Bullet Puller Question

The hammer is a good cost-effective option, as it can accommodate most calibers. The downside is that it can be tedious and headache-inducing if you have a lot to tear down. Conversely, the ones that go into the press are much easier to use, but you will need collets for each bullet diameter.
 
My opinion is they both have a place .

Some pistol bullets (and especially bare, soft lead) don't have enough ogive to get a good grip with a collet so a kinetic puller is the tool for that job.

Conversely, some lightweight rifle bullets don't have enough mass and therefore have you smacking you hand numb with a kinetic but are perfectly shaped, with their long, gradual ogive that make a collet puller a breeze.

*edit* spelling
 
For a long time I had the RCBS hammer type and it worked well. Take a piece of end grain 4X4 or such to pound on and the bullets come out much easier. It takes a bit to get the hang of hitting to get the max effect each blow.

I ended up with a large pile of rifle bullets in trade that needed to be pulled so I purchased a Hornaday Cam Loc puller and a couple collets. This was miles away faster to pull the bullets. Still use the hammer type with a foam earplug in the bottom for the bullets you can't grip with the collet type though.
 
For a .380, it should only take a couple, maybe three taps to break down your reload. I personally use a steel plate or the anvil on my shop vice as a striking surface. You will break a kinetic puller every now and then, but the steel shortens the amount you have to pound. Lead pulls harder than plated or jacketed.

I recycle all components as long as the powder is the same. For instance, I use AA2 exclusively in my loads, so I just dump the powder into one container, bullets into another, and brass into a third.
 
frjeff said:
Believe I need to add this tool to my bench.
Is the old hammer impact style still worth buying, or are there better options out there that would not take my monthly food budget?
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Yes, yes and yes. The impact hammer is a good tool, especially for pistol cartridges. The collet dies are also good tools, especially for rifle cartridges. The hammer is cheaper but neither is as much as a full tank of gas. Unless you ride a moped but, even then you can get a couple of the hammer types for the same cash.
The key is to not need to hammer out hundreds or even dozens of rounds. Start low and only load enough for testing. Check often to make sure your process is working.
 
The hammer type (while it seemed like a lazy alternative) is a practical, effective option. A more expensive, press mounted die is available- if you are handling a large number of milsurp rounds, or have a high volume in mind.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Yes, yes and yes. The impact hammer is a good tool, especially for pistol cartridges. The collet dies are also good tools, especially for rifle cartridges. The hammer is cheaper but neither is as much as a full tank of gas. Unless you ride a moped but, even then you can get a couple of the hammer types for the same cash.
The key is to not need to hammer out hundreds or even dozens of rounds. Start low and only load enough for testing. Check often to make sure your process is working.
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I had a buddy, just starting out many years ago that broke a basic rule of reloading; he made 500 rounds of .357mag without doing any testing.

He used an above book load of Bullseye under an old style JSP and, after pulling a couple of rims off his brass trying to get them out of his Colt King Cobra, he say down with my kinetic puller.

After a couple of evenings with that and still having a large pile to tear down, he bought a collet puller.

Made his life easier as there was juuust enough ogive to get ahold of and he learned a valuable lesson in reloading 😁
 
If you're retired and like watching the grass grow then the hammer is for you.

I have one but I haven't used it since I bought a collet puller. That was about 10 years ago.

I just pulled 50 a few days ago.
 
If you load lead bullets you need a hammer type puller which will also work for jacketed

Collet pullers are more expensive (one for each caliber) and will not work with lead bullets

Get a hammer type and bang away on a piece of 2x4. It is more on the up rebound than heavy force going down.

Brand doesn't matter. They all work. I have a RCBS, broke it once years ago, They replaced it!!

Here is a video, I think it works better in a tap,tap,tap motion rather then how they do it here.

 
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I have both collet and impact pullers. Collet work great on long shank bullets like rifle bullets, but I’ve not found them to be very helpful on pistol bullets especially lead. Too much damage. Besides, a mistake like Y-T describes is a great teaching event. You’ll dang sure be more thoughtful next time!

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frjeff said:
Is the old hammer impact style still worth buying, or are there better options out there that would not take my monthly food budget?
Click to expand...
They are worth it in my opinion since it is a tool that you may use sparingly. Also a great tip given to me decades ago was to use to foam ear plugs inside the plastic hammer, it keeps the bullet from being damaged. I normally use about about 3.
Foam Ear Plugs
 
I use the hammer because I load mostly cast, and I believe it's a good reminder to be diligent in my loading. I used the rcbs collet puller at my dad's when I pulled down 1k 30-06 that he misloaded. If your dealing with a lot, based on buying gun show loads for components, or you are the community guy that gets all drop offs at the fire station. Other than bulk processing on a regular basis the hammer is fine.
 
I loaded about 99.9 percent of my handgun loads with my cast bullets. Most rifle loads used jacketed. So when I needed to pull some bullets the impact tool worked on both, but collet tool only worked on jacketed.

I use an impact with shell holders exclusively, but I use a lead puck or ingot as an anvil. Quieter, a bit less vibration, without damping impact...
 
Hammer is quick and easy I’ve never had a problem pulling anything including factory rounds of small caliber. I use the cheap, effective impact bullet puller from Frankford Arsenal.

I used to feel like I was hammering forever, then switched to swinging against a 50# iron bench vise and now it’s very quick and easy. Need to swing it against something very hard and heavy.

As a bonus, heavy iron/steel like that is so hard that there is very little energy wasted in noise so earplugs not needed.
 
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The collet puller is a hassle to setup and tweak when you have just a few cartridges to unload. The hammer (kinetic) puller is a hassle if there are more than a few cartridges to pull. For me the crossover point is about 20 rounds needing to be pulled. Luckily it has been a fair while since I have had to pull any rounds.
 
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I bought an RCBS hammer style eons ago and it still works. They are easy to use. I have a piece of Ash firewood standing vertical that I hit it on - I do wear hearing protection.
 
Got both styles,hammers and collets. Both are useful....

Snagged a piece of 3X3X3 steel from the shop. Nice little bench block,and durn easy to use with the hammer. Will say,the hammer has some interesting side benefits. Seat a little deep in early stages of development(ooops,that was too much)... with practice you can do a little tappy tap and bring the bullet back out .010 or .020"

But the collet style also isn't limited to just one "thing".... they've been used for several,"don't do this at home" chores here. But of the two,give me the hammer.... mainly for it's use on seating depth testing.
 
Had one of the hammer ones long ago. It broke one day and I moved on to the RCBS collet puller. Best thing I ever did and if used correctly will not damage bullets. No banging on a 2x making noise either. I don't have to get up and go outside to the shop. I don't have that many to do because checking and double checking limits mistakes...
 
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