How do I pull 450 39 wadcutters without going nutts?

[toooldtocare]

I was given 450 38 spc wad cutters. Looks like old zero ammo. They are all loaded, ready to fire. Problem is the cases are pretty green and nasty. Whats the trick? I have beet the **** out of a 2x4 with my new Frankford Arsenal bullet puller. Tried 10 or so. None of them moved. Whats the trick?

[toooldtocare]

I was given 450 38 spc wad cutters. Looks like old zero ammo. They are all loaded, ready to fire. Problem is the cases are pretty green and nasty. Whats the trick? I have beet the **** out of a 2x4 with my new Frankford Arsenal bullet puller. Tried 10 or so. None of them moved. Whats the trick?

[PS Paul]

I just went through this with some USGI .38 spl Vietnam-era ammo. I took sandpaper and a scotch-brite pad then just cleaned up the green stuff off the cases 'til they chambered in my recolver, then shot 'em up. Afterwards I de-primed and re-sized, then soaked 'em for a couple of days in some WD until I could wipe them clean. Not super-shiny and spotless, but they'll work again. That would be my solution, in your case. Maybe more cleaning and a tumble would make them much cleaner, but I don't tumble anyways....

[hithard]

rub with steel wool, then load and shoot.

Will give you something to do when watching that new show, Extreme Cougars. Crazy stuff!

[toooldtocare]

These are way past cleaning...

[toooldtocare]

Hmm. Double post?

[Jim]

Are they coroded or just green? If they're coroded, I'd toss 'em. If they're just green, I'd shoot 'em!

[runfiverun]

you might be able to seat them a titch deeper then bang them out of the case.
if they aren't good nuff to clean up and shoot they aren't worth taking apart.

[Jailer]

Have you tried tumbling them in some corn cob?

[Wally]

Resize one without the decapper in your sizer die--see if that works..it has for me.

[Jim]

Wally, I forgot about that! Now that you mention it, I remember reading where somebody did that and the boolit was sized down enough, but the brass sprang back a bit and the boolit came right out.

[HATCH]

Its just 450 rounds.
I would toss them in the tumbler and see what happens .
They should clean up enough to shoot them.

[arkypete]

Well, Monica Lewinski might could use the work.

Jim

[EMC45]

If you are trying to salvage the lead I would use a pipe cutter on the cases right below the bullet base and toss the powder and primer (I would try to carefully decap and save the primers myself) then toss the brass "ring" and bullet into the melting pot. When the lead melts the "rings" float up and hook them out with a bent heavy paper clip. Works everytime! This is of course if you did not want to save the cases.

[lbaize3]

I find hitting metal with the inertia bullet puller works much better than hitting wood with it. I keep a small metal anvil on my desk just for that purpose...

[fatelk]

I find hitting metal with the inertia bullet puller works much better than hitting wood with it.
That's been my experience too. I remember when I first started using an inertia puller, beating the daylights out of my wood bench top with no effect. One sharp smack on the concrete floor and it came right out.

I would suspect that running them partway into a sizer die like Wally suggested, then using the puller on concrete or steel, and they would pop right out.

[frkelly74]

I find hitting metal with the inertia bullet puller works much better than hitting wood with it. I keep a small metal anvil on my desk just for that purpose...

The concrete floor works pretty well too after breaking them loose with your seater.


But do try to shoot them up first. That is a lot more fun.

[mold maker]

You said it was a new puller. Are you holding it tight like driving a nail, or loosely so the inertia does the work? There is a right way and the other ways. When driving a nail, the object is to transfer the energy to the nail. (tight grip) When pulling the bullet, the energy is already in the bullet, and you are stopping the case, while allowing the bullet to keep going. (light grip allowing the hammer and case to rebound)
I too have a block of steel on my bench for this purpose. I'm still using the first puller I got, back in the early 70s.

[hiram]

you might be able to seat them a titch deeper then bang them out of the case.
if they aren't good nuff to clean up and shoot they aren't worth taking apart.

I did this on 6mm rem and it worked. If the lube dried out, seating them lower breaks the hold. After the release, they would be free to get hammered out.

[blackthorn]

Try hitting the puller face to face with a dead blow hammer---worked for me.

