Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Pulling Bullets

I have a Hornady collett bullet puller. I am about ready to use it on a project, and I thought I'd run it all past you for a sanity check.

I am re-purposing my Remington 7600 in 35 Whelen. For ten seasons it has worked very well shooting 200 grain Rem SPCL's at whitetails, but I have had a few additions in the rack, and I decided to take the "Whelenizer" out of the rotation for deer season. About the same time, I started a project to try bullet casting, and targeted all my .358 chamberings. So far, the project has gone well. I tried my 7600 this past weekend with my first powder coated bullets cast from an RCBS 358-200-FN mold.

I'm going to load 50 or so rounds, in 2 grain increments, looking for the optimal accuracy and speed. Somewhere along the way, I expect to find the optimal load, and it will probably leave me with a bunch of rounds in the wrong amount of powder.

My question to y'all is this: If I pull the remainder of the rounds with the collet puller, dump the powder and start over, are the primed cases ready for powder and a new bullet? If not, what else needs to be done.

The bullets will go back to the melter.

I would probably raise the expander ball, pull the de-capping pin, and neck size only to make sure the neck tension is correct. Seating bullets does expand the neck of cases a bit.

I lose the gas checks inside cases when attempting to pull cast bullets. You will likely have to just shoot 'em anyhow.
2 cents

Drat, I had not thought of the gas checks.

Otherwise lastround's idea sounded perfect. I have a neck sizing die that I've never used.

Don't pull bullets.

Get a 100 round ctg. box, powder charge your incremental loads and line them up in rows. Get a Lee hand loader, set your seating die to seat and crimp, just like you'd do at the shop. Load bullets at the range, shoot them and record data. When you get where you need to be, what you have left are cases full of powder, nothing to pull.

Put a shop towel, etc. over the charged cases to keep powder from bouncing out on the way to the range.

Works great.

DF

"My question to y'all is this: If I pull the remainder of the rounds with the collet puller, dump the powder and start over, are the primed cases ready for powder and a new bullet?"

Yes, as long as the gas checks aren't pulled off. If you're using Hornady checks that crimp on they should stay with the bullets. Lyman checks may or may not pull off. (Unless they changed Lyman checks - does Hornady make the Lyman checks these days?) You would need to flare the case necks again if you crimped the bullets in place.

You can resize the case necks or not. Optimally that's the way to go but if you want to skip that step it's not vital. The next bullets will seat a tad easier indicating a bit less bullet pull but if it makes you uncomfortable for actual hunting you can always use them for practice rounds. I've reseated bullets into "pulled" cases without resizing the neck and couldn't see where it threw those bullets to a different POI.

If you use them for practice you wouldn't even need to remelt the pulled bullets. A collet puller doesn't damage bullets too much. I've never used powder coated bullets so I don't know how dropping that powder coat into a clean batch of melt would affect things.

Just shoot them offhand, we can ALL use that practice!-Muddy

I think you've got a idea there!

I've got a hand loader sitting on the shelf. I just hadn't thought about it. Heck! I can take the scales and a dipper and the trickler down and just do it all at the bench, from pre-primed brass.

From what I understand, PC bullets act like flux when you throw them back in the melter. Somebody let me know if this is not the case.

I'd rather charge cases in the shop, seat bullets at the range. Faster and less trouble that way.

DF

Well, everything's packed. I'm ready to leave the farm.

I went with the idea of loading as I went, 5 rounds at a time, and I got a chance to survey all the territory between 42 grains and 50 grains of H4895. Accuracy was best between 42 and 44. I was able to break 2500 with 50 grains, however both the accuracy was poor and the velocities were all over the place.

My conclusions are as follows:

1) 43 grains of H4895 gave consistent velocity and decent accuracy. It was getting late in the day when I tried it, but I had a couple of 2-shot groups that would fit inside a 50 cent piece.
2) The velocity variations increased with the charge weight.
3) When it came down to it, I had to look back at the overall goals. I had a hand-cast lead bullet-- check. It could kill a deer at 150 yards or better-- check. 42-44 grains produced a pleasant amount of recoil and 46-50 grains did not buy me anything except more wear and tear on the shoulder.
4) The Whelenizer went from a hot 358 WIN-ish with slightly downloaded 200 grain jacketed loads to a hot 35-Rem-ish deer gun with cast lead. I'm happy; it is mostly going to be pointed at whitetails.
5) The Whelenizer kept its distinctive and authoritative report with the new load. When it barks everyone on the neighboring ridges will know I've shot.

This was my first attempt at loading at the shooting bench. The hardest part was getting a dead-level surface to mount the scale. I used a bubble-level app on my tablet and a couple copies of the local phone book (up two pages to the right, down three on the back, etc.) The other problem I had was trying to use a scale in something other than dead air. For the first part of the day, I had nearly no wind. However, even the slightest breeze would skew the scale. If I did this regularly, I'd build a box with a plexiglass door, and screw feet on the bottom for leveling. Transporting the stuff was easy. I fit everything in a 20mm ammo can.