Pulling Bullets, there got to be a better way?

[frkelly74]

That's a good idea Hootmix. Unfortunately my press doesn't allow enough of the exposed bullet to be grabbed. I may have to take my neighbor, remy3424's suggestion and just hammer it out over a few weeks time.

Alternatively.....
Cut a piece of 1 1/2" plastic pipe and put that around the ram so that when you raise the ram the bullet sticks out above the edge of the piece of pipe. grab the bullet with wire strippers and lower the ram to pull the bullet.

[gloob]

Alternatively.....
Cut a piece of 1 1/2" plastic pipe and put that around the ram so that when you raise the ram the bullet sticks out above the edge of the piece of pipe. grab the bullet with wire strippers and lower the ram to pull the bullet.

That's pretty slick. Only problem with this method is the ram is so far from TDC when you grab the bullet from under the top of the press, you'll not get a lot of leverage.

I welded up an extension onto a Lee trimmer lock stud so it slides into the ram. It's like having a universal shellholder with just a bit more reach, so short pistol bullets just clear the top of the press.

[gloob]

duck for cover...there is certain member who shall be along telling you "you cant do that,the shells will explode"
been using the lee shell holders myself,much better than the plastic bits...

Didn't it happen to someone? A regular shellholder can't keep the case centered. It has room to slide out of the shellholder partway until the case rests against the inside of the puller. This could put a slightly high primer on the edge of the primer hole, and the account seemed credible to me.

That said, it's not something I worry about. I stopped doing it because I broke two pullers while using a press shellholder and have never done that with the aluminum one. The cartridge has room to bounce up/down a bit in a normal shellholder, transmitting some shock to the screw cap, as well as the steel holder weighing a lot more.

I can't even remember why I used the press shellholders to begin with. Maybe someone can remind me.

I remember having some issue on my first attempts with the 3 pieces of aluminum coming out of the o ring, trying to get the cases in. But I was probably using the wrong size or trying to get the case in from the wrong direction. It seems natural to try pushing the cartridge in nose-first. They've worked nothing but right, since my second day, after figuring out to push just the casehead through from the bottom.

Do some of these things come with a plastic shellholder, now?

[farmbif]

for the short ones I invert a large diameter (mine is 1 1/8) 1/2 inch drive socket (as in socket wrench) over the ram. The big 1/2 inch square hole lets the case come up through the socket so I can grip the bullet.

I like this idea with a pair of dikes to grip the bullet. it might just work for a few boxes of 9mm with round nose bullets that I want to pull apart so far I have destroyed 2 kinetic pullers and a collet puller won't hold on to the round nose bullets loaded in them.

[Bazoo]

My experience is that lead bullets are always damaged on the base when pulled with a kinetic puller, having a slightly rounded area on the base, or a ding from the case mouth.

[murf205]

I use a pair of old wire strippers. They are thin and the holes for the wire are like little teeth to grab boolits or jacketed either one. It might leave a mark on the jacketed ones but the best part is you can get a bite on the ogive with them and it will not affect the bore/groove bearing surfaces. Accuracy usually does not suffer. As for cast, it gets a great bite on them and I've never had one that I couldn't pull. Just raise the boolit above the press or spacer (pvc/or 1/2" socket), and grip with the strippers and withdraw the ram. NO NOISE AT ALL.

[murf205]

Here are some pics of this not so labor intensive operation. The SWC is a 44 Mag with a 270gr NOE and the other is a 380 with a 100 gr Berry bullet in the socket pic and I pulled that one to show the marks. That is a 1 1/2" socket.Attachment 312865Attachment 312866Attachment 312867Attachment 312868

As you can see, that Berry plated bullet is pretty soft as indicated by the crimp, which I had to apply heavily but that's another story.

[centershot]

I had about 200 rounds of .357 mag loaded up with 170 gr. TC cast boolits over 11.0
gr. of 2400. I was using them for Cowboy Lever-action Silhouette competition some years back when I had the eyes for it. They're too short to rise above the top of my press and there wasn't anything foe my collet-type puller to grip on, so I was forced to use my RCBS inertia bullet puller. Following the advice to run them through a sizer die made it relatively easy to do. Prior to sizing, I needed 15-18 whacks to get them out. After sizing, only needed 4, sometimes 5. Why not shoot them, you might ask? Well, I wanted those primed cases and all the 2400 I could salvage! Thanks for the tip guys!

[Charlie Horse]

taking a little poll on inertia bullet pullers (going to buy one). what is your most favorite and least favorite?? this poll should save, me some grief

I bought a less-expensive one off Amazon and while it works, the lack of quality is apparent. Especially in the threads. Spend a few more bucks and get a better one.

[Bmi48219]

The only wall mounted one I've seen is the frankford arsenal "pile driver", looks pretty neat!
https://youtube.com/shorts/Vyrf28w4hu8?feature=share

When they first came out they were around $65 but it looks like Midway has them now for $40.00. Never seen one myself but from the video reviews they appear to be polymer. Nevertheless, at today’s primer prices, if you can salvage 500 primers using the FA pile driver it pretty much has paid for itself.