Dilema
 

My cousin called me with a situation. He isn't the most knowledgeable when it comes to firearms. He has a Ruger 9mm handgun that has a live factory round in the chamber and he can't get the slide back! The round is in full battery - slide completely forward. First thing I asked him was "did chamber and rechamber the round several times"? Thinking he may have stove piped it and made the case out of round. He said no it was a fresh new round. Then I asked him how long the round was in there. He said probably a couple months. Knowing him I then asked if his gun was cleaned and lubricated to which he responded yes.

tell him take the gun to a GOOD gun smith to have removed and inspected
just tell him to call in advance and let the smith know the situation, so he doesn't just go walking in with the gun in tow!

I have seen this happen with reloaded ammo, but honestly never on a brand new factory ammo

my question would be did he BUY new reloaded ammo someone did for him, or from a bulk ammo shop that sold reused brass and just called it NEW AMMO, which is actually normally called and sold as
re-manufactured ammo,
so it was actually reloaded and thus could have had a bad one slip out the door causing the issue

I have also seen POOR loaded ammo, stove pipe a round in the barrel, shooter never KNEW it, due to they were new shooters and or heard it go BANG< and thought nothing about it till next round doesn't either feed load right, and or causes some other issue, bulging barrel, broken frames, mag wells and so on

for safety sake, here I again, strongly suggest he takes gun to a GOOD smith, to have safely removed and gun inspected, a GOOD smith might even be able to measure round afterwards and tell WHY it happened!

better safe than sorry here IMO!

mrbb this was factory Critical Defense ammo. The situation has been resolved. He just went out and put an empty mag in the pistol and shot the round off without any problems. He told me that the slide didn't lock back though. I told him probably because it took more pressure for the pistol to eject the case and the slide didn't go back far enough to engage the slide stop on the mag. Also told him he' s lucky he still has all his fingers. But I honestly don't think a 9mm has enough powder to blow up a locked up gun unless there is a barrel obstruction.
He then fired 2 mags full of my reloads without any hiccups.

Which particular Ruger pistol?

Not exactly sure Nomercy. I'm thinking its a Max 9 but not 100%

USUALLY firing to render the stuck cartridge inert is the easiest answer, as long as it can be confirmed the ammunition is compliant to the pistol (not going to cause a catastrophic overpressure event and the pistol is fully locked up in battery.

Second easiest is the kung-fu assist extraction. Place the muzzle edge of the slide or hook the rear sight (in a safe location with legs protected by a friendly surface which will catch a bullet beneath the bench and/or a physical barricade to protect from spall) against the edge of a bench and strike the back of your gripping hand with your other hand to drive the slide open.

Third easiest, which is considerably easy still, is to manipulate the extractor externally. The Max 9 (and many, many, many pistols on the market) has a large pivoting extractor which can be manipulated externally. Peel or pivot the extractor open so the slide can let go of the stuck cartridge, then you can attack the cartridge from the front without as much risk of the striker slipping from the rear. Ain’t great, but it’s possible. Much better to simply let it breathe the bullet out on its own the way God intended though.