bullet pulling

I use 2 types of pullers

Collet Puller - better if you have a bunch to pull, easier to use - longer to set up.
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=680804

Inpact puller - works good for the quick pull job
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=685703

Although I'm new that is one thing i do have some experience in so far.
a kinetic puller was in the same purchase group as my press.
I have my press setup in one of my spare bedrooms, and ive done most of my reloading at night so far. when i got to a point that i had to pull a bullet i had to wait until the next day because the hammer type is fairly loud. It works and its cheap, but loud.
I purchased the same collet puller that Scotty mentioned. It came it today. I had 5 waiting to be pulled. Easy to setup, Quiet, and right there handy in one of the spare stations in my turret.

If you get the collet puller, don't forget the matching collet for your caliber(s)

Collet pullers genetally work fine for rifle rounds and not so well for handgun cartridges. Not enough of the bearing area available for the collet to grip onto. Also they are caliber specific, as to bullet diameter.

Kinetic pullers work for both rifle and pistol cartridges & work for most all calibers. They do make a noise, much as hammering in a nail.

Go with the hammer type if you use lead pistol bullets. Trust me.

Inertial pullers tend to be easier on any bullet, in my experience. The collet pullers I have used will damage even a steel jacketed solid, if the bullet is very firmly seated.

OTOH, some cartridges/bullets (particularly light bullets firmly crimped into magnum cartridges) resist even the mightiest whacks in an inertial puller.

Obviously, the only rational solution is to have one of each!

I have an inertia bullet puller (the hammer looking thing).
The key is to whack it on a HARD surface.
The carpeted floor doesn't work, so I go out to the (attached) garage & 2 or 3 whacks on the cement does the job every time.

The inertia type is whack NOISY, whack Noisy, whack noisy. But it does work well.

The inertia type is whack NOISY, whack Noisy, whack noisy. But it does work well.

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And only costs $15. A foam earplug in the bottom will keep the tip of bullets from getting dinged up.

Foam earplug - good tip, I hadn't thought of that.

A foam earplug in the bottom will keep the tip of bullets from getting dinged up.

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Now that's not a bad idea.

My RCBS (the one I linked above) came with a little foam pad in it - I thought they were all like that....

Now that I think about it, the first one I bought, a Cabela's did, but the screw on cap broke.

So I bought a Frankford Arsenal from MidwayUSA & it doesn't have any foam in it.

Glad I read this thread. I've got both and thought there might be something wrong with me because I had a problem pulling handgun bullets with the collet type. What a PITA. I go with the kinetic and that is alright but I'm not crazy about that either. I guess when I crimp 'em I do a good job 'cause they are hard to get out with that thing too.

I use an RCBS hammer type bullet puller. After you pull 100 bullets with that you will pay very close attention to what you are doing. Don't ask me how I know that.

be sure what you are beating on is dispensible. those plastic hammers are surprisingly resilient. you can easily smash 2x4's into toothpicks pulling bullets.

The inertia type is whack NOISY, whack Noisy, whack...

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I needed to pull a couple of bullets but didn't want to wake my napping wife with the racket. I used a rubber/plastic? coated dead-blow hammer for my anvil. It works great and make very little noise. Three or four whacks is generally all it takes to erase a mistake.

ST

I seldom pull any, however, on jacketed bullets, I remove the die from the press and
with the round in the shellholder, run it up through the hole, grab the bullet with sidecut
pliers and lower the ram, they come right out. Very fast, leaves two little marks on the jacket. Your "SOL" if the round is too short to do that. For lead I use the kinetic type.

At one time, an RCBS kinetic puller was the 2nd most-used tool on the ol' loading bench . I used an ordinary brick as the target, & could easily pull 200-300 while mindlessly watching the tube in the evening. Very portable as well. Toughest part was holding the damm thing square to the brick at impact: any cocking at all & it wouldn't pull cleanly/easily. Used a slip-on pencil eraser for the bullet cushion.

RCBS products carry lifetime warranties - so when it broke, was no prob on a freebie exchange.

Foam earplug - good tip, I hadn't thought of that.

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Another good idea is to use a shell holder instead of the o ringed collet parts.

jmorris said:

Another good idea is to use a shell holder instead of the o ringed collet parts.

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RCBS frowns on that practice because cases with high primers have been known to slide in the shellholder during the banging around and an impact on an edge of the hole through the shellholder might and has caused detonation.

Do you use a "keeper" of some sort to prevent that?

This is what I do to prevent that on my home made kinetic:




made from epoxy putty from Home Depot.
The whole thread on making that tool is Here.

Whats wrong with using the "O" ring collets? Been doing it the way the manufacturer intended for years, see no advantage to using shell holders.

Gutterman. For what you need a puller for, in that you only plan to remove a few bullets now and then, is the "error eraser" (inertia hammer). Cheap, quick and effective. I would recommend that you get a 6" length of 4 X 4 and nail a piece of board or plywood to one end so it will stand up. Store it under your bench so when you need it it's there. The end of a 4 X 4 is the best thing to strike the "error eraser" on.

RCBS frowns on that practice because cases with high primers have been known to slide in the shellholder during the banging around and an impact on an edge of the hole through the shellholder might and has caused detonation.

Do you use a "keeper" of some sort to prevent that?

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I don’t load my ammunition with high primers so I never thought of this problem. Not to mention there is a relief cut into the shell holder so you can remove a case that does in fact have a high primer so it won’t drag upon removal (it is where the 14 is stamped in your bottom photo.

In any case the load being imposed is on the rim of the case as the bullet is being pulled out. You would have to put the round in upside down to be banging on the primer but then you would be seating bullets not pulling them.

If I did think that a potential problem existed I would just clock the shell holder so the opening was toward the handle end and centrifugal force from my swing would make sure the case was fully into the shell holder.

Whats wrong with using the "O" ring collets? Been doing it the way the manufacturer intended for years, see no advantage to using shell holders.

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O rings are rubber and the collet is 3 pieces. A shell holder is steel and only one part. All it really takes to convert is to break an O ring and not have a spare.