doubleh
Member
Mine didn't but it's old. The one before it that broke didn't either. Mine has a foam earplug in it.
Hammer type bullet pullers?
- Thread starter hps1
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Mine didn't but it's old. The one before it that broke didn't either. Mine has a foam earplug in it.
lightman
Member
I have the RCBS one but I have had a few different ones and eventually broke all of them. While my RCBS works well I doubt it will last through a thousand rounds.
I've never been successful weighing loaded rounds, looking for a double or missed charge but it may be worth a try.
I've never been successful weighing loaded rounds, looking for a double or missed charge but it may be worth a try.
JKP
Member
I have had a RCBS for about 30 years. I always hit it on concrete or an anvil, and it's still going. I used to frame houses before nail guns came along so I have a pretty good swing. After reeding a few posts about the danger of using shell holders I stick with the original 3 piece holder and O ring. Pistol cases are easier than rimmed revolver. Switching to left hand swinging is much nicer on my old right elbow.
243winxb
Member
1000 by hammer 
Note that some rounds will take upward of 100 pounds pull to remove a bullet. Thats a lot of hammering.
Note that some rounds will take upward of 100 pounds pull to remove a bullet. Thats a lot of hammering.
High Plains
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CMV——Do you have a digital scale to weight cartridges you know have the right amount of powder and then use that average weight as the baseline to weigh the rest of the cartridges? This can save you from pulling bullets from correctly loaded cases.
I purchased mine about 5 years ago. The Franklin was about 9 years ago. That one got some wadded up paper towel in it.
troy fairweather
Member
The cutter part of a old style wire stripper works surprisingly good, even on lead if there's not to much crimp. Just put the rounds in your press and raise your ram, I use a old lee aluminium die ring. The different size wire strippers work nice for different bullet diameters, sound crude but works.
Personally, I think there are very few manufacturers of impact bullet pullers and vendors buy then put their own name on them. I have had two in 40 years of reloading, one from Midway and one from Frankford. The first one the cap cracked, but that may have been from overspray of chlorinated brake clean. The Frankford was customized with a longer handle for ease of gripping, and both were used with standard shell holders.
Along with a few mistakes, mostly 8 or 10 at most, I have pulled 190 rounds of mil surp. 30-06 with the Frankford, but not at one sitting . An old feller mentioned to me, many years ago; "There's only one way to eat an elephant, that's one bite at a time". So I'd pound out a few each session, only as much as I felt like at the time. Sometimes 40-50, sometimes 10-12. One hint, I use a lead ingot for the anvil. The bullet alloy doesn't soften the blow enough to add any whacks, it is much quieter, and there is less vibration to my hands from the impact...
Along with a few mistakes, mostly 8 or 10 at most, I have pulled 190 rounds of mil surp. 30-06 with the Frankford, but not at one sitting . An old feller mentioned to me, many years ago; "There's only one way to eat an elephant, that's one bite at a time". So I'd pound out a few each session, only as much as I felt like at the time. Sometimes 40-50, sometimes 10-12. One hint, I use a lead ingot for the anvil. The bullet alloy doesn't soften the blow enough to add any whacks, it is much quieter, and there is less vibration to my hands from the impact...
A piece of wood is not a good thing to whack an inertia bullet puller on. Too much energy is wasted compressing the wood. You will wear out your arm faster with extra hits for each cartridge.
Concrete can be fine but you run the risk of chipping it.
I have a farrier's anvil, but a chunk of steel will work. The anvil portion on a bench vice will work but it is a small target to hit.
Concrete can be fine but you run the risk of chipping it.
I have a farrier's anvil, but a chunk of steel will work. The anvil portion on a bench vice will work but it is a small target to hit.
PWC
Member
I've had and used Quinetics for 38+ yrs.
What I never see mentioned is, I think, proper use when whacking. Broken units all seem to be head to handle, at the handle. I've always used a piece of 4" X 12" (cutoff header from building my house) set on my bench so that at the end of each whack, the handle is parallel to the bench. All force is directed straight down, at the full face surface, not at the top edge of the impact end.
It may not make any difference, just my way way of doing things. Still using my $9 original whacker.
1K pieces, better bring a sandwich and a big cup of coffee....
What I never see mentioned is, I think, proper use when whacking. Broken units all seem to be head to handle, at the handle. I've always used a piece of 4" X 12" (cutoff header from building my house) set on my bench so that at the end of each whack, the handle is parallel to the bench. All force is directed straight down, at the full face surface, not at the top edge of the impact end.
