Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing How to remove a stuck case/cartridge from chamber?

I made the mistake of trying to chamber a round that apparently had not been full length resized and was previously shot in a different rifle. Now it is stuck. I mean REALLY stuck. It was live/unfired and I tried to 'carefully' push/knock it out with a cleaning rod (no squib rod). At that point I wasn't sure if I had pushed the bullet all the way into the case or not and had even tried some WD40 in the barrel (followed by carb cleaner) so I tried to fire it remotely (gun in vise, string on trigger). Not 100% sure if the primer fired (hearing protection on from a distance) but it was well struck and the powder did not ignite. The powder may be inert at this point, who knows.
In any case, I presume my only option left is to take it to a smith and I guess they'll use something like this? http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=972/Product/STUCK-CASE-PULLER
Any other ideas?
It's a .243win case in a Vanguard that was previously shot in a 700 for added trivia.
Thanks.

bring it to a gunsmith safest and cheapist in the long run.

Ed

I presumed, just wanted to make sure there wasn't any other "do this first" things out there. Any idea what would be a ballpark charge for such?

Try putting some Kroil down the barrel and let it soak for a day or two and then try extracting it again. This stuff really gets into tight places and loosen it up .

More than one person has been killed pounding a stuck round
out. If you want to risk the primer still being live you can
use a snug fitting drill rod and a hammer. The best by far
is to go to a gunsmith.

You should thank your lucky stars it didn't actually fire.. Ye Gods..
Nope - just prudent advice - GET IT TO A GUNSMITH before you do anything else... And warn him/her about what you've done so far..

Sleep well folks. It's at a gunsmith's right now.

Good. Unscrewing a barrel ain't all that hard if you have the tools...

brownells stuck case remover. that is what most gunsmiths use.
if you unscrew the barrel you still have a stuck case. good luck

most stuck case removers only work on cases that the head separated from and not a live round stuck in the chamber. The Brownell has a collet that grips the case head and may work .

I had the same problem, a once fired 7mm Rem case resized to 257WM live round stuck in the chamber. I was going to update my tread on it today, since I am getting back from the smith today.
First I tried a cleaning rod down the barrel, did not work, I bought a Brownells stuck case remover but did not fit in a Vanguard action, as advised here, took it to a smith and he had to unscrew the barrel.

Really? Last conversation the smith had still not gotten it out. I was about to lose patience thinking I'd just get my rifle back and purchase the Brownells tool myself but I guess that's not an option.

Ya, they had the Vanguard listed as one that it would fit in but it is about a 1/32 larger in diameter then where the bold exits the reciever. It would have had to been turned down on a lathe.

that is the one i use, with the collet. i rigged it up to a slide hammer. it has never failed

Not trying to be a smart ass here. but what does a gunsmith do that I can't do? Is there a secret formula for removing stuck rounds? What do you do with it? Just trying to learn something. Butch

If the Brownel will fit, it is very simple, just get the collet over the back of the case rim, tighten the collet, and use the built in slide hammer, making sure the muzzle and back of the reciever is pointed in a save direction if a live round just in case of a discharge. My smith had to build special barrel blocks and unscrew the barrel to get mine out since the Brownels did not fit.

One of these stuck case remover should be all the hard to make.

that was my piont.. just buy the stuck case remover (not the broken shell extractor) kinda funny that was my first gunsmith project. gunsmiths wanted 100 dolars or more and gave me a line of bs all the crap about deep frezing and such. i called brownells and they said if there tool doesnt work send it back for a refund. that was about 25 years ago.

When faced with a cartridge which was well and truly stuck and could not be fired, I devised various methods of dealing with it.
I started by removing the barrel. If the bolt was still in the rifle and the extractor was engaged, the case would occasionally come out as the barrel was unscrewed. If it did not (the normal state of affairs), I would then slip an RCBS shellholder onto the cartridge- assuming there was enough cartridge protrusion to allow this- and using a pair of screwdrivers, pry the cartridge out. This was usually successful. If it was not and the rim tore off, this meant the job was going to be difficult.
One of the worst I encountered was a 338 built on a P14 action. The P14 has a lot of camming power but even so, it was not possible to close the bolt. It was possible to really stick that cartridge in there. The customer had, of course, tried to push the cartridge out with a rod and had shoved the bullet back into the powder space. The shellholder trick did not work and the rim did tear off. What to do?
I poured the barrel full of coolant (water soluble oil) then chucked it in the lathe. I carefully cut away the head of the case until the primer fell out then faced the brass of until I could get the powder out. I then bored the case until it was pretty thin and used a carefully shaped and polished chisel to collapse the brass and remove it. As I recall, I charged the customer 75 dollars for this and he was aghast the I would charge so much just for removing a stuck cartridge!
One old timer told me of just heating the head of the case with a propane torch until it fired and blew the head off. I have never posessed the stones to attempt this method! GD

I charged a customer $175.00 many years ago to remove a stuck round from his Ruger 77. Of course that price included removing the broken cleaning rod and jammed tip section of a fishing pole. The bore was unscathed so I felt the charge appropriate. I always charge extra if I have to drill a hole next to the primer so as to render it and the powder inert before the machine work.