HALP!!!

[KaosDad]

I managed, somehow, to get a spent casing jammed into the breech of my AR. I have put about 120 rounds through it today (I just cleaned it last weekend) when it jammed. Jammed so badly I could not move the bolt carrier. I removed both retaining pins to separate the upper from the lower and had to use a small screw driver to un-wedge the bolt carrier. I know have the butt end of (what I really hope) is a spent casing staring at me and refuses to budge. There is a divot in the center of the primer, so I am assuming it's spent.

I can't see down the barrel, tried a flashlight & a laser.

So, is there anyone in the NOVA area that has real tools to take the upper apart properly? I pay in beer, rum or brass.

[acguy45]

Have you put a cleaning rod down the barrel and tried to tap it out with a hammer yet? Give it some taps it will come out.
As hard as it may do to your own rifle It happens to the M-16's @ work sometimes.

[Paliden]

First, is it a spent round or a live round? Measure it with a cleaning rod. Something to try first slam the butt on the ground like you beating some to death. If it is a live round be very careful of the muzzle. A couple of my Guard buddies have done this with some over sized reloads that have gotten stuck. This worked most of the time. Put something down on the ground to protect your weapon, maybe a bad guy or something.
If just a spent casing then try a rod and tape it.
All else fail, get with your gunsmith and save yourself a lot of headaches

[zombiehunter]

were you by any chance shooting steel cased ammo? I had the same thing happen to me the first time I shot some Tula, spent round got jammed in the the chamber, I had luck with what Paliden suggested, to generously hit the butt of the gun on a bench or table while pulling the charging handle, it took a few attempts but it worked.

[gunderwood]

were you by any chance shooting steel cased ammo? I had the same thing happen to me the first time I shot some Tula, spent round got jammed in the the chamber, I had luck with what Paliden suggested, to generously hit the butt of the gun on a bench or table while pulling the charging handle, it took a few attempts but it worked.

Just make sure you come down straight...you don't want to bend the buffer tube. It will take a lot of abuse as long as you hit it straight.

[KaosDad]

Crap. Shooting Wolf (Bear? Fox? Penguine?) ammo. Update in the afternoon.

[zombiehunter]

Some AR's do good on that steel cased stuff and others don't? One thing to be sure of though, is if your gonna be shooting some steel and brass cased just make sure you shoot the brass before you move on to the steel. The steel case doesn't expand as much as brass which results in more carbon build up in the chamber and then when you go to shoot brass after shooting steel the brass case will expand (as usual), resulting in the brass case getting stuck because there carbon build up in the chamber from that dirty wolf ammo.

[TheGearGuy]

Let us know how it goes.

[M1A4ME]

Had a bad one like that last summer with my new carbine - with brass cartridges.

I had a primer blow out of the case and find its way back in between the upper receiver wall and the bolt. Won't go into the details of disassembly and hammering the bolt back and forth to get the primer to finally fall out.

Once all that was done there was still a case hung (not the one the primer came out of) in the chamber.

As was suggested above - slide a cleaning rod (I used a steel GI sectioned rod) down the barrel till it stops moving. Lay your thumb (of the hand holding the rod) on the rod at the flash suppressor/muzzle and then pull the rod out. Hold it along the side of the rifle/barrel with your thumb again lined up with the muzzle. Does the rod extend to what looks like the base/rim of the case or does it stop a couple inches short where a bullet tip would be? It its an empty case just reinsert the rod and tap it lightly a couple of times and the case will fall right out. Even if it was a loaded round I would still use the rod and tap it since you are tapping on the bullet end and not the primer end. I wouldn't line either end of the barrel/receiver up with any part of my body though, just in case.

The steel cased Wolf ammo seems to work fine in my 20" AR but I have not tried it in the carbine.

[KaosDad]

I set the carbine aside after the initial post so the collective wisdom could pile up. So, where I stood was that the bolt & carrier were removed and the case still wedged. I follwed your all's advice and measured with the cleaning rod. The initial measurement indicated that there was no bullet, just a spent case. However, I re-did the test this time taking the actual measurement with a tape and comparing against spec. The rod went 18.5" in before stopping. I have a 16" barrel + 2" flash suppressor and the case was partially out so the measurement made sense.

Since the paranoia was now gone, the cleaning rod and a few taps of a tack hammer popped the spent case out. The poly coating is flaking off and the rim shows just how hard the extractor bit in. So tomorrow I am off to the various gun stores int eh area to pick up the heavy duty cleaners you all reccomended and scrib this thing out.

Last question - blood blisters; pop'em or keep'em? Yep, didn't move my finger snapping the upper closed.

[zombiehunter]

Keep em' they'll pop on there own. A good idea for heavy duty cleaning is take some Hoppes no. 9 and mix 50/50 with some Kano Kroil, this little concoction works wonders!

[Palladin]

Don't pop it - it's kinda cool when it swells up like an ole grey dog tick, plus it's less likely to get infected.

[OakRidgeStars]

[KaosDad]

What? You want pics of a blood blister????