Pulling soft lead bullets from .25-20 WCF

I have been shooting a Savage 23B in .25-20 and have loaded several with 5.0grains of Unique under an 86 grain bullet. I have at least fifteen where the primer did not detonate even after several tries. I am guessing the CCI small rifle primer might be too hard so I have purchased some Winchester primers to try next.

My issue is that I do not want to lose the valuable .25-20 cases and I cannot get the bullets pulled for the life of me. They are too small for a kinetic puller and my RCBS collet puller just mangles the relatively soft lead bullet and leaves them intact. If I could find someone with another .25-20 in the area, I would see if the rounds would fire from their weapon and solve my problem but .25-20 shooters are rare in my circle of friends.

Any ideas?

Andrew

I can't imagine why they won't pull with an inertia puller. It's what I use even for 40gr 22H boolits. How you use the puller is very important. This may sound silly but try it. Hold the handle very lightly with only your thumb and trigger finger at the very end of the handle. Use an anvil, concrete floor or anything else very hard and solid. Swing the puller very fast but don't grip it solidly. It needs to rebound as much as possible. This adds more pull as you not only have the inertia of the boolit moving forward but also the puller bouncing backward very rapidly. Usually 3 or 4 good hits and they will pop out. Try it, it does work.

The shell holder for a single stage press will work in a kinetic puller.

Try sizing the neck of the loaded cartridge. I've done that on a bunch of range pickup unfired cartridges. The sizing squeezes the bullet down and normally you can pull them out with your fingers or a pair of forcepts. Of course, the bullet is downsized but it can go back in the pot./beagle

Thanks for the tips. I will give them a try as soon as possible. I tried raising the round in my press without a die in place and grabbing it with a pair of side cutters but I only ended up cutting the tip of the bullet off.

Andrew

The flat electrical pliers with the wire stripper notches work the best for me

Bill

Great idea Green Lizzard. I have a pair of those sitting by.

Andrew

I posted this on your other thread:

CCI primers are hard, with a very sharp mouth. I'd asked the company about it years ago. They said when you get FTF, it usually means you didn't seat the primer deep enough. After I made sure I was fully seating the primers, the problem went away. You might try re-seating the primers.