Resizing loaded ammo

I had a few hundred rounds of 223 that would not chamber in the new barrel. I pulled a few and finally decided that this was a bad plan, as I’d be at this for months. I had a Redding bushing die. Removed the guts and made it a Body Die and used it to resize the couple hundred loaded rounds. Worked great. I’m nowhere near the first person to do this, and researched it prior to trying it. Just buy the Body Die. It’s not expensive.
 
Depends on how much resizing needs done. Have used a body die to resize 223 and 308, and it was much quicker than tearing down the rounds. Pretty sure someone also offers small base body dies. One time did well over 500 223 rounds.

If you have a lot of rounds to do, might consider the cost of the body die and try it on one round. If it works, the cost may save you a whole lot of time/effort
 
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That sounds like a reasonable plan. I am no fan of the inertia bullet pullers except for the occasional one or two rounds. It is pure drudgery to take down a bunch of rounds with that little RCBS "hammer"
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I use the Lyman "orange hammer" and it works well for me, much better than the RCBS collet die I used for years. The hammer will also pull lead bullets without damage, something I could never get a collet die to do.
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Inertia bullet pullers...I've got the RCBS one and have only used it a very few times and was quite unhappy with it. Then I loaned it to a friend and when he returned it he said he knocked out about 100 rounds in a few minutes with no problems.

In short, I suspect there is a technique (and maybe an attitude) to get the things to work well.

Also, I eventually remembered he's got an honest to Gosh anvil at his place. Don't know if he used that or not, I'll try to remember to ask next time I see him.
 
I've done this with bottleneck cartridges. Started with a size die, used a carbide bit to open the case neck to about .010" larger than the SAAMI maximum neck OD for a loaded cartridge. Was able to reset headspace on 500 rounds of 308 loaded incorrectly. You cannot do this using a stock size die.
 
In short, I suspect there is a technique (and maybe an attitude) to get the things to work well.
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This is essentially it. You're not chopping wood and you're not driving nails. The swing need to be a fast "snap" not a heavy power though chop. ALSO, it helps a LOT to hit something that has zero give. An anvil is perfect. A cast iron wood stove work well for me. Wood, no matter how "hard" is soft for this application, and surprisingly , concrete isn't much better.

Its the is fast speed and sudden stop that does the work. Extra power in the blow, like you need to chop through and split wood gets you nothing with an inertia puller. It is a learnable technique, and once learned makes the inertial puller both easy and efficient.
 
There's one part you have NOT mentioned with regards to how well an INERTIAL bullet puller might or might not work...

...the weight of the bullet helps an awful lot.

Smacking out 230 grain pills is much, much easier than a 55 grain FMJ.
 
44 AMP said:
This is essentially it. You're not chopping wood and you're not driving nails. The swing need to be a fast "snap" not a heavy power though chop. ALSO, it helps a LOT to hit something that has zero give. An anvil is perfect. A cast iron wood stove work well for me. Wood, no matter how "hard" is soft for this application, and surprisingly , concrete isn't much better.

Its the is fast speed and sudden stop that does the work. Extra power in the blow, like you need to chop through and split wood gets you nothing with an inertia puller. It is a learnable technique, and once learned makes the inertial puller both easy and efficient.
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Correct. I use a steel vice to remove bullets using my RCBS inertial puller. Then dump the powder and bullets in an ash tray. Eventually I salvage the bullets and dump the powder in my flower bed. The concrete floor just doesn't work as well.

Have not tried it on light bullets with a heavy crimp - that might require a bullet puller die.
 
Either shoot them in the rifle they were loaded for then re load them. Or get a bullet puller, pull the bullets and reclaim the components and start over.
I have a Frankfort arsenal hammer type bullet puller. It works like a charm. Pops the bullet out of the case with little effort. Saves the bullet and powder for re use.
 
Sevens said:
There's one part you have NOT mentioned with regards to how well an INERTIAL bullet puller might or might not work...

...the weight of the bullet helps an awful lot.

Smacking out 230 grain pills is much, much easier than a 55 grain FMJ.
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i mentioned that ^ and that a factory crimp makes it even worse.
 
Light bullets have less inertia, and crimped bullets are more difficult to pull, no getting around that. Still, I find the Orange Hammer I use to be more efficient that the RCBS collet die I used for years. Time after time no matter how tight I got the collet, it would still often slip. Not much is as frustrating as tightening the collet as tight as possible, using a cheater wrench, to the point where you had to hammer on the handle to get it to loosen and still have a bullet slip free.

