Now, the rest of the story...
this is what I learned about the stuck case. The shooter chambered a round and must have really leaned on the bolt to get it closed. Realizing this was not a good move he tried to remove the case to chamber a new one. The case was stuck and and the shooter was not able to pull the round out with the bolt. I think the neck was too long and wedged in the throat area. The extracter pulled the rim off of the round. So, the case is still stuck and there is no rim left to grab on to. This is where things get weird and I do not have an explanation for what happened next. The shooter removes the bolt, places a cleaning rod down the muzzle, and begins tapping on the cleaning rod to remove the stuck case. How this happened I do not know but the round went off! The back of the case goes out the back. The stock splits in two...not sure about the cleaning rod but I'm sure it is a far distance down range. Shooter is not hurt but does offer up a prayer of thanksgiving and repentance.
I'm telling you, the remaining case was stuck. The bore brush technique had not effect. I even went up to a .30 cal brush and it bristles reversed themselves. I finally got a 3/8-16 tap to grab the inside of the case. My tailstock was not able to pull it out, the morris taper was not strong enough to pull it out. I finally got an old cleaning rod out, put it through the muzzle and lightly tapped on the front of the tap. No good. I'm too far along to give up now so I take a pretty good rap on it...no good! Three strong hits later the case comes flying out. I used about the same force as I would in driving in a 16d nail. Quite the afternoon!
What do you think; Is the chamber toast? Is the barrel toast? I've thought about setting the chamber back about .025 and seeing if it will shoot worth a hoot. I don't have access to a bore scope so I have no idea what, if anything happened to the bore. How would you proceed? Thanks, Bro.D