ALWAYS Check Your Barrel!

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My dad is 78 years old. He lives alone in his home on 42 acres, about 2 miles from me. Why don't I live with him? UM, NO! But, I do have a nice outdoor range in his back yard.
Anyway, he just recently had to go into a nursing facility for a short term stay. One of his favorite firearms is a 15 year old Heritage Rough Rider .22 LR. revolver. While over at his house today picking up some clothes for him, I noticed his nasty, dirty, not oiled, HRR .22. I decided to take it home and clean it for him.
After I do a safety check and unload ANY firearm 1st, I always check the barrel with my bore scope to see its condition. When I inserted the BS I couldn't see out the other end, and just black. I took a cleaning rod with a plastic tip and tried pushing it thru the barrel. No go. I then tried with a bore brush. Nothing. I used just a cleaning rod and tapped on it very gently with my brass hammer. Out popped a .22 bullet! I tried pulling the cleaning rod back thru, and it wouldn't come out. I looked at the cleaning rod end and ANOTHER bullet was stuck in the cleaning rods threaded end (Note the cleaning rod end is now flared)! 2 BULLETS STUCK IN THE BARREL? HOW, without the barrel blowing up?
Anyway, that gun was so dirty, and DRY as a bone! I used 72 misc. sized cleaning patches, a 1/2 can of BG Throttle Cleaner, about a 1/4 oz. of Grizzly Grease, and about 1/2 oz. of Ballistol, along with 3 hours of time, to get it clean!
Below are before and after pics. I should have taken a better before pic (3rd pic), but wasn't thinking.


BEFORE2.jpeg


BEFORE3.jpeg


BEFORE1.jpeg


AFTER2.jpeg


AFTER1.jpeg
 
Have seen it happen with rifles (once - not mine)...a round that really only was primer moves in and another one follows it.

The second round's gas escapes through the action, waking up the operator that something was not right...then there's a "loose" spot in the barrel where it bulges from the impact.

The second round should have woken your dad up.
 
Originally Posted by SR5
Good work BOF !!
You did your dad a good turn.

Thank You Sir.
You know what really scares me? I actually started to shoot it before I left his house! The ONLY reason I didn't was because my sons 4 wheeler (mine needs a carburetor) was in the barn, I only had my cane with me, so I had no way of getting around like I wanted to. THANK GOD!
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Originally Posted by Shannow
Have seen it happen with rifles (once - not mine)...a round that really only was primer moves in and another one follows it.

The second round's gas escapes through the action, waking up the operator that something was not right...then there's a "loose" spot in the barrel where it bulges from the impact.

The second round should have woken your dad up.

I'm going to confront him about it in the morning. I will be visiting him and dropping off his clothes.
I'm thinking the barrel is too thick to have blown up. Anyone else have any ideas?
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I have a feeling that barrel is done. My friends .38 did the exact same thing. Even after getting the bullets out, we shot it again and stuck again. I think that gun had to go back.
 
As said .22s won't normally rupture a barrel but it will bulge the barrel. You might be able to feel a bulge pushing a really tight patch through and feel for a loose spot. The safe thing to do is send it back to Heritage to be checked out.

Might want to check out any other .22LRs around the house. Could be more than one squib in that box of ammo.
 
Originally Posted by hatt
Here's a HiPoint barrel with 35 bullets.

WOW!!!

Yeah, a .22LR just doesn't pack enough power to damage the barrel -
and H.R.R. pistols are NOTORIOUS for having "excessive generous" gap between the cylinder and mouth of the barrel.
PLENTY of room for gasses to escape through that gap, usually!!!
.
Make sure you wire brush it out well, though. You do not want any lead stuck on the inside.
 
When I first bought my 10/22, I broke it in with a 500 round box. When I cleaned it that night, out came a cored out bullet. Shot right through it at some point and kept on keeping on.
 
Unless the bullet is wedged-in, the worst-case-scenario is a bulged barrel at the breech. Recoil with a double bullet will be more noticeable thou, even non-wedged.
 
I think it would be difficult to blow up a barrel with a low-pressure round stuck in the barrel. Usually the result is a bulge if you fire another behind it, not a kaboom.

Along those same lines, one of my "pet" calibers is 32-20, and I've owned a handful of S&Ws chambered in it(I'm now down to a model 1899 from about '01 and a model of 1905 from the early '20s). It's actually surprisingly common to find those with a bulged barrel-often it's subtle but you will see the tell-tale ring in the clean barrel. I've also had some close-to-squib rounds before too-I don't know who Lyman was kidding when they published a light load of 2400, but despite the fact that I'd weighed every charge for this particular batch, it gave me variation from noticeably supersonic to slow enough that I could see the bullet lobbing out of the barrel(and yes, on a few especially soft ones I pulled a cleaning rod out of my range bag and made sure it would go through the barrel). I wish I'd had the chrono set up that day, but the remaining 2400 rounds got broken down for components and I stuck to Bullseye/Unique/PB/Win 231(mostly Unique) in that cartridge from then on.
 
Before going to visit my dad at the nursing facility this AM, I dropped the gun off to a local FFL/gunsmith. I explained everything to him and said I would be back later to pick it up.
I picked it up after 12 today. He tore it down and went over/thru it very thoroughly. After putting it back together he shot a mixture of 100 rds. of LR. bullets thru it with not one problem. He even stated it was very accurate. I am going to hang onto it until my dad gets out of the nursing facility. I want to make sure it doesn't have anymore problems.
BTW, he charged me $35, which I think was fair.
 
Hmm, surprised the second bullet didn't deform more, the nose is still mostly round. .22 is relatively low power..good in this case.


Great that you are saving Dad's gun. Enjoy.
 
I've had a blocked bbl once with my M-11/9 in full auto. THAT was a bit harry! Luckily, no one was hurt. Three bullets lodged; stacked end to end near the breech. We figure a squib round went in; probably only had a primer and no powder charge. The next two forced the first down with each subsequent round. Once the last one would not let the bolt fully close, the slam-fire firing pin alerted the user when the case exploded with an open bolt! The barrels in these guns are made very robust on purpose; for good reason. When you can burn 20 rounds per second, it does not take long for mistakes to multiply.
 
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