My RCBS Impact Bullet Puller died today. It broke between the screw on top and the handle area.
I had done an "Aww Shucks - I Knew Better"; had a 5 gallon bucket full of various caliber Rifle, Pistol and Rimfire brass. Last week, my wife wanted us to go out for the day so I just chunked the whole bucket into the Cement Mixer (my bulk tumbler) with corn cob media and let it tumble for the whole day. At the time I thought: "I really shouldn't do this until I finished hand sorting it into caliber and type groupings".
Well today I spent the day sorting all that pretty shiny brass. Lots of pistol cases with .32, 9mm, .40, and ,45 all stuck inside of each other so I had to work them out. When I got to the 6.5 Creedmore rifle brass, each and every one of them had a 22LR case stuck in the mouth with he case full of corn cob media. Had to grasp each of the 22LR head with a thumb nail and pull it from the case and dump the media out.
Well, when I got to the 7MM Mag cases; that was a different kettle of fish. The 22LR's had infiltrated into the mouth and inside of the 7mm Mag Case - three deep. Had to use the RCBS Bullet Impact Puller and many repeated hammer cycles on each case to get the 22LR's and media out of them. All went well until I had three left to do; then the RCBS Impact Puller broke.
Seems that these impact bullet pullers have short lives! After all, I bought this one in the late 1970;s and surely they ought to last more than 40 years and through many thousands of Pulled Bullets/Boolits.
Seriously; hated to loose this old friend who has been literally around the world twice with me; but it goes to show that RCBS usually makes a great product. Placed an order for another RCBS Impact Bullet Puller a little while ago, hope it lasts as long as it's predecessor.