Safely Removing Barrel Obstructions

Someone once said that the best way to remove a barrel obstruction is to remove the possibility of an obstruction occurring in the first place. Well, sometimes that isn’t always possible’obstructions can and do happen’and it can be downright amazing to see the stuff that finds its way into a firearm. Once the hunting season ends, my phone begins to ring with customers wanting to get their equipment cleaned and readied for the next season.

And now and then, I’ll answer the phone and listen as a panic-stricken voice relates a woeful story about a plugged barrel. Diagnosing the cause and cure of a barrel obstruction over the phone is not always easy’or smart’t o do. It’s better to get all the information the customer is willing to relinquish about how the barrel got plugged up, and advise him to bring in the firearm and some of the ammo that was being used when the catastrophic event occurred.

Types of Obstructions The most common obstacle we can expect to find in a barrel is a bullet. This is not unreasonable, since a bullet is supposed to be in a barrel’but usually for only a very short time. If a handload is put together without powder, especially when a Magnum rifle primer is used, a bullet can get stuck a short way past the chamber and throat area. These bullets can normally be knocked out of the chamber from the muzzle end, using a closefitting hardwood or nylon rod.

The bullet usually won’t get upset much from the power of the primer alone, and therefore doesn’t fully engage the grip of the rifling along its bearing surface. A "squib" load is defined as one which has some powder but insufficient power, and doesn’t develop the pressures attributed to a normal cartridge of the same case/caliber. Squib loads may have enough power to get a bullet stuck anywhere from a couple of inches past the chamber to a couple of inches from the muzzle end.

Bullets stuck near the muzzle end are dangerous because they can bulge the barrel or cause it to burst if not removed before another round is fired. Most shooters know enough to stop shooting and investigate the situation if they hear an abnormal report when firing, but this isn’t always the case. In addition to having an insufficient charge thrown when handloading, low-power cartridges can also be caused by deterioration of the ammo.

Ammunition that shows signs of corrosion or prolonged exposure to the weather or moisture should never be used. I tell customers: "When in doubt, throw it out!" A customer once brought in a Colt Police Positive revolver in .22 rimfire caliber that had two bullets stuck in the barrel, one behind the other. The ammo that the owner received along with the revolver was of the same vintage and stored in the same zipper case as the revolver’for who knows how long.

One stuck bullet would probably not have done much harm to the barrel and would have been much easier to remove, but the second round left an obvious ring (bulge) just behind the first stuck bullet. Once both bullets were removed, I had to install a liner to salvage the barrel. When a jacketed bullet powered by a lighter-than-normal load gets stuck somewhere along the bore, the approach to removal gets a bit more involved. The first thing we need to know is where the bullet is lodged.

Depending on the bore size and the type of action involved, we need to insert a cleaning rod of the appropriate size into the barrel (from the breech

if possible), and then mark the cleaning rod where it stops at the muzzle and/or breech end. Lay the cleaning rod along the side of the barrel to see where the stuck bullet is internally. If at all possible, we want to work from the end of the barrel closer to the stuck bullet. Any rod of 1/8-inch diameter or smaller is going to have poor impact strength and will flex sideways and hit the rifling.

Therefore, I’m not much in favor of trying to drive out a jacketed small-caliber bullet that’s stuck near the midpoint in the barrel. What has worked for me is drilling a hole through the center of the bullet to help relieve some of the pressure built up in the bullet from engaging the rifling. To do this, I use a couple of bushings that are made up to closely fit the bore. I’ll discuss this process in detail in a moment. Soft obstructions can be anything from snow, twigs, mud, or patch material.

The remnants of hardened mud can often be removed by flushing with hot water. I use one of those syringe-style marinade injectors used for barbecuing chicken. This is followed up with a cleaning rod and an oiled patch. To keep out the type of debris that could find its way into a barrel during a hunting trip, I tell my customers to put apiece of masking tape over the muzzle or use one of those roll-up, rubber finger protectors.

If the quarry appears suddenly without permitting removal of the tape or finger protector, a bullet will pass through either without any harm to the barrel. Once in awhile a customer will call who has an over-size patch hopelessly jammed in either a shotgun or rifle barrel. What usually works when this situation pops up is to soak the stuck patch with a light oil (Kroil works great) from both ends of the barrel and then plug each end with a cork.

Let the oil saturate the patch overnight with the barrel lying flat on your bench, and then squirt more oil into the bore the next day. After this treatment, the over-size patch can usually be pushed out the chamber end with a cleaning rod. If the patch proves to be stubborn and refuses to cooperate with the Kroil treatment, a "patch worm" will usually do the trick. The one depicted here was made using a brass rod and brass wood screw.

