round stuck in G26: slide is locked perhaps 1/4″ back

[Joe in Missouri]

FWIW I had this happen once before when I had an under powered load for the 124g RMR MPR HP.

Today I loaded 124g Berrys plated (I believe) hybrid hollow point.
I reduced the load of Ramshot Silouette to 5.5g.
The first 2 rounds cycled and the 3rd one locked the gun.

My main question now is how to get the round out of the G26?
I recently did this once before but don’t recall what worked!

Any help much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

[Joe in Missouri]

I solved this by hitting the back of the slide to put the pistol into battery an fired the round.
The slide then functioned and the brass ejected.

Would love to figure out what was going on though…

I should run some more rounds through with 5.5g of silhouette to see if this can be reproduced.
What I am more likely to do it to go to the 6g that I was using for jacked bullets and see how that works.
Having ammo stuck in my gun scares me from a tactical standpoint.

Any thoughts still much appreciated.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Joe in Missouri.

[Billy B]

Joe, If I understand your post correctly, the slide did NOT go into battery, fully and the slide on your G26 was about 1/4 inch “open”. If that’s correct, you might check your Overall Length of the suspect round. It could be TOO long to allow that round to go into the chamber, preventing the slide from going completely into battery. It may be hard to get the OAL, since you probably had to use a wooden dowel and a hammer to remove this round, huh? I’ve had this happen, a few times, on my Keltec PF-9 and had to seat the projectile a small amount deeper in the case. This is a particular problem with bullets that have a more rounded face, as the shoulders can hit the front of the chamber, if the OAL is too long for that particular pistol. I hope this helps.
BTW, I’m from Missouri too.
Good luck

[Joe in Missouri]

I am a newbie to loading pistol rounds but I did manage to do a plunk and spin test on the round at an OAL of 1.100″.
It is definitely clear of the rifling and spins easily.
I think the round did not have enough umph. (charge) is what caused the problem.
A problem I still don’t understand fully why the slide would not pull back ( I hit it into battery) until I discharged the round.

I didn’t want to use 6g with a plated bullet, but went ahead and added 0.5g to bring the charge up to 6g of Silouette.

So far that seems to have solved the problem and I am getting the 1050-1150 FPS that Berry;s recommends for their 124g hybrid HP.
Not too sure about accuracy yet.

FWIW I am a little east of Springfield Billy. Out in the country.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by Joe in Missouri.

[B.Sauer]

It sounds like the case was bulged. If the COAL is fine and the round didn’t chamber without bashing the back of the slide, the case was bulged. Be sure to check each case after you size them in a Wilson case gauge. If the empty case won’t drop in flush with the gauge and drop out, the case is bulged and won’t chamber in a normal to tight barrel chamber. It is usually referred as the “Glock bulge” because Glock chambers are typically not fully supported and will cause a bulge on the fired case near the case head. You can search the internet for the most common ways to get rid of the bulge in a case. I use the Lee bulge buster. I may get 10 bulged cases out of 100 from the range brass I pick up. A bulged case round will not chamber in my Springfield 1911, it will do exactly as you explained.

[Jacob Wilcox]

Yeah, this is often caused by a bulged casing near the rim. It happens when someone shoots a hot load through an unsupported chamber. Usually you can fix it by making sure your sizing die has a little cam over but sometimes that isn’t enough. A bulge buster will fix it but it adds another step.

[Joe in Missouri]

Thank you guys. I just saw your posts today. 11-21-22

I am a bit confused as to if a Wilcox 9mm case gauge will reject a case with a Glock bulge?

If this ever happens again with a loaded round I would like to verify any physical dimensions that are off and may
have caused the problem.

Going to go look at bulge busters again.
I recall a little bit about doing this.
Thanks again

*** I FOUND THIS: NOTE: 9mm cases are not able to be used in the Bulge Buster because it has a slightly tapered case and the rim is not completely flush with the case

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Joe in Missouri.

[Joe in Missouri]

UPDATE since I can not edit the previous post….

I am being told to use a “LEE PRECISION 90807, Carbide Factory Crimp Die, 9x18mm”
Not a buldge buster?

Still a bit confused as how to deal with this if I have a lot of bulged cases.

