So, I loaded up some slug loads that had punishing recoil and not so great accuracy. I didn't see any sort of pressure signs but the nasty recoil had me wondering as the powder charge should not have been near max. with the weight of slug I had loaded. No sticky extraction but punishing recoil!
Since recoil was punishing to say the least and accuracy not very good I decided to salvage powder, primers and slugs if not hulls (yes, I'm cheap!).
I kinda thought I might make one of those box cutter tools the preppers seem to like for removing most of the fold crimp... these were fold crimped slug reloads, but didn't want to shorten the hulls if I thought I might get another reload or two out of them so I got a bodkin from my fly tying bench and small screw driver to open the fold crimps. Did one then put the loaded hull into a piece of 3/4" pipe to see if "hammering" like with an inertia puller would pop the slug out. No! Maybe with a long handle but not holding the pipe directly.
Then it occurred to me that if I heated the crimp with a paint stripper it would soften the plastic and maybe let the slug go. So, I popped the crimp open with the bodkin and screwdriver then warmed the plastic a bit with the paint stripper, dropped the hull into the pipe and whacked it endwise on a piece of wood. About 3 whacks and the slug popped out! The hull mouth looked like it had been fired.
Then I tried heating the closed crimp a bit on the next round and lo and behold, it popped open on its own with a bit of heat! I dropped the hull into the pipe and 2 to 3 whacks the slug popped out leaving the hull looking like it was before loading. I broke down 10 rounds in a few minutes.
So, the tip is that if you have some loaded rounds and want to salvage components, apply a bit of heat to the hull folded crimp area then drop the hull into a piece of 3/4" pipe or appropriate sized hole in some wood or plastic and whack it down on a hard surface. it didn't take much to get the slugs out with the plastic softened.
I am not sure if it will work with roll crimped loads but will be trying it shortly.
I don't see any danger with this as it is really no different than an inertia puller for metallic cartridge rounds and takes less "whack". There is no heat being applied near the primer so no worries there.
Take it for what it is worth but it was quick, easy and worked for me.
Maybe someone else has found this out too but I haven't seen it posted anywhere.
Longbow