[a.squibload]

Soak in warm citric acid solution for 15-20 min,
tumble, bet they'll clean up enough to shoot.
If the brass is pitted they might be too far gone.

+1 on hitting concrete or steel with the puller,
however, I had a box of jacketed 40s to salvage
that had tight crimps, they sheared the lips off
the aluminum collet parts, old RCBS puller.

Also +1 on seating or resizing first.

[captain-03]

I do NOT shoot rounds that I do not know the orgin of .... some are willing to take those chances -- not me.

Inertia pullers work better with concrete or steel ... I like concrete.

[Jim]

I've seen people destroy brand new kinetic pullers whalin' on a concrete picnic table.

Read THIS ARTICLE (http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/HowTo/KineticPullers.pdf)from Castpics.

[toooldtocare]

Thanks for the replies. Some of these cases cleaned up with steel wool. Some are pitted. I tried seating a couple a little deeper. Seems very hard to do. I'm trying different methods. I will let you know what worked.

[toooldtocare]

Ok, I figured it out. Hold the puller loosely and hit it harder. Tried wood, steel, dead blow hammer. Concrete worked best.5 or so whacks and the bullet pops out. Problem is it get stuck in the end of the puller. So I did the ear plug trick. Works great. Only problem I have is the powder will get through the opening in the collet. The powder also sticks to a bald sweaty head.

[Norbrat]

Only problem I have is the powder will get through the opening in the collet. The powder also sticks to a bald sweaty head.

Put a small piece of paper or plastic over the hole in the collet, then duct tape it onto the collet nut. Stops the powder jumping out.

I find granules of powder will also get between the threads of the collet and the body of the puller, making it "sticky" to screw and unscrew. I just keep a clean, old toothbrush on hand to brush to granules into the sieve over the bowl to catch the powder.

[MUSTANG]

I've had some luck with cleaning green verdigris from old ammo people have brought to me using a coarse cloth with Mineral Spirits (not the new water type) or turpentine. Of course they may be lighter than you describe.

Mustang

[a.squibload]

Put a small piece of paper or plastic over the hole in the collet, then duct tape it onto the collet nut. Stops the powder jumping out...

Or duct tape a paper towel to your head...:-P

[Olevern]

How to pull 450 38 wadcutters without going nuts? large doses of Valium!

Just thought I'd put in my 2 cents after all the serious answers.

Don't know if I'd even put that much effort into dismantling all those rounds with an inertia puller.

Too high on the frustration meter.

How to responsibily dispose of them is another matter.

Again, as has been suggested, if they are not too badly pitted, a cleanup with some steel wool, a short tumble in the vibratory tumbler and shoot. (but then I'd want to use media near it's life cycle to dispose of it and the corrosive material.

Whoever gave ya them rounds didn't do ya any favors (just my personal opinion).

[fatelk]

From the linked article on bullet pullers:

I once saw a post by a handloader stating that he used his brand new puller by banging it on the top of his concrete patio table. Trust
me, these tools are NOT made for that kind of impact and abuse and they most certainly will shatter.

I hadn't heard that before. I must have got a tough one, because I've been pounding mine into a concrete floor, sometimes with extreme force for stubborn rounds, hundreds of times for many years with no visible damage at all. I did like the idea about the wooden mallet though. If it makes things easier I'll try it.

Also- I'm surprised at the folks who say they aren't worth the effort. I thought most everyone here treated lead like gold. Salvaging precious metal, 148 grains at a time, should be a labor of love, right?[smilie=s:

[MT Gianni]

The lead is worth the effort. Chamber those in a 357 Bhawk and shoot the lead into a recoverable boolit trap. Consider the wadcutters to have been resized by whomevers loading process and needing new lube when they are removed, the unknown powders need to be tossed.[3 gr x 500 = 1500 gr or less than 1/4 lb of powder] and the scrap value of the cases none of it is worth much of your time other than the lead. The quickest way to reclaim it is to shoot it out. At 150 gr each you have about 10 lbs of an unknown probably soft alloy.

[a.squibload]

If you disassemble them for the lead
you've also kept 'em out of somebody's trash
or wherever they might have been dumped.
The powder can be used for fertilizer.