While it's hard to explain in words and I don't have an image of it, I made a gizmo for stuck rounds from a piece of rectangular brass bar stock. Started out something like 1/2x1/4x8 inches. I rounded one side and taper ground the other down to a flat nosed chisel. It fits between the leading edge of the bolt and the front of the ejection port. It allows me to
gently pry the bolt until it's unlocked and it remains stuck in there while I tap the inside of the case with a 1/4" brass rod, long enough to reach in from the muzzle. Couple of taps and the half-round wedge usually falls out, requiring a re-position, or in many cases, that's enough to keep the bolt out of battery for a further tap or two with the rod. Most of the seizures I've encountered were the result of
Case
Head
Growth that either happened after a stout load, but more often and before I began meticulously checking them, was rammed into position using a case that had already exceeded the CHG tolerance of my chamber before I ever loaded it up. I bin sort all my cases now with a micrometer, before storing them after cleaning. Anything more than .5015 goes into the recycle bucket.
Fool me multiple times, shame on me.
Depending upon how tough a reload life they had previously, excessive CHG usually coincides with around the 4th-5th reloading. If they are fortunate to always be loaded tame, say plinking ammo, they never get out of tolerance. Ditto on loose primer pockets. At least, That is speculative as I rarely reload cases past 5 times as by then, they have grown too short to be in spec. That is an unfortunate casualty of loading them too tame, believe it or not. So, it's hard to win at that game. Something's gonna give...
By the 4th-5th reloading, I feel that I've gotten my money out of them anyway and no hard feelings. I've had
really stout loads go out of CHG tolerance in as little as two loadings. All in all, loose primer pockets are pretty rare, given the distance between the small rifle pocket and the rim. Wish I could say the same for my 6.5 Grendel brass. That got a lot better after switching from Hornady to Lapua brass. Same issue with my 7.62x40 cases. Too little meat between the pocket and the rim. Haven't found a solution for that yet. LC brass used to last the longest, like 3 reloads. Haven't used up all my stash yet, so hard to say whether FC which took the place of LC, will do as well. Got plenty of them also. Both of those cartridges beg for more uumph. The price is short primer pocket life.
Hoot
Getting hard waiting for good weather as opposed to tolerable weather, to get caught up on my range reports. Whatever MI gets, subtract 5-10 degrees over here in MN. But then, at least we get misery increasing SW-NW winds for our troubles. Nothing but prairie to our west.