How to pull soft lead truncated cone 45 ACP

[detroitcharlie]

Last week, I seated handful of cast 230 grn truncated cone .45 ACP boolits a little too deep and was looking for a way to pull the boolit without messing up the primed brass and saving the powder. I posted a thread Which Hornady Collet # is best for pulling .45 ACP (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?283977-Which-Hornady-Collet-is-best-for-pulling-45-ACP) hoping to get some advice from fellow forum members. Member 'dudel' suggested raising the ram through the ram opening and grabbing the boolit with a vice grip and then lowering the ram. After experimenting with this idea I came up with a procedure that works great and pulled every single boolit with little effort. Note: these were un-jackted nearly 99% pure soft lead cast boolits with no gas checks and a fairly light crimp. Here is what you need to get started.

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- 4-5" needle nose pliers
- 3" x 3" piece of corrugated cardboard
- reloading press with all dies removed and .45 ACP shell holder installed

1. Make a guide that protects the threads of the die holder on the ram. Considerable pressure might mess up your threads without it. I took a small piece of cardboard and cut a hole large enough for my needle nose pliers to fit through allowing the cardboard tabs to extend into the die holder.

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2. Next, you'll see the boolit I want to pull, seated way too deep in the shell. Place the boolit in the shell holder and raise the ram to within about an inch of the top of the press. In the next step you are going to put your needle nose pliers through the hole in the guide with the cardboard tabs depressed to protect the threads.

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3. Slide the pliers down to the boolit with the jaws open while simultaneously raising the ram so that the tips of the jaws meet the edge of the shell casing. This takes a little practice. Try and keep the jaws of the pliers centered on the boolit so that it grips evenly.

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4. While keeping the shell centered in the shell holder and the jaws centered on the boolit squeeze the pliers with extreme prejudice as you apply constant firm pressure downward on your press's arm. Pressure applied should amount to 2-3 seconds. Keep constant pressure (squeeze) on the plier handles. Do this in a controlled manner so the boolit slides out and you don't strip the boolit or slam down the ram and lose all your power in the shell. Lowering the ram will pull the pliers into the die holder and it should bind up tight with the cardboard guide/thread protectors, creating the resistance needed to extract the boolit.

5. If you did every right, the boolit will now be extracted from the shell and you can save the powder to be used again or charge a waiting shell. The end result is re-usable brass and powder, but expect the boolit to *****. I just toss them into my virgin lead scrap pile.

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I hope this helps out someone looking to do the same. I don't see why this shouldn't work for additional pistol calibers. Adhere to all safety measures and common sense.

[bessemer20]

Another way to do this that I found was to use a kinetic bullet puller. Usually a couple of taps on a solid surface and can reclaim everything including the bullet.

[dondiego]

I run the ram up through the press and the exposed boolit is grabbed and the ram is lowered and the boolit stays in the jaws of the pliars.

[Dusty Bannister]

Quote
"Last week, I seated handful of cast 230 grn truncated cone .45 ACP boolits a little too deep and was looking for a way to pull the boolit without messing up the primed brass and saving the powder."


Use the impact bullet puller to move the bullet out a little too far, then re-seat with the seat die and crimp. Everything is saved and not damaged.

[Blackwater]

Yep. Been pulling like that whenever I had occasion to do so, which thankfully has been rare, for years. I used regular pliers, though, usually. More leverage to grasp the bullet with. Either will do for most purposes and I've used both, depending on what was at hand. It destroys the bullets, though, which may be a problem for jacketed, but lead is usually just re-cast, so no big loss.

[gwpercle]

I'm assuming the virgin lead in the cast 45 acp boolit experiment wasn't entirely satisfactory.
At least you gave it a good test and proved it for yourself.

[Walter Laich]

Quote
"Last week, I seated handful of cast 230 grn truncated cone .45 ACP boolits a little too deep and was looking for a way to pull the boolit without messing up the primed brass and saving the powder."


Use the impact bullet puller to move the bullet out a little too far, then re-seat with the seat die and crimp. Everything is saved and not damaged.

I've done this ^ too. If you go too far then you can get the bullet and powder out of the puller so either way you save everything

[detroitcharlie]

Another way to do this that I found was to use a kinetic bullet puller. Usually a couple of taps on a solid surface and can reclaim everything including the bullet.

I tried that first. The lead was too soft and the bullet was seated too deep. I got one or two out that way, but I had to resort to this to get the rest pulled.

[detroitcharlie]

Quote
"Last week, I seated handful of cast 230 grn truncated cone .45 ACP boolits a little too deep and was looking for a way to pull the boolit without messing up the primed brass and saving the powder."


