What Happens When Firing a Round Without Powder?

[msalm]

"With my 6mm Ackley it lodged tight a bit down the barrel, but a case of powder shot it out"

Tyler, if that bullet was more than a half-inch down the bore when you loaded up another case with just powder in it, consider yourself lucky... At what point does the bullet act as a plugged muzzle that would blow or bulge the barrel? Lodged bullets should be pushed out, not 'shot' out, even if you did just use powder.

 

[smoked]

About five years ago I made up a dummy 308 round with a primer but no powder in it to use for setting the bullet seating die. I marked it up with a sharpie so I would never fire it by mistake. About three years later I used it to set the die and somehow transferred it to the case of loaded bullets. All that happened was it went "pop" and everything extracted just fine with the bullet still seated in the case.

same thing i did with a 300 win mag and bullet was still seated in case

 

[56Wrecker]

Well fellas....I've got a little different story and a different experience with a cartridge that contained ONLY a Primer and a projectile (NO POWDER).

Here's MY Story:

We were both "reloaders". We would put the primer into the brass case....but put NO POWDER.....
Then we would put a T-buck pellet...a lead shotgun pellet about the diameter of a .22 bullet... into the throat of the 22-250 (OR in my case 220 Swift) brass cartridge case. And load THAT Cartridge into our High-Power rifles.

Then we would sit....sipping beer......and wait to see a RAT.

Then SHOOT the RAT with the "No POWDER" cartridge. It killed 'em deader'n HELL at a distance of probably max 50 feet in a LARGE Garage.
NO Noise other than a very slight "pop". ( about as loud as a BB-Gun ) LOTSA FUN !!!

I don't doubt that you could jam a jacketed bullet in the rifling lands....by doing this.
BUT...we never experienced THAT problem with the T-Buck pellets that we used. ( and we DID measure and pick the pellets with a Caliper.)

THAT was MY Experience.

(Fortunately....I NEVER DID load a "REAL Cartridge" with NO POWDER or INSUFFICIENT POWDER....which, as I understand, can be very dangerous with "so-called" flash-backs creating excess pressure.)

just for what it's worth.....

 

[BountyHunter]

I have seen both. They stay in the case AND others go just into the bore. Depends a lot on the primer as some are much hotter than others, case size and neck tension.

Bottom line is check the bore always if it happens.

 

[56Wrecker]

I have seen both. They stay in the case AND others go just into the bore. Depends a lot on the primer as some are much hotter than others, case size and neck tension.

Bottom line is check the bore always if it happens.

I certainly AGREE with you.
maybe...just maybe...ONE of the reasons that we NEVER had anything STUCK in the barrels was BECAUSE......
....we also shot "candle-wax" instead of the T-Buck (in the SAME shooting sessions).

We would pour some Candle-Wax ( and perhaps ? some other lubricant like bees-wax into a shallow tray...not very deeply poured.) and then stick the throat of the brass cartridge into THAT and have a WAX-BULLET. As I was casting a LOT of bullets in those days...I had a LOT of different types of lubricants. These WAX BULLETS---surprisingly----were also LETHAL to Rats when properly placed !

Perhaps the "wax-bullets" that we used....also kept the T-Buck pellets from jamming the bore. I don't know...but THAT is certainly a possibility.

???