Thanks

[B.Sauer]

You are correct about Lee not supporting or advising using the bulge buster on 9mm due to the case rim and slight taper. They used to not advise against it, but now do. However, using the bulge buster with the 9x18mm (Makarov) die, it will work. You force the case up thru the die which will remove the bulge near the rim. I use mine more for .45 ACP. I’ve used the 9mm a number of times, but usually just toss the bulged case instead. There is a real concern about re-forming the brass like that at the case head. The concern is it weakens the brass and then you have a case head separation upon firing and that is a big, big problem. After I size my clean, de-primed brass, I drop it in my Wilson case gauge. It should fall in flush, no pushing and then turn it over and drop out on it’s own. If the case is ALMOST flush with the case gauge and a little/lot of a push will make it flush and it won’t fall out on it’s own, the case is bulged. If it’s bulged, it goes into another coffee can for later. I do the same procedure again with my finished rounds before I put them into my inventory. It’s sounds overkill, but it really only adds about 3 seconds total per round. I have good tunes on and I enjoy the time and great results.
P.S. You need to purchase the bulge buster kit and the 9×18 die separately. You need both.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by B.Sauer.

[Joe in Missouri]

“…After I size my clean, de-primed brass, I drop it in my Wilson case gauge. It should fall in flush, no pushing and then turn it over and drop out on it’s own…. ”

That info helps thanks.

I am running a progressive press, which means that I am spoiled as hell as to the time to make a round.

I am wondering where to check the case’s that will be time efficient.
FWIW I have noticed with the Wilson gauge that very often small amounts of debris often keeps the loaded rounds from dropping in all the way and that a cleaning solves the problem, but is quite time consuming.

Can you check unsized brass for a bulge somehow?
(as taking brass out every lime, at stage 2 of the press, would be very slow)

Or alternately checking all finished cartridges and then if there are not a large number of them, putting them in a different container for practice rounds (or possibly to be bulge busted and taking the risk of head separation in a know container of them)

I hope this makes sense.
Just trying to figure out where I should go with this as a gun malfunction could get me killed and I do want to address it somehow.

Thanks in advance
Joe

[B.Sauer]

There’s the rub, I still use a single stage press! Much easier for me. No, you can’t check an un-sized case easily/quickly for a bulge. An un-sized case won’t ever seat in a case gauge. Yes, I have my air gun hose down beside me to regularly blow debris from the case gauge and press. You could maybe just run all your brass thru the sizing stage only and check each case when done, then finish off with the different stages with the non bulged cases. Yes, it’s a time thing. You can run a finished round thru the bulge buster no problem. Maybe just drop each finished round thru the case gauge and the ones that don’t just freely drop in/out put aside for a bulge buster run. You shouldn’t really have that many, I don’t. My CZ SP01 has no problem with the slightly bulged case rounds, it’s the match barrel guns that will hang up. I had a live round stuck in the chamber once and I couldn’t get it into battery to fire it at the range. I brought it home and beat the slide back with a mallet to finally eject it out. Scared the hell out of me while doing it. I told my wife, don’t be alarmed if you hear a gun shot coming from the garage!
Happy Thanksgiving and shooting!
Bob

[Joe in Missouri]

LOL
Thanks for the story Bob.

That makes it much more clear.

FWIW I have bulk once shot brass from armorally.com and most of them actually drop into the
case gauge and only a few don’t drop in easily.

I then took my G26 barrel and tested a few and most of them dropped right on it. (this is unsized brass)

Thanks for the idea of sizing on a single stage or alternatively running only the bad the finished rounds trough the bulge buster.

One other idea I have heard is to make sure they you crank the 9mm sizing die down as tight as you can to the shell plate.
I am running 223 right now but will check that also.

I think you are right. Most of my rounds even if the case gauge doesn’t like a few, I think that the G26 chamber will take almost anything. At least I know what I am looking for.

God Bless from the Missouri Ozarks

[Joe in Missouri]

LOL
Thanks for the story Bob.

That makes it much more clear.

Thanks for the idea of sizing on a single stage or alternatively running only the bad the finished rounds through the bulge buster.

One other idea I have heard, is to make sure they you crank the 9mm sizing die down as tight as you can to the shell plate. I believe that is how Dillon has you set that die. I am running 223 right now but will check when I go back to 9mm.

I think you are right. Most of my rounds even if the case gauge doesn’t like a few, will be OK, and that bulge busting them would be best. At least I know what I am looking for now.

Thanks and God Bless from the Missouri Ozarks

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