Use the impact bullet puller to move the bullet out a little too far, then re-seat with the seat die and crimp. Everything is saved and not damaged.

Great idea. I had to pull these suckers anyhow. Between the soft lead (no tin or antimony), magnum primers and charge I has getting some leading.

[detroitcharlie]

I'm assuming the virgin lead in the cast 45 acp boolit experiment wasn't entirely satisfactory.
At least you gave it a good test and proved it for yourself.

Thanks!

Well, the operative word is 'satisfactory.' :shock:

I shot 100 rnds, 9 wouldn't load because of deformation of the nose in-between shots. 4 stuck at an angle going into the barrel. And the last 20 or so started leading as the barrel heated up. I recovered some of the lead and it had great expansion. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be hit by them, lol. But these definitely need to be hardened up a bit and the charge reduced or the boolit gas-checked.

[Mike W1]

Another way to do it is to slip a plastic pipe coupling (3/4" I used) over the ram and you can grab the bullet with a side cutter. I usually use the tool I got for crimping small electrical connectors. Grip the bullet and move the ram down. Of course the bullet is damaged this way.

[depoloni]

Quote
"Last week, I seated handful of cast 230 grn truncated cone .45 ACP boolits a little too deep and was looking for a way to pull the boolit without messing up the primed brass and saving the powder."


Use the impact bullet puller to move the bullet out a little too far, then re-seat with the seat die and crimp. Everything is saved and not damaged.

>>> What I've done several times in the past when I've accidentally "over seated" boolit loads which were otherwise good to go - assuming that (45acp...) you don't have a hard/deforming crimp on those babies. A whack or two pulls the boolit out but not all the way, then it's easy to just re-seat and crimp and you're good to go.

Holler if you're in need of something to quickly "harden up" that soft lead you're working with. A little mono/lino goes a LONG way with the soft stuff when you're talking 45 auto.

[detroitcharlie]

Another way to do it is to slip a plastic pipe coupling (3/4" I used) over the ram and you can grab the bullet with a side cutter. I usually use the tool I got for crimping small electrical connectors. Grip the bullet and move the ram down. Of course the bullet is damaged this way.

Great idea Mike! I'm gonna try that, I totally see how that'd work.

[detroitcharlie]

>>> What I've done several times in the past when I've accidentally "over seated" boolit loads which were otherwise good to go - assuming that (45acp...) you don't have a hard/deforming crimp on those babies. A whack or two pulls the boolit out but not all the way, then it's easy to just re-seat and crimp and you're good to go.

Holler if you're in need of something to quickly "harden up" that soft lead you're working with. A little mono/lino goes a LONG way with the soft stuff when you're talking 45 auto.

Thanks depoloni, I appreciate it.

[Wayne Smith]

I use a short piece of schedule 40 (20 would work, I had 40) PCV just as Mike uses his coupling.

[winelover]

I use wire cutters to grasp the boolit sticking out of top of press......what's the purpose of the PVC pipe/coupling? The only issues I have run into, might require an extended shellholder, for short cartridges.

Winelover

[MBTcustom]

I use wire cutters to grasp the boolit sticking out of top of press......what's the purpose of the PVC pipe/coupling? The only issues I have run into, might require an extended shellholder, for short cartridges.

Winelover

This is my method as well. Much less messy than a kinetic puller.

[Mike W1]

I use wire cutters to grasp the boolit sticking out of top of press......what's the purpose of the PVC pipe/coupling? The only issues I have run into, might require an extended shellholder, for short cartridges.

Winelover

The advantage if one could call it that, is you're not needing the top of the press at all. Pliers,side cutter, whatever, just go over the coupling and the ram does the work. Actually have 2 different length's of coupling but can't remember why I cut one of them shorter for something or other.

[detroitcharlie]

The advantage if one could call it that, is you're not needing the top of the press at all. Pliers,side cutter, whatever, just go over the coupling and the ram does the work. Actually have 2 different length's of coupling but can't remember why I cut one of them shorter for something or other.

Excellent thoughts Mike.

[detroitcharlie]

I use wire cutters to grasp the boolit sticking out of top of press......what's the purpose of the PVC pipe/coupling? The only issues I have run into, might require an extended shellholder, for short cartridges.

Winelover

That is essentially the issue I had with the .45 ACP's. Being so short, I need the needle nose pliers to extend through the die holder because raising the ram all the way stops the boolit a few centimeters from the top of the press and there isn't enough room on either side of the boolit to get any jaws or a good grip on the boolit itself. Gripping it under the die holder and pulling it through by lowering the ram and letting the pliers bind up in the die holder creates easy consistent resistance to extract the boolist smoothly.

