Inspect your rifles!

[M700]

Talked to a local gunsmith yesterday. Great guy, very thorough with his work... He bought a used Rem 700 in .250 Savage, a really neat cartridge. Handloaded for it, and shot it... Somewhere along the line he decided to try loading long, and seeing about touching the lands & grooves, or at least approaching them. As he was doing so, he found a "bump" in the chamber, before contacting the rifling...

Figured it was carbon buildup or something, but was unable to clean it out. On closer inspection, gulp, it turned out to be the remnants of a brass case neck, firmly lodged in the chamber!

So far it's been difficult to extract, but he's working on it... Interestingly, the rifle shot pretty well, even with the bullets passing through that little chunk of brass that was lodged in the barrel, like a shiny little brass ring...

So... For what it's worth - please inspect your rifles, particularly those that you pick up used... My friendly local gunsmith didn't suffer any harm from this little problem, but results could have been bad had the obstruction been worse.

Doggone case remnant wasn't even visible until he started trying to clear it out of there and ended up polishing the brass piece stuck in the barrel!

Yet another odd thing in the world of shooting...

Regards, Guy

 

[chino1969]

Talked to a local gunsmith yesterday. Great guy, very thorough with his work... He bought a used Rem 700 in .250 Savage, a really neat cartridge. Handloaded for it, and shot it... Somewhere along the line he decided to try loading long, and seeing about touching the lands & grooves, or at least approaching them. As he was doing so, he found a "bump" in the chamber, before contacting the rifling...

Figured it was carbon buildup or something, but was unable to clean it out. On closer inspection, gulp, it turned out to be the remnants of a brass case neck, firmly lodged in the chamber!

So far it's been difficult to extract, but he's working on it... Interestingly, the rifle shot pretty well, even with the bullets passing through that little chunk of brass that was lodged in the barrel, like a shiny little brass ring...

So... For what it's worth - please inspect your rifles, particularly those that you pick up used... My friendly local gunsmith didn't suffer any harm from this little problem, but results could have been bad had the obstruction been worse.

Doggone case remnant wasn't even visible until he started trying to clear it out of there and ended up polishing the brass piece stuck in the barrel!

Yet another odd thing in the world of shooting...

Regards, Guy

Another good reason to invest in a borescope.
Chino69

 

[jwv2001]

What I don't understand is how he could even chamber any round if there was anything in the chamber? Are you saying that this piece of brass moved up into the barrel or stayed in the chamber. Didn't the guy look through the barrel? Either way I don't see how it could happen as described.

 

[M700]

Apparently it's a bit,dunno how big, he hasn't got it out yet) of the brass case neck that came off the case, and stayed in the throat area of the rifle. Forms a nice little ring in there. Right before the where the rifling starts.

Couldn't see it on visual inspection, but ya can now,'cause it's pretty well polished up from him trying to grab it and pull it out with a bronze brush.

That didn't work. He's got a couple of other tricks up his sleeve, but I won't be surprised if he has to resort to running a .250 reamer in there. To me, it seems to be essentially welded or bonded in there, after a number of rounds have been fired with it in place. He's shot it some, and the previous owner shot it quite a bit. Previous owner apparently didn't notice when he extracted a case that was a bit short.

Gotta remember, some factory throats are pretty doggone generous. Guess this might be one reason why...

Described it about as best I can. One of those things I'd much rather show a photo of, if I had one. There's a ring of the brass case at the deep end of the chamber, in the throat area. Hard to say how many rounds were fired across it before my buddy got the rifle. Just another one of those strange things that happen in the shooting world...

I'll update when he gets it out...

Regards, Guy

 

[tightneck]

That sounds like the ultimate throat protector to me. Don't have to worry about erosion till the brass wears out!!!