Mr. Longbeard

long story but had some jacked up Winchester factory 35rem ammo that would not chamber in my 336...

So I figured I'd pull bullets, full length resize brass and then just reload the bullets... Well after doing this I noticed that the bullets were loose in the case... So I pulled them and resized them again and loaded some Sierra 200gr bullets and they were fine... I measured the pulled bullets and they were .357 and the Sierra bullets were .358...

My guest ion is does pulling bullets mLe them smaller???

cjclemens

It depends on how you pull them. If you just used a pair of pliers to yank them out of the case, its possible that that the bullets could have been deformed and they probably shouldn't be reused. If you used one of those impact bullet pullers, the bullets usually pop out with no damage at all.

Mr. Longbeard

Used a hammer like bullet puller

TN Lone Wolf

I've reused bullets that I had previously pulled using an inertial puller with no issues. The reason for the small discrepancy in bullet diameter is probably just different manufacturing tolerances between the bullet makers.

bronko22000

Yes you can use pulled bullets. It sounds to me as if you don't have your seating die adjusted quite properly and not getting a crimp on your case.
An easy fix is to put an empty case in and run the seating die down until it touches the case mouth. Then back out the seating plug screw the die down another 1/8 to 1/4 turn depending on the amount of crimp you want. (note: your bullet should be seated to the cannelure.) Run the loaded case into the die to crimp the bullet in the case and then lower your seating plug till it contacts the bullet.
Now your die is set properly.

Nomercy448

Pulling bullets won't, by itself, make them smaller, but the seating in the first (and second) passes can. In general, you're sizing in a few thousandths of neck tension, as they say, "something's gotta give..."

I've never found myself in a position where I had a LOT of rounds to pull, so I'd have a LOT of bullets to re-use. So for just a few bullets, I don't usually bother reusing them. Won't hurt anything to reuse them, I just typically don't, because it's not usually worth the trouble for 10-15 bullets. For more than 100rnds, where we're talking about $30-50 in bullets, or more, I'd be motivated to reuse them, but then again, you're talking about a lot more time to pull the bullets - and I've just never found myself in a position where I have had 100rnds or more of improperly loaded/sized ammo. So usually, I just discard of the bullets and figure I've wasted more money on more foolish things.