Doing that two, or three times every two or three rounds made it a real pain.

I had overlooked the hammers for years (decades, actually) and when I finally decided to try one (and it was cheaper than the collet die) I got the big Lyman one, not the smaller RCBS one, and it has worked like a champ for me.

Pulled down 400 rnds of 7.62 Nato in maybe an hour and a half and most of the time was removing the pulled components and putting in another round.

GI milsurp stuff, crimped and lacquered and 5 or 6 wacks (or less) did the trick.

Pulling down .223 and some .22-250 rounds actually took a bit more work, due to the ligher bullet inertial, but it was usually a matter of another couple wacks, or three. And the hammer will pull lead bullets undamaged, something a collet puller will not do.

Maybe its just something I'm naturally good at, or maybe its the fact that I get to HIT SOMETHING while doing needed work, either way, for me the hammer is the way to go. YMMV :D
 
I'm the other way around. Puller die whenever possible. The hammer is there just in case. I haven't met any cartridge that I can't pull if I have the right size of collet. I bought an used rcbs puller die with a few collets. Had to modify it to use it on a coax press. I buy collet when I have a new caliber to pull, or when I see a good deal.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Dillonhelp said:
I've done this with bottleneck cartridges. Started with a size die, used a carbide bit to open the case neck to about .010" larger than the SAAMI maximum neck OD for a loaded cartridge. Was able to reset headspace on 500 rounds of 308 loaded incorrectly. You cannot do this using a stock size die.
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Your result is what a Redding Body Die already is but with better concentricity and finish. At about $40, it is just under the cost of a Hornady Cam Lock Bullet Puller and collet, which is the only puller I would even try to use for a volume of ammo. I've pulled over 2000 surplus rounds with one (after first seating the bullets slightly deeper to crack the sealant). It is way faster than the RCBS/Forster type collet closer and way less effort than the kinetic puller. I can pull a bullet every 5 seconds with mine when I get into the rhythm.

Personally, I would go with the Cam Lock puller over the Body Die because it only takes a $17 collet to add another bullet diameter for it, whereas the Body Die is dedicated to one specific cartridge. Plus, a die with a live round in it is basically a super short-barrelled gun, and should a round go off, you have hearing, vision, and flying bullet direction concerns. Mind you, the bullet wouldn't go very fast or far, but having to wear an eye shield, welder's gloves, and hearing protection to be safe is a lot of extra bother. It's one of those deals where you can usually get away with a few rounds, but a lot raises the odds of an ignition incident.
 
Unclenick, my thought exactly. I have more utility out of a puller die than a caliber specific body die. And the safety advantage too.

I have a rcbs puller die. But it didn't work with a Forster coax press. I bought a toggle bolt to replace the crank bolt. It became a defacto Hornady puller. After initial setting it is actually very effective and efficient.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Good modification! The problem with those tools isn't the collet but the tap handle-style closer.

If you find the time, might you post a photo of your fix? There must be thousands of owners of those pullers who would appreciate the mod information even for a standard press. Anything to get out of the time-consuming, hand-aching chore of turning the handle and trying to judge correct tightness accurately from one round to the next.
 
Here it is. McMaster carries the toggle bolt. I bought mine on eBay at much better price. The handle has the right length not to interfere with the press lever.

-TL
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There must be a different term for that bolt, when I type Toggle bolt in their search it actually only comes up with toggle bolts. I tried cam lock bolt but nothing.
 
I've done it successfully on a few occasions. A couple that come to mind were a .280 that I had neck sized that were difficult to chamber. I just removed the decapping stem assembly from the die and ran the loaded round into the die. Then recently I crimped a 30-30 case that was a bit too long, resulting in a slight bulge at the shoulder. Same procedure, problem solved.

The operation is nothing like sizing a case in that it requires very little effort and pressure to perform, and no sizing lube is needed.
 
Name of One Who Uses said:
I've done it successfully on a few occasions. A couple that come to mind were a .280 that I had neck sized that were difficult to chamber. I just removed the decapping stem assembly from the die and ran the loaded round into the die. Then recently I crimped a 30-30 case that was a bit too long, resulting in a slight bulge at the shoulder. Same procedure, problem solved.



The operation is nothing like sizing a case in that it requires very little effort and pressure to perform, and no sizing lube is needed.
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Not kosher, I'm afraid. See post #11. Did you pull the bullet first?

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
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