Pistol slide stuck with round in chamber

[LeJerk]

It worked! Thanks for the guidance. The stuck object was an empty casing.

Why was the action frozen? Anything I should do differently next time? I'm guessing it was because it needs to be cleaned.

[Circuits]

Why was the action frozen? Anything I should do differently next time? I'm guessing it was because it needs to be cleaned.

The action was frozen because a recently-fired then ejected case has expanded from the heat and pressure of firing, and cooled differentially to a larger size. It needs to be resized, cold, afterwards, to be in spec again, for the most part.

[ray1970]

The action was frozen because a recently-fired then ejected case has expanded from the heat and pressure of firing, and cooled differentially to a larger size. It needs to be resized, cold, afterwards, to be in spec again, for the most part.

Not to be a downer but things shrink when they cool down, not expand.

Also, if the case was ejected then why was it still in the chamber?

Glad you managed to clear it.

[Circuits]

Not to be a downer but things shrink when they cool down, not expand.

Yes, I'm aware of basic physics. It's the differential cooling, and stresses induced in the case from firing, that cause it to balloon and lengthen some on extraction. Without the shrinkage on cooling it would be bigger still than it remains. Cramming a just-fired, partially-cooled case back into the chamber will often result in a stuck case, mostly due to length expansion (which is why resized fired cases often need to be trimmed back to proper length).