It may not make any difference, just my way way of doing things. Still using my $9 original whacker.
1K pieces, better bring a sandwich and a big cup of coffee....
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doubleh
Member
I have a heavy steel work table outside my garage and another inside. The tops are 1/2" plate and I do my inertial bullet pulling on one or the other depending on weather conditions. Usually one whack does the job.
merlynski
Member
I use a section of hardwood tree trunk, about 10" in diameter, about 18" tall. Stand it up on end (on a cement floor) and whack on the end of the grain. The key take-away is swing quickly so the cartridge is moving fast, don't worry about hitting hard, that just stresses the handle.
Did you ever go to a Carnival and try to ring the bell with the sledge hammer? Most people try to hit the hardest at the end of the swing and never ring the bell. The trick is to swing the hammer fast and let the momentum transfer the energy. Same with the whack-a-mole bullet puller. It's just physics.
'Course I never tried to whack 1000 rounds either . . .
That tree trunk also doubles as a short stool to sit on in the reloading room, I have had it about 40 years.
Did you ever go to a Carnival and try to ring the bell with the sledge hammer? Most people try to hit the hardest at the end of the swing and never ring the bell. The trick is to swing the hammer fast and let the momentum transfer the energy. Same with the whack-a-mole bullet puller. It's just physics.
'Course I never tried to whack 1000 rounds either . . .
That tree trunk also doubles as a short stool to sit on in the reloading room, I have had it about 40 years.
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DukeConnor
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I've read (cast boolits ?) that people using shell holders in inertia pullers experienced detonation. IDK
I read the same thing on Bear Tooth forum probably 20 years ago. The thread died out after many, many reloaders replied they used standard shell holders and the notion of detonation was chalked up to either one in a billion happening under very specific conditions or internet wisdom. I've not heard the same complaint/warning since...
Dudedog
Contributing Member
One advantage of the RCBS one is the warranty.
RCBS does have parts if you need them for it as well.
RCBS does have parts if you need them for it as well.
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whughett
Member
If it were me I’d just shoot them in a 357 Magnum revolver. 1000 bullets and you “might” have one or two over charged ????
SingleActionAndrew
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- May 28, 2021
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My FA from ~2019 is all-plastic construction. I would guess that using the softer plastic material contiguous through the handle would, somewhat counterintuitively, be more endurant than the stronger aluminum handle version because the shock is spread over the whole piece.
Dittos on hitting a very hard surface. With rimless rounds one strike is all it takes. Heavily crimped rimmed cartridges usually take 2.
Another trick I learned is when you unscrew the end cap, don't take the empty case out. Push it only halfway back through the collet. Dump the powder and bullet then screw the end cap back on loosely. Then remove the empty brass. That way the brass helps keep the collet in the cap and makes for easy assembly.
Another trick I learned is when you unscrew the end cap, don't take the empty case out. Push it only halfway back through the collet. Dump the powder and bullet then screw the end cap back on loosely. Then remove the empty brass. That way the brass helps keep the collet in the cap and makes for easy assembly.
Thanks to all for the quick education on inertia pullers, knew there would be a vast amount of info available here.
As stated earlier, started loading when I was 15 and had never used an inertia puller. Have used RCBS collet pullers on hundreds, if not thousands of rounds of M2 ball to pull the FMJ's and insert SMK's, but never on lead bullets. Unfortunately, the collet puller will not work on the SWC in this case because the shank of the bullet is not exposed, thus my question(s).
I used side cutters to pull both lead and jacketed bullets before I broke down and bought the RCBS puller & if I didn't plan on re-using bullets. I've thought about wire strippers, but had only a (really) cheap set for small wire. Thinking about seeing if I can use a center drill to enlarge an "orifice" on the cheap set of wire strippers to grip the .38 ogive and see if it will pull them without doing all that much damage to the lead bullets. I may still have a carbide center drill around here if I can put my hands on it. Hey, the bullets can probably be pretty well bent up and not hurt my pistol shooting all that much anyway!
Worth a try, though when you consider the task of pulling 1000 bullets; especially when you're reasonably sure there is no error in the first place........just not that sure.
Good points! I have a 6" 150# steel pipe flange on my bench that I use when I need a solid flat surface. It makes a great light duty anvil and I had planned on using that.
