Hornady Cam Lock Bullet Puller

[deltaenterprizes]

I have a bunch of 22LR ammo that has been under water and wanted to pull the bullets to recover the lead and use the brass to make 223 projectiles.
Previous attempts have been slow or complete failures, but yesterday's attempt brought success !
I bought some projectiles from a member and when I bought the money order to pay him I added the shipping twice so rather than get another money order I added a couple dollars cash and bought the bullet puller, but it did not come with a collet so I made one with a modification to pull lead boolits.

It works great, I can do about 500/hr!

[enfield]

what do you use for a shell holder for 22lr

[deltaenterprizes]

I made my own

[John Boy]

The only retail source for a 22 shell holder Was CH4D

[257]

pics please

[enoch59]

I'd love to see pics on this from deltaenterprizes. This is the only thread I could find on the Hornady Bullet Puller. I have had two of them and both suffered death by pot metal handles sheering off. I never would have bought the second one but I had three of the collets and I didn't want to consider them as junk because of money. Anyway I decided to try and fix one the other day. After looking over different styles of pullers I considered RCBS's puller as one that would hold up under pressure so what I did was knock out the pin that holds the base of the handle that sheered off and insert a 1/4"x2" carraige bolt with two washers inserted in the center slot and a nylon lock nut to hold it together. I then bored a 9/32" hole into a piece of doweling or suitable handle and coated the threaded portion of the end of the bolt with epoxy and inserted it as the new handle. The finished product works far better than the Hornady puller when it was new. I think this was do to the length of handle which gives so much more added torque to the collet. Once you feel a bite on the buller you're done. It's just that easy.
9558595586

[M Hicks]

enoch,

Hornady will replace those handles for you under their warranty. This is not a jab at you at all, but how did you break them? I have pulled quite a few bullets with mine and have never had an issue with it.

Your repair looks like it will hold up quite well.

[enoch59]

I have had Hornady refuse to replace things to me in the past. I have an A/P press with most of the bells and whistles and when I would call Hornady and ask for common item(s) they'd refuse me. I could tell I was on some kind of a black list with them. I did recently have my handle ( yes my handle on my press ) sheer off at the nut while I was seating a small pistol primer. The core of the arm was really funky. It looked like it had some sort of disease ( I'm a wood guy, not a metal one , can you tell ? ) Anyway they did say they've replaced it and it's on it's way. So, maybe I'll take your advise and send one of the handles in to see what they'll do about it. I also have some press parts that have failed ( primer seaters mostly ) so I'll try one of those too. However, the bullet puller is far superior to Hornady's design. As far as how did they break was probably due to me trying to get a collet of the wrong size to do a job it wasn't meant to and I put too much force into the handle in trying to make it so. Thank you for the advise, enoch.

[lka]

Weird, they always have been great "no questions asked" I admitted to doing something stupid to break something and they still gave it to me, not only have they replaced parts they have always sent a couple extra ones incase they broke again.

Couple things,,

Were you nice about it?
And
Did you buy it new? Not sure if they care tho because they've never asked for receipts.

[enoch59]

Yep, bought it new. I think they blackballed me when I called in ( years ago ) and was getting a few springs and die pins, really stupid stuff. I asked the lady
( problem ) for the stuff and she got all huffy as if I wanted to get more than one and that was against the rules or something. It was never against the rules before but all of a sudden it was with her. I was definitely not rude. I am very nice and kind ( thirty years in retail/wholesale ) and a practicing Christian. Anyway every time I've called in since I got the "nope, can't help you" or "that will be" ( so much money ). Once you buy Hornady you're kinda stuck with Hornady parts etc. I've wished more times than I can count that I'd bought Dillon but anyway such is life. I hadn't called for a few years and when the press handle broke I called and found out that they don't do phone calls any longer and to send the part in and they deal with it so maybe I'm past dealing with the staff that had me behind the eight ball. The bummer is I spent ten bucks sending the handle back and it shouldn't have cost me anything. Just another way Hornady puts the screws to you. I could have made a new handle and been back up running the same day for the cost of shipping the handle back. I'm sorry. I'm PMing all over this thread. Please excuse me. Several years of being mad.

[M Hicks]

That's weird enoch. Like lka, I have broken things due to my over-aggressiveness and the only question I got not related to where to send the new part was a "I didn't think that part could break. How did you break that?" The lady on the phone wan't being accusatory that I had done something wrong but rather curious for the sake of hearing a story. She laughed about it and said the part was on its way.

I have the LNL AP without the new fangled EZject. I called once to ask if there was a way to make 9mm cases eject more reliably. The tech gave me some info over the phone and it helped. He also asked if I was having issues with the retainer spring. I told him I had one spare besides what was on the press but that one was pretty ragged. It would separate at the tapered end and I would put it back together. I thanked him for reminding me I should probably replace it. He said that since I was putting my last one on the press he would have another one in the mail for me. The pack of three springs arrived a couple of days later.

