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 8mm Mauser Squib . . . GRRRRR 
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I loaded up some new 8mm Mauser yesterday and went to the range to try them out over the chronograph.

I loaded the first round into the gun (K98k), closed the bolt, aimed . . . *click*. After having a "WTF moment," I opened the bolt and pulled out the empty case . . . with a nice indent on the primer, and a little bit of loose powder spilling out. I removed the bolt and looked down the barrel . . . and did not see daylight. :((

That ended my 8mm Mauser shooting for the day.

This morning I tackled the squib; the bullet was just barely into the barrel, still near the chamber. Let me tell you, removing a bullet from a long rifle barrel is very different than doing it with a short pistol barrel!

First I (somewhat) gently tried a cleaning rod. No go.

Then I went to the store and bought a wood dowel. Whack whack whack, the pointed bullet just split that end of the dowel and jammed it all up. I finally managed to get it out, then decided to put a brass jag between the dowel and the bullet. That seemed like a good idea until I broke the dowel right near the muzzle. angryfire I was pretty sure I was totally FUBAR'd at that point, with a bullet, a jag, and 20" of dowel firmly jammed into the barrel. (The dowel was almost a net fit in the bore; it was a 5/16" dowel, lightly sanded down.) But I finally got lucky and managed to get the dowel out (and the jag) with the help of Vise-Grips.

Damn.

So then it was off to another store, and I managed to get 1/4" and 5/16" brass rods. The 5/16" was too large, but the 1/4" worked. Whack, whack, whack . . . and something finally fell out of the barrel and landed on the floor . . . but the bullet was still in the barrel! A few more whacks and the bullet came out too. Here's what I had:

Image

Yup, a little "powder plug" that had been firmly jammed up against the back of the bullet!

See the yellowish stuff on the powder? Well, I can't know this for sure but I suspect it might be the Hornady One Shot case lube that I use. It's not supposed to harm powder or primers, but I wonder if I had a little too much inside that case and it just gummed up the powder.

I really don't know. Thoughts?

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Sat Oct 15, 2011 3:38 pm
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I'll let others chime in on the technical end of this discussion, but I would like to stake my knowledge on the fact that it's not supposed to do that.


Sat Oct 15, 2011 3:47 pm
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Wow, Your building quite the memory shelf there. That will look good right next to the split 7.62 x 54r. So are you going to pull some of your other loads apart? Or have you already? Glad you were able to get that out.

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Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:50 pm
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olydemon wrote:
So are you going to pull some of your other loads apart?


Hell no . . . I'm gonna shoot 'em!

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Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:52 pm
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MadPick wrote:
olydemon wrote:
So are you going to pull some of your other loads apart?


Hell no . . . I'm gonna shoot 'em!


Well at least you have the supplies to get the load out of the barrel.....

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Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:53 pm
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True. I'm going to put a 3-foot brass rod and a claw hammer in my range bag, just in case. :D

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Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:59 pm
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MadPick wrote:
olydemon wrote:
So are you going to pull some of your other loads apart?


Hell no . . . I'm gonna shoot 'em!



I like this method of removal... thumbsup

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Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:05 pm
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A GI Cleaning rod and a Ball Peen Hammer. Harbor freight has some nice short handled ones that fit in a "range bag" real nice.

BTW, removing a rifle round is exactly like removing one from a pistol. A big pain in the ass only needing longer tools.

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Sun Oct 16, 2011 7:12 am
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MadPick wrote:
olydemon wrote:
So are you going to pull some of your other loads apart?


Hell no . . . I'm gonna shoot 'em!


OH YEAH BITCHES, I DIDN'T BACK DOWN!!! I went back to the range today, loaded up the next round, and PULLED THE TRIGGER! icon_super

*click*

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!

So I guess it's time to get out the old bullet puller . . . right after I get down hammering that one out of the barrel. Afuckinggain. angryfire

Anyone want to buy some 8mm reloads? jestera

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Sun Oct 16, 2011 7:04 pm
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Check the smell of your powder. If it has an acetone odor it is degrading and time to replace it.I have used the Hornady one shot case lube for longer than I can remember and have never had a reloading problem that could be traced to the one shot.
Sounds like time to pull bullets and start over........OR get an old, straight radio antenna with the 30 cal ball on the end thumbsup

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Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:42 pm
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MadPick wrote:
MadPick wrote:
olydemon wrote:
So are you going to pull some of your other loads apart?


Hell no . . . I'm gonna shoot 'em!


OH YEAH BITCHES, I DIDN'T BACK DOWN!!! I went back to the range today, loaded up the next round, and PULLED THE TRIGGER! icon_super

*click*

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!

So I guess it's time to get out the old bullet puller . . . right after I get down hammering that one out of the barrel. Afuckinggain. angryfire

Anyone want to buy some 8mm reloads? jestera


Don't give up yet. I bet the third one will shoot just fine. :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:24 pm
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Walt wrote:
Don't give up yet. I bet the third one will shoot just fine. :lol: :lol: :lol:


:bash:

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Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:44 am
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Well, I finally got back to the 8mm Mauser loads. I gave my remaining round at the starting charge a shake, plus all of those at the higher charges, and they sounded just fine -- I could hear powder swishing back and forth in there.

MadPick wrote:
Walt wrote:
Don't give up yet. I bet the third one will shoot just fine. :lol: :lol: :lol:


:bash:


So I took Walt's advice. Wanna guess how this is going to end?? :-ss

Round #3 at the starting charge: click-BANG! The good news is that it fired. The bad news is that I heard a slight delay between the click and the bang.

I worked my way through the remaining rounds, getting higher on the charges. And they sucked. Some fired just fine, but I also had:

- One serious hangfire, maybe one second . . . just long enough to put the chronograph in serious danger.
- One dud that wouldn't fire at all.
- One more squib.

But fortunately, I had brought my big rod (the brass one, too) to the range, so I pounded out that squib. Now that all of the reloads were fired, I was going to try some Yugo surplus.

So I loaded up the mag, and chambered the first one. The bolt seemed a little hard to close, but I didn't think too much of it. I fired the round -- BANG! -- and all was well. Until I tried to eject the empty, and the bolt would just barely move....

I pounded and hammered on that thing, and I couldn't get the bolt open. I finally emptied the mag (from below), and that seemed to loosen something up, and I was able to crank the bolt open and eject the empty. Here's a photo of the chamber (AFTER all of that!) and the Yugo case after I got it out:

Image

Image

There was powder EVERYWHERE, left over from that last squib. It appears that I had loaded the live Yugo round into a filthy chamber, and when I fired it expanded the brass over the powder granules. This effectively "locked" the brass in place, which is why I had a hell of a time ejecting it.

Here's the bottom line:

- This was, by far, my worst reloading "adventure." I fucked up on multiple levels here.
- I still think (though I'm not sure) that the problem was an overabundance of lube. I've used this powder in other calibers and it has worked just fine.
- Once I had that first squib, and realized that it was due to a "bad" load and not just lack of powder, I should have pulled the rest of the bullets.
- I was way too cavalier about chambering fresh ammo into a gun that obviously had something "wrong," because the bolt wasn't closing easily.

I hosed this one up good. I'm posting the story so y'all can get a laugh at my expense, and maybe learn a little. thumbsup

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Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:11 pm
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So what's next Steve. Going to continue to refine the load or just stick to Yugo and claim this rifle as hexed?


Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:25 pm
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What's next is doing this again, starting from scratch! And being more careful with the lube. :)

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Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:27 pm
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