[depoloni]

Whoa... centimeters? You sure you ain't from Windsor? :kidding:

[Bullwolf]

They say a picture is worth 1000 words.

Using a pair vice grips, and short piece of pipe to pull boolits with.
A piece of PVC pipe will also work as well.

Image originally posted by Cast Boolits member P.K. (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?13168-P-K)

From "The 1.99 Bullet Puller" thread. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?132250-The-1-99-Bullet-Puller

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/IrishEKU/100_1247.jpg




- Bullwolf

[detroitcharlie]

Whoa... centimeters? You sure you ain't from Windsor? :kidding:

Hahaha! Right!? I am just 4 miles from the border, a lot of CA lingo gets mixed in over here. I probably say "eh" more than the average Canadian, lol.

[detroitcharlie]

They say a picture is worth 1000 words.

Using a pair vice grips, and short piece of pipe to pull boolits with.
A piece of PVC pipe will also work as well.

Image originally posted by Cast Boolits member P.K. (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?13168-P-K)

From "The 1.99 Bullet Puller" thread. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?132250-The-1-99-Bullet-Puller

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/IrishEKU/100_1247.jpg




- Bullwolf

Great pic Bullwolf, thanks for contributing!

[gwpercle]

Thanks!

Well, the operative word is 'satisfactory.' :shock:

I shot 100 rnds, 9 wouldn't load because of deformation of the nose in-between shots. 4 stuck at an angle going into the barrel. And the last 20 or so started leading as the barrel heated up. I recovered some of the lead and it had great expansion. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be hit by them, lol. But these definitely need to be hardened up a bit and the charge reduced or the boolit gas-checked.
I have a hunch a 16-1 mix (94% lead and 6% tin) or , if that is too soft for the feeding issue,
a 10 - 1 mix (91% lead and 9% tin) might just be the right mix to get things to work.
Just going to take a bit of testing to get it right.
I'm in the process of getting a gas checked 9 mm mould from NOE to try a similar experiment in the 9mm Luger. I will follow your lead on best alloy to use.
Gary

[detroitcharlie]

I have a hunch a 16-1 mix (94% lead and 6% tin) or , if that is too soft for the feeding issue,
a 10 - 1 mix (91% lead and 9% tin) might just be the right mix to get things to work.
Just going to take a bit of testing to get it right.
I'm in the process of getting a gas checked 9 mm mould from NOE to try a similar experiment in the 9mm Luger. I will follow your lead on best alloy to use.
Gary

Thanks Gary- great minds think alike. I was going to try 95/5. I'm trying to avoid using antimony so we'll see! Casting this week...

[NavyVet1959]

After breaking a couple of the kinetic pullers, I decided to use my RCBS single stage press. Only with rifle cartridges would the bullet stick up far enough to come through the top though, so for the handgun cartridges, I took a piece of PVC pipe that I had laying around (I think it was 1-1/4" sched-40) and cut it with my power miter saw to a length that would allow the handgun calibers to stick up above it and still have room for the press shaft to go back down. Initially, I tried using the tool that you use to hold copper tubing for flaring and put it across the top of the press or the piece of PVC, but it was a somewhat slow process. I then tried a pair of side cutters with wire stripper holes in the side cutting blade to grasp the bullet. The wire cutting holes allow you to easily grab the bullet and it doesn't try to slide out of the jaws of the pliers.

Similar to this, but with two different sized sharpened holes in the blades...

https://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/Photos/tools/klein_220-7_pliers_diag_f_cropped_inset2_w560_h264.jpg

This worked pretty good, but the piece of PVC pipe seemed to slow things up a bit. I found a ram extension that you put between the ram and the shell holder. This brought the pistol rounds up to the top of the press and I do not now need to use the PVC pipe.

[2wheelDuke]

Quote
"Last week, I seated handful of cast 230 grn truncated cone .45 ACP boolits a little too deep and was looking for a way to pull the boolit without messing up the primed brass and saving the powder."


Use the impact bullet puller to move the bullet out a little too far, then re-seat with the seat die and crimp. Everything is saved and not damaged.


I've read that you may foul things up with regard to neck tension when doing that. I've done it on occasion, but others may have a different result.

[detroitcharlie]

After breaking a couple of the kinetic pullers, I decided to use my RCBS single stage press. Only with rifle cartridges would the bullet stick up far enough to come through the top though, so for the handgun cartridges, I took a piece of PVC pipe that I had laying around (I think it was 1-1/4" sched-40) and cut it with my power miter saw to a length that would allow the handgun calibers to stick up above it and still have room for the press shaft to go back down. Initially, I tried using the tool that you use to hold copper tubing for flaring and put it across the top of the press or the piece of PVC, but it was a somewhat slow process. I then tried a pair of side cutters with wire stripper holes in the side cutting blade to grasp the bullet. The wire cutting holes allow you to easily grab the bullet and it doesn't try to slide out of the jaws of the pliers.

