess work out.
 
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I ordered a Lyman single caliber 243 checker gauge. I also tried the newly loaded rounds and they fit fine in the barrel. They look like the second from left pic that says OK normal. I wasn’t sure at first and was expecting the round to sit flush when seated.

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I also took an empty sized case and tried it. Seated the same. I also turned my FL sizing die down down a total of a half turn on an empty case and tried again. It seated and slid in the same. Kept up with the experiment and adjusted the FL sizer die down 3/4 of a turn denting the middle of the case...it slid in and seated the same.


I then inserted the case that got stuck and it slowly grabbed all the way down and stopped, sticking out about a 1/2” or more. So it was Wasn't sized properly or just overworked brass that sprung back. I also stuck in one of the to long, 2.688” loads. It stopped about a good 1/16” to 1/8” out instead of being flush. I would assume the bolt slammed hard enough knocking the projectile in far enough so it would fire.
 
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I just ordered a rcbs 11407 SB die set. Found one listed, new, opened, lol, for $30 shipped on eBay.

I wonder how much accuracy suffer with a little looser case fit?
 
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