Bullet puller?

[astorbilt]

My Quinetics Corp. Kinetic Bullet Puller has a lifetime warranty...I have been trying to break it for 20 years. I smack an anvil or the cement floor depending which is closer.

Frankfort Arsenal is the same design. Swing FAST, Not hard. Ya don't even need to grasp the handle too hard.

[BigJakeJ1s]

I use the Hornady cam-lock press-mounted bullet puller. Works great, but I don't load any WC/SWC bullets either (it would not work on those).

Andy

[Fullthrottle]

Clay, glad you got it to work. I use a 6in peice of 6x6 post, and wack it against the grain not on the sides, it works fine for me. Though I have had a couple times that I had to give more than a few wacks but it always works. Be real careful with the cement, that may bite you in the ass one day!

[cdoc42]

While we're here, why are so many of us needing to pull bullets?

[Sevens]

When I most often need to pull bullets: When I'm making up semi-auto rounds with new-to-me slugs and I may or may not have enough case mouth tension on my loaded rounds. I test them by HARSHLY forcing that slug further in to the case on the front edge of my loading bench. I try to give a lot more force than any auto-shucking pistol might beat it with, so that I can have confidence that my new loads will not give me bullet setback under any normal circumstances.

When I do manage to set back a bullet under force, or extreme force, I typically trace the problem back to a known brass issue -- usually because it's cheap, thin, crap Remington stamped pistol brass.

And when I'm done forcefully handling my test rounds, I break them down with my puller to reclaim them.

I will also use my kinetic puller to break down rounds of unknown origin... range pickups and all the ammo that friends and family funnel to me because I'm the "gun guy" who knows what to do with the unwanted stuff.

You don't have to be a **** at the load bench to make use of decent tools.

[4runnerman]

(While we're here, why are so many of us needing to pull bullets)

I don't anymore because i found my load,but when i was in search of it i did.
I load 10 to 15 rounds of a new load to test,some i knew right after 3 shots were no good,so i did not shoot the rest of them. I also would break them down to reclaim parts to reload again. Also while seating bullet,start to long and when you get down to the almost there stage if you make just a little to much turn on the seater die,now you are too short example- 2.25 is not 2.248 or 2.249,It's 2.25.

[k4swb]

I never needed one in almost 30 years of reloading, until I bought a progressive press last year. The press is flawless but I have on ocassion forgot to push the handle forward to prime the round. 30 years of never priming on the press makes this hard for me to remember but I am getting better.

[NWPilgrim]

While we're here, why are so many of us needing to pull bullets?

My number one reason is when adjusting seating and crimping dies. I like to run dummy rounds (no powder) through the dies until I have them adjusted and have about three consistent results. During the adjustment I may get one that has slightly shorter COL than I want so I pull it and start over with that case.

Second reason is if I have found a new "best" load (new powder, bullet combo) I may decide to pull all the cartridges loaded with the previously "best" combo. Even though the previous load may be fine, if I know of a better combination then I am tempted to abandon the previous load.

I do this especially if the previous powder or bullet can be used for another purpose. For instance, I had about 100 rounds of .44 mag, ut no longer have a revolver for that. But I now have an M1 Carbine. They both like W296. So I pulled all but a few samples of the .44 (Never know, I might get another someday) to recover the W286 for my .30 Carbine loads.

Third reason is if during loading I think I may have forgot to check the powder level before seating then I pull. If in doubt, pull it out. Most of the time the powder level is fine, but if I think I may have been distracted I error on the side of safety.

Fourth reason is curiosity. Almost any factory ammo I shoot I disassemble one cartridge to check bullet design and weight, type and weight of powder (just curious not intending to draw any conclusions), and observe any other interesting aspects of the case, sealing, etc.

When I first started reloading I never pulled a bullet unless I knew I had the occasional mistake like a buckled case from too much crimping and seating, missed powder, too short COL (most common), etc. Then I decided I would always pull if any doubts and also begin to get just plain curious. I've had one squib load in my 22 years of loading and that reinforced my determination to either pay attention 100% of the time or pull anything I was paying only 95% attention to.

