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Case head separation,what tool to extract case

My son spent 24 years in the Air Force, first 12 as a gunsmith a MOS I think they no long have. Shortly after he transferred to a different MOS because there was little rank to be had in it, he was transferred to Idaho. I went to visit and we were hunting deer and he received a message to call the base. Well we ended up at the base. The Colonel was hunting, shot at and missed a deer and had a case separation leaving the front 2/3 In the chamber. We walk into the armory and there is a group gathered around a guy holding a rifle looking pissed off. So they look at my boy and said we can't get it out. He said he had never encountered that and did not have a clue. I shook my head and said, It 's easy. Pissed off guy looks and me, Who are You? I point to my son and said his dad and sorry he can't fix it, but I can. So they got me a brush and a rod , I fixed it and the Colonel thanked me. I told him I was visiting from Pa hunting with my son for another day but then he had duty. Colonel said how many more days are you here. Three I replied. Colonel looked at my son, Your off next three days, thank your father. Out the door he went. So the first time I had this experience I was 14 and had a case separation in my Savage 340 .222. I thought about it, found a fat wood screw and engaged it in the case and it came right out with needle nose pliers. So, more than one way to solve the problrm.
 
7mm or 30 cal bore brush will take care of it every time.
That's what I had read, but my 300wm case was STUCK. I tried everything, including ordering the 'stuck case removal tool' which just couldn't grab it. I ended up taking a hacksaw blade and with my grinder made one end thin enough to fit into the chamber and GENTLY cut a slot in the remaining brass. I then took a small screwdriver and GENTLY curled up one edge and then grabbed it with long needle-nose pliers.
The only other time I ever had one it came right out with a brass brush.
 
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Alternate option:
Get some epoxy in putty form like JB Weld SteelStik. Roll putty into a ball the diameter of the case body and drop it into the case through the action. Use a dowel to tamp it firmly into the case. Let the epoxy set. Tap the case out with a cleaning rod or dowel from the muzzle.
 
I end taking a hacksaw blade and with my grinder made one end thin enough to fit into the chamber and GENTLY cut a slot in the remaining brass. I then took a small screwdriver and GENTLY curled up one edge and then grabbed it with long needle-nose pliers.
Surgery!
 
Wrap a strip of cloth on an old fashioned cleaning jag, so it barely fits the case mouth. Push the jag through so the case mouth is about the mid point of the jag, then pull on it and it will come out.

The old fashioned jags look like this

 
Cerrosafe alloy is the tool when all the Macguyvering fails. Put a patch in the bore just past the throat an inch. Make a paper cone from a sheet of paper and a piece of tape. Insert funnel cone in to chamber. Melt cerrosafe and pour in chamber. Let it cool completely. Tap the case out with a rod.

I tried all the brushes and ad hoc hooks trying to pull a hornet case front. Only the cerrosafe worked. I had a 5.56 ruptured case extractor but couldn’t find it, still cannot find it. Found my .303 one not that it would fit.

Cerrosafe is what gunsmiths use after trying the quick methods. It’s the stuff used to do chamber castings on old guns to determine their true chambering.
 

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