bullet puller problems

S

Shadow9mm

New member
so i have a hammer type bullet puller. seated some 9mm test loads about 0.025 to 0.50 too deep depending on the manual. I don't feel comfortable shooting them as they are new powders I have not worked with before.

I do have a hammer bullet puller, it does not seem to work.... I have tried it 4 times total now, with factory 223s, my handloaded 223s, and now these 9mm bullets but cannot seem to get them to budge, even with, what i considered to be, excessive ang over aggressive hammering. I'm talking full swings, 20-30 hits.

in the past with longer cartridges like 223 and 30-06 i would just run the bullet up through the press, grabed it from the side with pliers and lower the ram. 9mm is too short for that, im not reaching over the top to grab it.

Looked at bullet pullers, but at 30 for the puller, and 15 each for the collets it seems so expensive. I have only had to pull maybe 3-4 bullets previously in my, over 10yrs or reloading....
 
I have found that my kinetic bullet "puller" often requires that I whack it hard enough that I'm afraid it will break.

I also learned that I can't use it like a framing hammer. The aim with a framing hammer is to NOT have the hammer rebound, but to use its momentum to drive the nail. For that, you need a swing of the full arm, with the wrist more or less locked, and with follow-through.

The kinetic puller is the opposite. The case is attached to the body of the puller. We want the puller and the case to rebound, while the bullet (hopefully) continues to move downward. Consequently, with the kinetic puller I tend to use a lot more wrist and a lot less arm. I DON'T want the puller to continue down or to resist rebound. To the contrary, I want it to rebound, because that helps to separate the case from the bullet. So with the kinetic puller I use short, sharp whacks rather than long, full-arm blows with the force applied both during and after the moment of impact.
 
I have a hammer puller that wouldn't do a thing beating it on a concrete floor. I picked up a 3"X3" block of oak and struck the hammer on it while holding the oak in my hand and, to my surprise, the bullet was laying in the bottom of the hammer. I don't use the press puller any more.
 
scatterbrain said:
I have a hammer puller that wouldn't do a thing beating it on a concrete floor. I picked up a 3"X3" block of oak and struck the hammer on it while holding the oak in my hand and, to my surprise, the bullet was laying in the bottom of the hammer. I don't use the press puller any more.
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i will try that!
 
Another method, is to get the extended shell holder, such as what RCBS makes, so your stubby pistol rounds will reach up through the press. I've not seen one, but supposedly Hornady makes an adapter that fits your press, and your everyday shell holders go in it, rather than needing the special by caliber ones from RCBS.
 
scatterbrain said:
I have a hammer puller that wouldn't do a thing beating it on a concrete floor. I picked up a 3"X3" block of oak and struck the hammer on it while holding the oak in my hand and, to my surprise, the bullet was laying in the bottom of the hammer. I don't use the press puller any more.
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This right here is the ticket . I had the same problem you did until I got a mesquite log from the wood pile. It works in about 5 short quick whacks. Even laying on it's side because it is cut crooked and won't stand up it works better than anything else I have tried to whack it on.

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk
 
I stand up an eight inch length of pressure treated 4x4 and whack my RCBS hammer puller on it. Sometimes takes an extra smack or two— but it never fails.
 
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go to any store that sells wooden flooring get a piece of Ipe (Brazilian walnut) wood to whack on. It's cheap and hard as a iron bar. Cur a square off and keep it on your bench. Whack it with the puller like you mean it, my puller is over ten years old and has not broke it yet. Ask nicely at the flooring place and they might just give you a scrap piece
 
You need a flat hard surface, concrete is ideal, flat rock will work. Even a shop floor covered with tile takes some whacking. Wood work bench will not do it very well if at all.

Do not hit a curved piece of pipe with one (don't ask me how I know though RCBS sent me a new one once I sent them the old one!)

I never broke one I had flat hard surface for (possible I assume but takes a lot of pounding as I have one I had for 25 years and doing fine)

I use them for a one or two off, the rest I pull with my Hornady bullet puller. Its got a lever on top and cam setup that works pretty good (you do have to finagle the bullets out, I used a 45 deg needle nose.
 
I have a hammer puller that wouldn't do a thing beating it on a concrete floor. I picked up a 3"X3" block of oak and struck the hammer on it while holding the oak in my hand and, to my surprise, the bullet was laying in the bottom of the hammer. I don't use the press puller any more.
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I do it all the time on the shop floor (tile covering concrete). Take a whack of two.

I would hit myself if I tired to hold two things and whack it.

I can even move bullets out for a longer than the were reseat on concrete, just get a feel for it.

Rocks at the range work but they put in concrete floor so I use that.
 
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It needs to be whacked on something like a piece of oak and you need to let it bounce as it hits as opposed to trying to drive 16d nails in one blow. Shouldn't take more than a few blows that way. I have pulled everything from 32ACP to 7mm mag that way.

I put a foam earplug in the bottom to cushion the bullet tip.
 
Any hard surface works, I don't have oak laying around and use concrete or flat rocks

Kinetic should have a soft sponge thing in the bottom though I tend to loose them and replace with spare foam.
 
The way it works is by stopping as suddenly as possible and then rebounding while the bullet is still trying to move out of the case. I have the bottom of a piece of steel die block I set on my concrete basement floor when I am using one of these.
 
I use the end grain of a 6X6 about 6" in length.

I've found that, for me at least, if I use an age old Jujutsu move and swing the hammer as if the target is below the surface of the wood, I get much better results. In other words, swing the head through the wood surface, not to the surface. Surprise the bullet out of the case when it actually hits the surface. It was thinking it should go further. :)
 
I use the concrete floor. Make sure the handle is parallel to the floor at impact. Should be no problems pulling 9 MM but heavy crimps especially with a facory crimp Lee crimp die will make pulling light .223 bullets difficult. I've broken a couple impact pullers in 30 plus years of fast and heavy whacks on the concrete. Again the handle needs to be parallel to the floor and the body vertical at impact. I've used my impact pullers enough to wear out the aluminum collets.
 
I've broken at least two kinetic pullers in 45 years of reloading, but my latest one has lasted a surprisingly long time. But if I have to pull more than 2, I use the Hornady tool jmr40 provided a link to. It really doesn't take that much time to set up if you compare the time it takes with a kinetic, especially including jerking around getting the cartridge in the collet without the rubber ring jumping off.

You don't lose the powder in the case, either. How do you assure yourself all the powder in the kinetic is not stuck around the bullet buffers mentioned, so that another powder type is not contaminated with a previous one?
 
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