When I was in school & hangin' around my mentor/gunsmith friend's shop, I spent many an hour sitting on his anvil mounted on the end of a large log! Can almost smell the cigar smoke to this day.
Don't doubt that could happen, especially if a case happened to have a high primer.
That's the great part about RCBS; great customer service!
I thought about that until I looked up loading data for the 357. If I did have a double charge, it would be 10.6 grains and the maximum load listed for .357 is 9 grains (and that in a .357 case, of course).
Not quite willing to take a chance on a 1.6 gr. overload.
I'll probably see if I can jury rig some means of getting an accurate weight on a few to decide if I'm willing to chance it based on weight differential, then might try to alter a set of wire strippers, or even a set of side cutters to pull in my single stage press. That would be a much simpler and quicker means of tearing them down that the inertia puller, I believe.....if I can make it work.
If nothing else, I can use the altered wire stripper on a couple of boxes of gun show (unknown origin) 45 ACP SWC handloads I was given a few years ago, but will not shoot.
Thanks again, for all the great input, guys!
ETA:
Guess it is the crimp that makes the difference, rather than rimmed/rimless cases?
Great tip on the case removal. I can see where that would be pretty time consuming, especially w/1000 candidates.
Regards,
hps
As stated earlier, started loading when I was 15 and had never used an inertia puller. Have used RCBS collet pullers on hundreds, if not thousands of rounds of M2 ball to pull the FMJ's and insert SMK's, but never on lead bullets. Unfortunately, the collet puller will not work on the SWC in this case because the shank of the bullet is not exposed, thus my question(s).
I used side cutters to pull both lead and jacketed bullets before I broke down and bought the RCBS puller & if I didn't plan on re-using bullets. I've thought about wire strippers, but had only a (really) cheap set for small wire. Thinking about seeing if I can use a center drill to enlarge an "orifice" on the cheap set of wire strippers to grip the .38 ogive and see if it will pull them without doing all that much damage to the lead bullets. I may still have a carbide center drill around here if I can put my hands on it. Hey, the bullets can probably be pretty well bent up and not hurt my pistol shooting all that much anyway!
I don't. I've tried weighing loaded rounds before on my balance scales and it is hard to get them to stay centered in the pan for precise readings, especially when looking for 5 gr. differential when you also take into account the small variations in bullet, case and primer weights.
Worth a try, though when you consider the task of pulling 1000 bullets; especially when you're reasonably sure there is no error in the first place........just not that sure.
Good points! I have a 6" 150# steel pipe flange on my bench that I use when I need a solid flat surface. It makes a great light duty anvil and I had planned on using that.
When I was in school & hangin' around my mentor/gunsmith friend's shop, I spent many an hour sitting on his anvil mounted on the end of a large log! Can almost smell the cigar smoke to this day.
Don't doubt that could happen, especially if a case happened to have a high primer.
That's the great part about RCBS; great customer service!
I thought about that until I looked up loading data for the 357. If I did have a double charge, it would be 10.6 grains and the maximum load listed for .357 is 9 grains (and that in a .357 case, of course).
Not quite willing to take a chance on a 1.6 gr. overload.
I'll probably see if I can jury rig some means of getting an accurate weight on a few to decide if I'm willing to chance it based on weight differential, then might try to alter a set of wire strippers, or even a set of side cutters to pull in my single stage press. That would be a much simpler and quicker means of tearing them down that the inertia puller, I believe.....if I can make it work.
If nothing else, I can use the altered wire stripper on a couple of boxes of gun show (unknown origin) 45 ACP SWC handloads I was given a few years ago, but will not shoot.
Thanks again, for all the great input, guys!
ETA:
Guess it is the crimp that makes the difference, rather than rimmed/rimless cases?
Great tip on the case removal. I can see where that would be pretty time consuming, especially w/1000 candidates.
Regards,
hps
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Speer4447s
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- May 12, 2021
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I have used a hammer type bullet puller for many years ... used to be sold by RCBS and might still be, but you can get one from the manufacturer: "Magnum Model" Kinetic Bullet Puller; Quinetics Corp; PO Box 29007; San Antonio, Tx 78229. I've pulled over 15,000 rounds of military 38, 45 auto, 30-06 and 7.62. I'll admit that I've broken a couple of 'em, but at the time they had a free replacement policy if you sent in the broken tool.
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