What's up with my Lyman impact bullet puller?? I must be not bright.

[fouronesix]

Both kinds of shell holders (the flat Lee primer seater type and the standard bayonet type) work fine in the two generic inertia pullers I've had. The decision about whether or not to use an inertial puller is a different matter from whether to use the 3 piece collet or shell holder in the inertia (impact) puller.

The only downside I've noticed to using a shell holder in place of the 3 piece aluminum collet in the inertia pullers, is that in many of the inertial pullers the shell holder is not held tightly and the unit rattles a bit when whacking it. Otherwise very little difference.

Some confusion may have crept into this thread because of the word "collet". The die/press mounted grip pull collet system is different from the inertia (impact) system that the OP was dealing with. Both use "collets" for difference purposes.

[Tallbald]

LAst comment I guess I need to add. The replacement impact puller arrived in the retailers nickel yesterday, with a return prepaid FedEx tag for the first one. I used the new one with the collet positioned as I was shown here and it did fine. Salvaged half a dozen cartridges. I did include a note about the issue in the box the old one wil be returned in. Thanks everyone for all the postings. I've learned several things here as usual Don

[Foto Joe]

When using a shell holder it can allow the base of the brass to move or "rattle" as stated above. That movement allows the shell holder to smack the base with pretty good force when you whack the bullet puller against whatever hard object you're using. Kinda like sticking a 45 in a vice and hitting the base to see what happens. The primer shown in the pic appears to be backed out, could have been a high primer or the pressure might have helped it get there since there was no bolt holding it in place when it went off. At any rate, I'll stick to using a shell holder only for dummy rounds.

[Echo]

I strike the anvil side of my bench vise - sharp raps, allowing rebound. And I've used this puller for decades...

[casterofboolits]

I use a lead "muffin" ingot for my impact bullet puller. And I have used a shell holder to pull a batch of 45 Colt that were loaded with a range of boolits.

[paul edward]

Thanks to your posting this question, I learned that shell holders fit in my kinetic bullet puller.

Now there is a backup plan for when the o-ring fails.