[Unclenick]

A couple of things.

First, Sevens is correct about not using shell holders. For an actual example of this causing a round to go off, see this sticky I made on another forum. First post and last will give you the basic info, but read the rest if you like.

To understand why an anvil or concrete works better than a wood surface, you need to understand how the puller works. When you slam it down on a hard surface, the puller is elastic enough that it doesn't simply stop abruptly like the spaceship in Dark Star. It actually deforms elastically, expanding outward and shortening as the collet is slowed. Then the outward deformation of the head then snaps back, actually pushing down on the hard surface and up on the rim of the case via the collet. That rebound against a cartridge whose bullet was already inertially moving downward is like ripping a Bandaid off too fast to pull your skin hard. It delivers the coup de grâce for any remaining crimp or friction retention.

To get that sharp rebound you need a couple of conditions to be met. One is that the hammer head cap be solidly against the collet so it can't come off the lip that stops it falling down into the hollow head. That lip is what gives the case the push-off during rebound, so you don't want it loose. Second, you want a hard, heavy, inelastic surface to hammer against to maximize rebound. I also don't like concrete because the sand particles scratch up the end of the hammer. I have a granite surface plate I use and I think that's close to ideal. Hardened steel plate would also be great, but a plain old cast iron anvil like a lot of bench vices have, works well, too.

Once you have that hard surface, you don't need to strike nearly as hard to pull a bullet. Don't forget, that rebound gives your effort a two-fer.

[Toolman]

I use the Forster collet puller. The collets are caliber specific. The Forster works like a charm & pull marks are minimal. The main reason I pull bullets are the deals I run across on loaded ammo with hard primers. FTF are common with hard primers so I recycle the rounds. I mainly only want the bullets and/or brass for reloading. With the Forster you can pull 500 bullets quickly & it has paid for itself many times.

[Tanker6]

+1 for Unclenick's detailed answer.

I use the same puller (Santa brought it ). In the directions it says that you should hold the handle "loosely" in order achieve the bounce-back described in his post. Of course, I had to "drive a nail" a few times without it working very well before I went back and read the instructions with more detail. As soon as I held the handle loosely, allowing bounce-back, I got it to pull in 3-5 hits.

BTW, I'm hitting on the edge (cross grain) of a 2 X 6 block of wood (scrap from another project) that sits on my wooden work bench. So far, I've only needed to pull 40 S&W cases (180 gn lead bullets).

Oh yeah, I've also found that every couple of hits, I need to re-tighten the cap because it works loose.

Hope this helps.

[Woodyed]

Why not save yourself all the aggravation and buy a RCBS Standard bullet puller and any of the collets that you need. This is the best puller on the market in my opinion and the bullets you pull are not damaged at all if you use caution and don't torque down too hard on the bullet. I've used this puller for over 50 years and highly recommend them.

[Unclenick]

I have both RCBS and the Hornady Cam-Lock in addition to the Quinetics Inertial puller. The inertial puller still does the least damage to lubricated lead bullets. The RCBS is the first one I got, and it works well on jacketed bullets but it takes a bit of effort and time to open and close compared to using the Cam-Lock. The Cam-Lock also uses collets, but the closer is a handle on top that you just pull down 90° to close the collet. The handle's leverage is such that it takes little effort, so it gets on and off the bullet fast. A couple of times when I've had a quantity of surplus to pull down, that has paid for itself in time and wrist saving.

[Sevens]

No doubt, if I bought (or came in to) a large lot of ammo that I would need to pull down, especially if it were jacketed bullets, the press mounted cam-lock would be the ticket.

I use the kinetic puller for the occasional job. There are times it sits in the bottom drawer for months without seeing the light of day.

[Stargazer]

I use to use the shell holder until I realized the top side of the rim was getting beat up, now I only use the supplied collet. I hit the area right past the die holder at the top of my RCBS Rock Chucker. 2-3 hits and even heavy crimped 45 Colt bullets slide right out.