I have had good experience with them. Maybe the customer service has changed over time. I last dealt with them over the phone about six months ago.

[enoch59]

That's weird enoch. Like lka, I have broken things due to my over-aggressiveness and the only question I got not related to where to send the new part was a "I didn't think that part could break. How did you break that?" The lady on the phone wan't being accusatory that I had done something wrong but rather curious for the sake of hearing a story. She laughed about it and said the part was on its way.

I have the LNL AP without the new fangled EZject. I called once to ask if there was a way to make 9mm cases eject more reliably. The tech gave me some info over the phone and it helped. He also asked if I was having issues with the retainer spring. I told him I had one spare besides what was on the press but that one was pretty ragged. It would separate at the tapered end and I would put it back together. I thanked him for reminding me I should probably replace it. He said that since I was putting my last one on the press he would have another one in the mail for me. The pack of three springs arrived a couple of days later.

I have had good experience with them. Maybe the customer service has changed over time. I last dealt with them over the phone about six months ago.
I have taken the advise of posters here and sent in the broken items to Hornady in hopes that things have changed. I did get my replacement handle to my AP press with no problems and so my hopes are up. Thankx to you all and I will report what happens if and or when I hear back from them. BTW I've had occasion to pull several hundred bullets in the past week or so and the puller that I've modified has worked incredibly well. I'm able to save the majority of bullets from being deformed and am able to either reload them and or put them back into my stock. The length of handle has to be credited with this success.

[lka]

I have taken the advise of posters here and sent in the broken items to Hornady in hopes that things have changed. I did get my replacement handle to my AP press with no problems and so my hopes are up. Thankx to you all and I will report what happens if and or when I hear back from them. BTW I've had occasion to pull several hundred bullets in the past week or so and the puller that I've modified has worked incredibly well. I'm able to save the majority of bullets from being deformed and am able to either reload them and or put them back into my stock. The length of handle has to be credited with this success.

I did talk about politics with them when I called, maybe that helped lol.

Good luck, I'm sure they'll do ya right;)

[Von Gruff]

I'd love to see pics on this from deltaenterprizes. This is the only thread I could find on the Hornady Bullet Puller. I have had two of them and both suffered death by pot metal handles sheering off. I never would have bought the second one but I had three of the collets and I didn't want to consider them as junk because of money. Anyway I decided to try and fix one the other day. After looking over different styles of pullers I considered RCBS's puller as one that would hold up under pressure so what I did was knock out the pin that holds the base of the handle that sheered off and insert a 1/4"x2" carraige bolt with two washers inserted in the center slot and a nylon lock nut to hold it together. I then bored a 9/32" hole into a piece of doweling or suitable handle and coated the threaded portion of the end of the bolt with epoxy and inserted it as the new handle. The finished product works far better than the Hornady puller when it was new. I think this was do to the length of handle which gives so much more added torque to the collet. Once you feel a bite on the buller you're done. It's just that easy.
9558595586

My handle broke as well but I took a 1/2 in spanner and used the open ended shape to grind the correctly shaped cam to activate the collet on the spanner end.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv39/VonGruff/Reloading%20etc/004-2.jpg (http://s667.photobucket.com/user/VonGruff/media/Reloading%20etc/004-2.jpg.html)

[bhn22]

I've had terrible luck with Hornady on warranties. I think we may have talked with the same "lady". She was pretty rude in the past, bordering on vicious. I don't own any of their presses after the last go-around. I fixed mine and sold it cheap at a gunshow, hoping it would deprive Hornady of the sale of a new press to someone. I was that mad.

[enoch59]

Well, I just received a confirmation that Hornady has replaced one handle and one whole unit in their bullet puller. I also sent in one large and one small primer seater from my A/P press which they have replaced. I'm starting to like this new system of just sending in the broken parts and waiting for them to send them back fixed. So far I'm two for two. I noticed on their email confirmations that its Hornadys sales desk that is doing the processing. Their is nothing like a salesman who understands the taking care of their clients is what keeps food on their table at home although not to take away the importance of Ika giving them a little pep talk when calling in. By the way Ika where did you get the phone number to call in ? I've noticed that their phone numbers seem to be missing from their ads lately. Also lets not play down the importance of this forum and its members where I will humbly say thank you for allowing me to participate.

[enoch59]

My handle broke as well but I took a 1/2 in spanner and used the open ended shape to grind the correctly shaped cam to activate the collet on the spanner end.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv39/VonGruff/Reloading%20etc/004-2.jpg (http://s667.photobucket.com/user/VonGruff/media/Reloading%20etc/004-2.jpg.html)

Von Gruff, Now this is one hot idea using the spanner wrench for handle. I opted to pass on the cam idea and just put the long handle on and my puller which works like a charm. It seemed to me that I had to play with the cam getting it to connect just right at the top of the handle pull vs. just turning the handle till I feel the bite.