Similar to this, but with two different sized sharpened holes in the blades...

https://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/Photos/tools/klein_220-7_pliers_diag_f_cropped_inset2_w560_h264.jpg

This worked pretty good, but the piece of PVC pipe seemed to slow things up a bit. I found a ram extension that you put between the ram and the shell holder. This brought the pistol rounds up to the top of the press and I do not now need to use the PVC pipe.

Thanks Navy, this seems to be a pretty popular method. I'm gonna have to adopt this.

[gloob]

If you're not trying to save the cast bullet, run the rounds through a Lee FCD with the crimp ring removed or backed out. Whatever method you are using to pull the bullet, this can potentially make it much easier. If your bullets are small and this doesn't work, you can even run the ammo thru a FLR die (with decapping stem removed) in some cases. Then the bullet can be removed with your fingers, and the primed cases are ready for flaring.

[detroitcharlie]

If you're not trying to save the cast bullet, run the rounds through a Lee FCD with the crimp ring removed or backed out. Whatever method you are using to pull the bullet, this can potentially make it much easier. If your bullets are small and this doesn't work, you can even run the ammo thru a FLR die (with decapping stem removed) in some cases. Then the bullet can be removed with your fingers, and the primed cases are ready for flaring.

Great advice gloob, thanks!

[gloob]

Learned the hard way, after using the wrong charge data in brand new Starline 10mm brass, before I got an oversize expander plug to correct my tight sizing die. Those cast bullets were in there TIGHT! I tried a kinetic puller. Then the pvc pipe trick around the ram + vice grips. Then I drilled a hole into the bullet and inserted a honking big wood screw to stick up above the press where I attached vice grips; my bench creaked and groaned, and finally the threads in the bullet tore out. I set those rounds aside for a week or two. Before breaking my press, I finally realized I had a Lee 40SW Factory Neck Tension-Killer Die. After running them thru the FCD, the kinetic puller worked, easily. :)

[destrux]

Great idea for the short cartridges.

I usually use a kinetic puller for when I only need to pull a few, but this looks good for a larger oops.

I've only had to pull a lot of bullets once and it was .300 Blackout. I zip tied a pair of the wire crimpers to the top of my press, the kind that crimp in the rear of the hinge, and it made for some really quick and clean pulling. Probably could have reused the bullets if they weren't the reason I was pulling.

[detroitcharlie]

Learned the hard way, after using the wrong charge data in brand new Starline 10mm brass, before I got an oversize expander plug to correct my tight sizing die. Those cast bullets were in there TIGHT! I tried a kinetic puller. Then the pvc pipe trick around the ram + vice grips. Then I drilled a hole into the bullet and inserted a honking big wood screw to stick up above the press where I attached vice grips; my bench creaked and groaned, and finally the threads in the bullet tore out. I set those rounds aside for a week or two. Before breaking my press, I finally realized I had a Lee 40SW Factory Neck Tension-Killer Die. After running them thru the FCD, the kinetic puller worked, easily. :)

Haha, that's a great story gloob.

[detroitcharlie]

Great idea for the short cartridges.

I usually use a kinetic puller for when I only need to pull a few, but this looks good for a larger oops.

I've only had to pull a lot of bullets once and it was .300 Blackout. I zip tied a pair of the wire crimpers to the top of my press, the kind that crimp in the rear of the hinge, and it made for some really quick and clean pulling. Probably could have reused the bullets if they weren't the reason I was pulling.

That sounds like a pretty good method destrux.

[NavyVet1959]

I tried drilling a hole in a bullet that was seated too deeply to grab with the pliers once. It ended up drifting into the side of the case and drilling a hole through the brass. :(

[detroitcharlie]

I tried drilling a hole in a bullet that was seated too deeply to grab with the pliers once. It ended up drifting into the side of the case and drilling a hole through the brass. :(

LOL, Navy, I can totally see that happening especially if the lead is a little harder and it was straight-up ball ammo. I was tempted to try that but luckily I found a pair of needle nose that just enough surface are to work perfectly with truncated nose boolits and was narrow enough to fit though the die holder.

[NavyVet1959]

LOL, Navy, I can totally see that happening especially if the lead is a little harder and it was straight-up ball ammo. I was tempted to try that but luckily I found a pair of needle nose that just enough surface are to work perfectly with truncated nose boolits and was narrow enough to fit though the die holder.

The reason that I had to try drilling it out was that I had accidentally seated the nose of the bullet below the mouth of the case. There was no way to grab it with the pliers that I normally use.