In coring operations core jamming is a permanent concern. It takes place when the core sample becomes stuck within the inner core barrel, preventing further acquisition. In hard formations it is undesirable because it stops bit penetration, and results in loss of time and money, especially if it occurs at the beginning of the core run. In unconsolidated formations the damage goes further, as the jam may become solidary to the coring bit and wash the formation away instead of acquiring it. This phenomenon is unnoticeable at surface and thus gives the operators no indicative of a premature pull out of hole need. The reservoir rock characterization will be permanently incomplete due to the unrecovered washed away material. Hence, a good prediction of a safe maximum coring length could be an important way to avoid washing the sample, maximizing recovery, without risking to be too conservative. This work describes the steps and results of establishing a model to predict jamming in unconsolidated formations. These steps includes: experiments to determine friction factor between sand and the aluminum tubes, analytical modeling, and FEM analysis to evaluate the experiment results and to establish the prediction model.