Ammo Lesson Learned

[LittleRed]

@FQ13,

Yeah, I'm gonna need a larger bug out bag. I'll look into solar power for the drill press since you can't always count on electricity.

In his defense, the range officer put a towel down first.

@tombogan03884,

The broken shell extractor wouldn't have done anything in my situation since it was a live, unbroken round stuck in the chamber. The broken shell was what the live round "chambered" into and wedged it in there. The extractor make have worked if the shell that broke was the last one in the magazine. Still, I may pick one up. Can't hurt to have it. Thanks for reminding me.

@m25operator,

Thanks for the input. It confirms that most of what transpired followed a logical flow. The only thing I might do different if something like that ever happens again is insist on more care with my rifle. I don't think I'll be doing any drilling or serious banging on live rounds even if they should be inert. The sound of a gunshot in my garage would bring lots of people with flashing lights on their cars to see what the noise was.

I suppose other than "don't be cheap", another lesson is the reinforcement that most rifles are a "system" that not only includes all the working, attached parts of the rifle, but magazines and the ammo itself.

[tombogan03884]

Why didn't you just drive it out with a cleaning rod or dowel ?

[LittleRed]

Tried both. The aluminum cleaning rod bent and the wooden dowel split. This is what ended up pushing the bullet back into the case, after which I flooded it with oil to kill the primer. I wasn't too keen on banging on a bullet inside a case with a live primer. I kinda felt like an idiot for not being able to fix this myself, but everyone at the range, two gun shops, and the machinist had never seen anything this persistent.

[m25operator]

Hey Brother Tom, read my post, it will tell you why it is not the best situation. Works on minor case dimension issues, but not bad ones.