Bullet Puller (inertia hammer style)

The bottom of mine is somewhat mashed and distorted from 37 years of use; but, it has yet to break.

Fortunately, I haven't used it a great deal; at least, not if one amortizes it over that many years. It didn't take me long to figure out that assembling ammo is a lot more fun than manually dismantling it.
 
I have 2 only because for awhile I had miss placed the collet from the fist one. I bought a Midway one since it came with a 3 collet set then later on I found the miss placed one.

I tore down over 500 .45 ACP rounds that were loaded too hot and I don't know how many more. The older one looks a little mushroomed but after God only knows how many rounds I've pulled down with it.

I have a 4" round and 3/4" thick disk of steel that I use to pound the puller on. There's nothing else in my gun room I'd pound it on and the steel disk held in one hand and the puller in the other works just fine for me. And I have used it to pull hundreds of unknown .22 Hornet and .223 Rem reloads.

I wholeheartedly agree that seating the bullets a tiny bit deeper on older rounds make them way easier to pull down.

Tony
 
If the collet gets wonkey or not the proper size to hold the round ...
Use a snap in shell holder in place of the collet .
Just slip the round ia proper fitting shell holder , don't use collet , drop round with shell holder in place and put plastic cap on ...proceed to pull the bullet .
Those stinking collets that come with most inertia pullers are at times next to worthless , a proper shell holder with the cap in place works like a charm !
Gary
 
dahermit said:
I find that one of the big problems with inertia pullers is that the rubber 0-rings on the collets deteriorate after awhile letting the three lobes of the collet to fall away. I keep an assortment of O-rings on hand from Harbor Freight just for that purpose.
Click to expand...
Forget the aluminum collet. Use shell plate.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
The practice of using a shell holder in place of the supplied collet can be dangerous if you have a high primer. See my thread starting post here, and expand the quoted text to see the photos and follow the whole thing to where he finds the missing brass and the shell holder that he'd forgotten (in the first part of the post) he had substituted for the collet, and how that explained what happened. The original thread by the quoted poster has dysfunctional photo links for some reason. There are some subsequent posts in the thread I started that are forms of denial, but what happened to MtJerry is what happened anyway. I responded to those in post #42, but worked out the issue in #45.
 
I think I read that discussion before. I don't believe it has much to do with the shell holder. High primer in loose pocket perhaps. The primer slammed home and detonated, in which case it might have happened regardless. The softer aluminum in the collet may produce less deceleration than the hard steel in the shell holder. But don't I want more deceleration to pull the bullet out?

Anyway make your own choice.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
somehow I seriously doubt the use of the shellholder had much to do with that incident. For the anvil of the primer to cause a detonation it the cup needs to be dimpled almost dead center so the primer material is crushed between the primer cup and the cone shaped anvil. see linked photo

The inertia and the primer not being fully seated possibly could possibly cause a loose anvil to rebound off the primer cup possibly causing detonation. That could occur regardless of whether the aluminum collet or the shellholder was used.


edit - Just to be safe though I will try to remember to never pull a bullet with a high primer

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Cross-section-view-of-stamped-case_fig4_271672071
 
Last edited:
https://imgur.com/a/9KUNZ1g
Got about 35 years use out of this bad boy striking it on an upturned 8" piece of pressure treated 4x4.

Shot that killed it was an extra hard whack on the last of several heavily corroded .308s I wanted to make safe for disposal. And for the record, the puller didn't die in vain as that last bullet came out...
 
Last edited:
Whatever caused that primer to go off that was referenced in post 27 I don't think it was because of the use of a shellholder. I checked using a Frankford Arsenal and a RCBS shellholder with both large and small primers. . None of the primer was over the metal in either case. My Hornady shell holders have a even larger hole for the primers than the RCBS. It's easy enough to check if have any doubts
 
You missed my photo, then, of the metal covering almost half the primer when the cap is a bit loose and not forcing the shell holder to center. I've had 1911's fitted by link lug weld-up, cut and scrape that were impacting primers further off-center than that, and shot them in matches with nary a failure.

attachment.php


The trick in this instance is not only to have a high primer but for the slot milled in the shell holder to have its open end close to opposite the side of the puller barrel so that as you swing the handle, so the centrifugal effect resulting from the arc of the swing pushes the cartridge out into the slot, and for the cap not to be fully tightened. It's a matter of all the stars lining up just right (or wrong is maybe more descriptive), so it's not a high probability event, but more the kind of thing that can happen when you don't pay perfect attention to everything. And, as I said in post 42 of that link, it's not a question of whether or not it can happen. It did. So all it takes is to have all those problematic factors line up.
 

Attachments

  • Figure 4.JPG
    Figure 4.JPG
    31.8 KB · Views: 113
even with the cap completely removed and the milled slot facing downward I cannot get mine to get to cover the side Nick. Only tried with .308, 223 and 6.5 Grendel using my old blue FA though. I feel perfectly safe using mine, but if anyone has any doubts it takes 5 seconds to check to see if theirs is open or covered
 
Last edited:
One point to make is I have noticed previously that there is no standard size for the hole through shell holders. Some makes have smaller through-holes than others, and that could be a factor.
 
RCBS is the smallest I have, Hornady has larger holes. Anyway if anyone has any concerns about their own setup it is easy to check. Personally I find those little O ring collets a pain in the neck to use
 
Don't have high primer. It has been cause of a lot bad business; misfire or slam fire, when it feels like it.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
or you could simply use the parts MADE FOR the puller and repair/replace them when necessary...

Just sayin... :rolleyes:
 
44 AMP said:
or you could simply use the parts MADE FOR the puller and repair/replace them when necessary...



Just sayin... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
You still don't want to have high primer after sayin.

Nothing wrong with the collet if you don't mind it.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top