Made up in the appropriate size, it can also be used to remove a lead .22-rimfire bullet that’s stuck in a barrel. In this case, the head of the screw was turned off in the lathe, but it could just as easily have been ground or filed off. One end of the brass rod was turned flat and square with the O. D. of the rod, center drilled, and then drilled with a twist drill slightly above the diameter of the brass screw shank. The wood screw is then soldered into the end of the brass rod.

In use, the brass screw is turned into the patch or bullet, and then locking-style pliers are clamped to the other end of the rod. Tapping on the jaws of the locking pliers with a small lead-faced hammer will get the bullet or patch moving. Drilling the Bullet Before any drilling begins, we first need to do some calculations to prevent damage to the bore and rifling when removing a stuck bullet. For the example depicted here, we’re dealing with a .30 caliber (.308) barrel and bullet.

Rifling grooves are usually formed to a depth of .005 to .006 inch, so we multiply the groove depth by 2 and subtract that figure from the actual bore diameter of .308 inch, which gives usa diameter of .296 inch. After the location of the bullet has

been determined, we need to make up a couple of bushings to guide the drill into the center of the bullet and away from the barrel’s inside walls. I prefer brass as a material to make these bushing from, but there’s no reason aluminum wouldn’t work as well. Starting with apiece of 1/2-inch brass round stock 1 inch long, turn one end to a .295-inch diameter for a length of .750 inch, leaving a shoulder around 1/4inch wide by 1/2-inch diameter that will stop against the muzzle end of the barrel.

A center hole is then drilled full length with a #11 ( .191 inch) drill that will allow a 3/16-inch drill rod to easily slide through. Another bushing is then turned from 5/16-inch brass round stock to a diameter of .295 inch, 2-1/2 inches long, and again, drilled through the center with the #11 drill bit. Both inside diameters of this bushing can then be chamfered, with one end of one bushing chamfered within .060 inch from the outside diameter with a 30-degree, included-angle chamfer tool.

This end of the bushing will go into the barrel and come to rest on the end of a pointed bullet, keeping the drill bit centered on the bullet tip during the drilling process. A drill bit extension will be needed to reach through both bushings and get the drill bit centered on the bullet tip. For the caliber involved here, 3/16-inch-diameter drill rod, 14 inches long, was used. A 3-foot length of 3/16-inch drill rod is cheap at about $2just make sure the one you buy is as straight as possible.

One end of this drill rod is chucked in the lathe and then faced square and the outside diameter edge is then chamfered and polished. The center of this end is then drilled with a center drill and then with a 1/8-inch-diameter drill bit to a depth of 3/4 inch. The shank of a 1/8-inch drill bit is then ground on each side of the shank, producing flats to help hold it in place after it is soldered into this hole.

If the bullet is stuck just a couple of inches past the chamber on a boltaction rifle, or if the action allows getting into the barrel from the rear, it may prove easier to drill a hole through the bullet’s center from the action end. In this situation, a spent cartridge case, preferably one that was fired in the same gun, can be used as a bushing to guide the drill from this end. Chuck the fired case in the lathe and then drill out the primer pocket with the #11 drill bit and you have a guiding bushing.

From this end, you would first insert the bushing made to fit inside the bore, then the drilledout case, and then the drill extension. Flood the bore with light oil. We want some of the oil to find its way along the sides of the bullet after the pressure is relieved along the bearing surface of the bullet once the drilling is started. The drill extension can be turned with a hand drill or with a variable-speed power drill, but go slowly and remove the lead chips often.

Let the drill do the cutting and don’t push too forcefully. Once we have a 1/8-inch-diameter hole drilled through the center of the stuck bullet, most of the pressure between the bullet’s bearing surface and the rifling becomes relieved. Letter "M" drill rod has an outside diameter of .295 inch and will fit very well into a .308 bore. Chuck up a 26inch length of the drill rod in the lathe, and square up one end and then chamfer the outside edge.

Using a file, carefully radius this edge and polish it with 400-grit emery paper and then on a buffing wheel. We need to eliminate any sharp edges, as this will be our bullet-removal driving rod, and any sharp edges may ding the rifling. Insert this rod into the bore until it stops on the end of the now-hollow bullet. Squirt more Kroil into the bore and start with light hammer taps on the end of the driving rod until you feel movement of the stuck bullet.

Once the bullet gives and starts to move, it can then be easily driven out of the bore. I