[fez]

I got up early this Christmas am and had a little time to kill. So I figured I'd throw this out there.
This only relates to factory ammo not reloads.
Sometimes I'll spot check ammo. Various calibers and guns. I'll point the gun down and drop a round in the chamber. Then point it up to see if the round drops out easily. Some rounds do not drop out. Some even have to be pried out. What can cause a unfired round to get stuck this easily? I'm not pushing it in the chamber. Just dropping it in. Never could figure it out. Thanks and Merry Xmas.

 

[jonnin]

is it engaging the rifling just enough? Is it a 9mm, where the case is designed to catch at a certain depth? Is it a soft lead bullet? Those 3 can do it. A dirty chamber can do it. How much force to pry it out? It shouldn't take much, but it obviously would be more than the round's weight.

 

[fez]

is it engaging the rifling just enough? Is it a 9mm, where the case is designed to catch at a certain depth? Is it a soft lead bullet? Those 3 can do it. A dirty chamber can do it. How much force to pry it out? It shouldn't take much, but it obviously would be more than the round's weight.

Happens at times with various manufacturers and calibers. Can't tell about the engagement. I only use fmj. Chambers are clean and smooth. When it happens a small screwdriver pops it out. The worst were some Maxx Tech steel ammo. I chambered a live round and went to eject it and could not pull the slide back. Had to push against the table edge.

 

[Toakey45036]

I imagine you are just seeing the impact of manufacturing tolerances. As we all know everything is manufactured to a specification which has a plus/minus tolerance. Maybe your gun's chamber is slightly undersized, but still within acceptable limits. And maybe ammo "X" is slightly oversized, but still within acceptable limits. But when you put the round "X" in the chamber, it's snug.
Another real life example of this condition is - earlier this year I was shooting a new revolver. I shot 50 rounds of one mfg. ammo and the casings were starting to get difficult to load into the cylinder and extract. I switched to a different brand ammo and the bullets fell into the chambers and after firing they came out with very little effort using the extractor. Happy Holidays Guys!

 

[Beastly]

You can use a sharpie to mark the bullet and even case. Drop in round, spin it if possible, pull it out and see where the sharpie marks are removed. A sharp line around the (jacketed) bullet is the rifling. A broader area is probably the bullet nose profile against the leade. Remanufactured ammo may be bulged at the base area where the brass collapsed during resizing. Etc. etc.

 

[Charley]

Factory ammo, I would tend to blame tolerances as well. "stacking" so to speak. Tight (but still in spec) chamber, mid level tolerance ammo, OK. Tight chamber, and upper end ammo, slight stickiness. On a rifle, can also be short leade or throat, and long bullet, going to stick most likely.

 

[fez]

Thanks for the education. Just like to know what's going on at times. Usually when shooting there is no problem. Except for the Maxx Tech 9mm. Numerous chokes.

 

[guru2sum]

Could be the round was dropped/squeezed in manufacture or shipping, producing a slightly obround case or bullet. A caliper could be used to check if the offending round is not perfectly circular.