bullet pullers
 

anybody have any suggestions on what type of bullet pullers they like?? I think I would like the grip n pull .. maybe I could get a real review from some real people .. they make one for 17,20,22,24,25,26,27,28,30 .. I see the girl on the video makin it look easy .. I am practically already sold .. anybody??

I have one of the inertia pullers. It has a self adjusting collet which will work with any cartridge that I reload. I've used it literally thousands of times over the years. I have absolutely no complaints about it.

i use the hammer type that doesnt need collets. just attach the ammo to the adjustmentricg and hit it on a hard surface like a hardwood board until the bullet comes out. bullet and powder stays inside to be dumped out and reused.

The puller that mounts in the press, and uses collets is what i use nowaday. Used one of them hammer/inertia pullers for years & glad i don't anymore.
















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Be honest with yourself - if you're going to reload long or much, you're going to end up with both a bullet gripping puller and a case gripping puller. The Inertial/Hammer pullers are cheap, and they're great for recovering bullets. The downsides are slow loading, loud hammering, and the fact they scatter powder to he11 and back. The upside, a cheap earplug in the tip will protect your bullets for reuse. Press mounted collet type pullers and bullet gripping pliers might mar the bullets to make them unusable, or at best less consistent, but the powder is well contained. The Grip-n-pull pliers are cheap. The hammers are cheap. The collet pullers are less cheap, but still relatively cheap.

thanks .. have u used the grip-n-pull ?? i really don't call $35 cheap

I've found the inertia or kinetic pullers work great as long as you don't have an large quantity to pull. Always smack them against concrete or asphalt. If you smack it against wood, it adsorbs some of the energy, making it harder to pull. I've had an RCBS puller since the mid 70s and it's still in service!

I guess it's all relative...

Grip-n-pull = $40 and fits a handful of bullet diameters
Hammer type = ~$20-25 for effectively any cartridge (suck for lightweight bullets)
Hornady/RCBS/Forster collet type = $20-25 for the "die" + $10-12 per cartridge
RCBS Adjustable Collet puller = $125

So the hammer type is the cheapest option. Grip-n-pull is the second cheapest option, really, unless you only reload one caliber, where it effectively breaks even against a collet puller. Wanna pull 9 different calibers and don't care if you ruin bullets? The Hammer is $20, the GNP is $40, and the Collet types are $135...

I tend to think if you only have ONE, it should be a hammer type. Small caliber bullets suck on any of them, as they don't have much exposed bearing surface for gripping, and don't have much inertia to overcome the neck tension. With enough whacking, the hammer will get it. If the bullet grippers can't get a grip, they can't. But really, it's d@mned nice to have both options.

ETA: The grip-n-pull works fine - but you do need a means to hold the cartridge case securely. I use a Lee cartridge holder for their case trimming gear and T handled lock stud I made.

y hammer type got so cartridges went right through it a pain. So I bought the RCBS collet puller and never looked back. If I had just bought the RCBS in the first palce it would have been cheaper for me. The RCBS collet system is easy to use and the bullets are only marked by the case it self Marks further up on the bullet will not effect accuracy any way.

This coming from a guy who in another post was talking about 100yrd benchrest and shooting at a tiny dot...? When I was shooting 600/1000yrd benchrest, we trimmed and uniformed bullets to be sure they all had the least possible deviation in BC... It's proven different rifling types can cause different expansion responses in bullets, in how aggressively they engrave the bearing surface...

"Marks" left by mechanical gripping tools, especially the grip-n-pull, as in ogive distortions, gouges, scratches, dents, etc... on the bullet anywhere will affect the way they fly. If you have no expectation of precision, sure, bang away. If you want all of your bullets to fly the same, it's best not to have shark bite scars on your bullet.

ditch the 3 jawed chuck in the hammer type pullers and use a shell holder, problem solved!
RR

^ This... I thought that was a given!

EDIT TO ADD: I use the shell holders from the Lee AutoPrime (hand primer) in my hammer. Standard shell holders work fine too, but I had a bit of a headache with some getting stuck in the collet nut, so I swapped over to the Lee priming shell holders.

No disrespect No Mercy but I was told by a bullet maker who shot bench rest. That as long as the ring at the base of the bullet is not marked Other marks on the bullet do not matter. As for the hammer bullt puller I pitched it more of a pain then it was worth. Besides I had to many bullets with deformed tips from that thing.

foam ear plug solves that! The key to accuracy is consistency, use the same pressure seating primers, keep cases as close to identical as possible, seat your bullets the same way every time (start the bullet, spin case 120 degrees, seat a bit more, spin case 120 degrees, finish seating, keeps runout to a minimum) its not hard, just a lot of little tidbits that add up, if all your bullets are not exactly alike, it will have an affect.
RR

If you are meticulous, and have an accurate rifle, this is possible, its a 3 shot group, shot at 752 yards from a custom built rifle chambered in 6.5 Gibbs, running a 140 gr burger at 3280 fps. this ammo is loaded with no specialty tools, just using dies, consistency and knowledge.

RR

I have both the inertia and the collet type and I'm sorry NoMercy but this is probably the first time I've ever disagreed with you (at least partially). I've used my inertia puller thousands of times and I've never damaged a bullet nor had powder fly all over. I do have a piece of dense foam at the bottom to protect the bullet tip and once it is out of the case I dump the entire contents into a plastic bowl recovering almost every grain of powder and the bullet. With the collet type puller I have damaged bullets because they had to be gripped too tightly to be pulled because of a crimp. But they do work very well for pulling light bullets as you mentioned. Like a .223. I have collets for 22, 270, 7mm, 30, 8mm and 45.
So to answer the post, if you're only going to be pulling a few bullets now and then I would save my money and go with the inertia puller.

My powder scattering problem may just be me. After I get about 10 rounds in, I tend to drift a bit, and it's almost a certainty I will fail to notice when one of the bullets drops, and I'll take a backswing before I notice the bullet is free. Powder flies out the tail of the hammer.

It's a lot better at containing powder even when I backswing with the Lee shell holder, but I still end up getting a bit of powder free flying around my shop. Not a big issue, probably less mess than any time I deprime, let alone when I change/empty my powder dispensers...

Despite so many years doing lab work, I'm terrible about powder management. I'm also very persnickety about powder management. A dozen kernels around the base of my press after a hundred rounds is, "a mess."

I'm fairly new to this reloading mallarkey and I might have stumbled across a universal puller. take the die out of a single stage press, Put he cartridge in the shellholder as per normal, pull the handle down all the way, attach a rubber keyless chuck to the bullet (the kind you get on a cordless drill) and pull the handle back up. Simple.

Thanks for the ear plug hack. Never thought of that !!!

I use the hammer type. First ever whack made me turn my head as if it was going to fire the round. After getting past that first cringe, I now easily whack away. I recover bullet, case, and powder without issue.

hey toxo - that sounds like a plan .. you ain't that bad for a spike:rock:ha.ha .. honestly i get it .. you know you gotta grow some horns before you're gonna get any respect or admiration around here.

Appreciate the earplug Idea! (also dense foam)

I'll stick with RCBS Collet Inertia as I have used it nearly 35 years now, only having to replace the O-Ring 1 time.

I don't use it except when working up a load and seating too deep in my quite lose necks. I use LEE Factory Crimp and believe in them fully. I'm not a benchrester, other views may vary! I work on animals, only sometimes targets when necessary.

REM7600

toxo.UK
 

Also a Leatherman, just above your single stage is killer but forget about the bullet thereafter! Clean solution, especially on the factory crimp solution.

REM7600

PS:Admiration be damned!