I had some 300 WSM rounds that were too high in pressure. I was pulling the bullets to redo them, using an RCBS kinetic puller. I was happily tapping away on a brick when a primer fired. It blew out of the primer pocket and flew across the room. The bullet was about 3/4 of the way out so there wasn't any powder near the primer so it didn't ignite. It scares me to think what would have happened if this had happened on the 1st blow when the powder was back against the primer.

I think I'll go shopping for a collet type puller. I've pulled a lot of bullets over the years with this thing without incident but I'll admit that banging on a live round has always made me nervous.

easiest way- put the cartridge in the press, run it up through the press and grab the bullet with side cutter pliers. pull down on the handle and the pliers will stop against the press. gently pull down and the bullet comes right out. no damage to the bullet.

Yes , we ALL wear our glasses when reloading, don't we?

Glad you are ok.

Not sure about that!

RCBS Collet puller is the only way to roll....

Hornady collet-type bullet puller is the best I've used.

Yup, I have all the collets. The inertia puller has its place especially with lead pistol bullets but the collet type gets the most use.

Denny.

glad you are safe Rock.
I was annealing some brass and one case in a hundred had a primer. I was heating it in the flame of our cook stove and wifey walkes by just as the primer went off. went 2.75 inches into her left arm. expensive round that one turned out to be.

Dang man! was it the doctor or the divorce lawyer that was the most expensive?

I had the EXACT same thing happen to me about 10 years ago. I was lucky, in that I had my head turned slightly. The primer shot out of there at an extremely high rate of speed and just missed my right eye by a quarter inch. I still carry a 3" long scar from the corner of my eye to past my right temple.

It was estimated that, at a minimum, it would have taken that eye out, possibly going into my brain, if I had not turned my head slightly.

Scary times. Thanks to my Lord for posting a guardian angel beside me when I needed it.

I had one go off too. In this day and age I'm surprised the makers haven't been forced to enclose the cap end through litigation. I'll never use one again.

Yipes! I have never had a 'failure' with a kinetic puller, but this sure gives one pause.

I've broken two -- lots of use there. Sidecutters for me now and RCBS collet for .416 Rigby. So glad you escaped!!

Many times, over the past several years, I have been WARNING people to quit using those things. They're by far the most dangerous tool available for reloaders.

So, I'll say it again - DO NOT, I REPEAT, NOT USE ANY KINETIC PULLER TO REMOVE BULLETS FROM LOADED CASES!!! Spend a couple extra bux to obtain a bullet-pulling die for your reloader.. It's simply NOT WORTH IT to risk severe injury from using those damned kinetic pullers..

Mine that went off was a 300 win mag. Primer put a nice hole in the sheetrock lid..

Bought a collet puller immediately after.

This one.

I do this but use a pair of electrical crimping pliers, with the little half circles of different size to grip the bullet. miles

Okay, mine is going in the trash.

"Kinetic" and live ammo has never sat well with me.



Travis

Funny thing, I have blown up more guns than kinetic pullers...

Very scary, glad you are ok. I bought one of those RCBS hammer things, used it one time and thought, "There must be a better way." Which is the RCBS collet puller...

Those Colts come unglued pretty easy.

Stick with Uberti.



Travis

I've never blown up a gun and this my 1st time with the puller that I've been using for 40 years. It's now retired. Once is more than enough.

had a primer tube on a dillion blow yrs ago.

I never fail to be amazed at the IQ deficiency on this forum!!

I use this method, but it leaves a mark and I dispose of the bullet. Cheap insurance to pull safely, and use a new bullet.

I've always pulled with a Kinetic puller, gives one reason to rethink that process.

Thanks.

Cabelas called. I went to their site and put in a review on kinetic pullers saying they're dangerous. Their cust svc dept called for details and they say they're passing it on to their marketing dept.

i use collet puller

Only scary time I had reloading was reloading trap loads on my Dillon 900. Somehow a live round had gotten in with the empties in the automatic feed. Being "nose heavy" with a load of shot in place, it went down the feeder tube nose first. When the decapping pin hit the primer...well, I was through loading for the evening. There was no damage done, the case blew out (banana peeled) from the case head to the bottom of the shot charge and it made a louder noise than you want to hear in your shop when you're reloading, but no damage done.

I'm sure thankful for this thread. I decided when I started putting together what I needed for reloading to get a collet type puller instead of a kinetic puller.

I've made up some dummy rounds and now I guess I'll practice pulling bullets from them before I need to pull bullets from a live round.

Thanks for the thread.

Rock Chuck,

Thank God that you weren't injured.

I agree 100% with 16bore. I have used RCBS collet bullet puller w/o a single problem. What's better is that bullets are not damaged, and there is no mess. Just dump powder in a suitable container and the case is ready to load again.

Wow, I gotta say I've never heard of that happening. I can understand the pucker factor...bet you had to bear down for a good while to chit your britches back out...and then change. SOOOO glad it wasn't worse.

Actually not on my bench. I do a vis check with a light to make sure all the powder is out (it often isn't) and then neck size again with the decapping pin out.

I resize them after dumping the powder with no decapping pin. I figure the bullet has stretched the neck enough to give an uneven tension.

Smart guy...

And I also clean up spilled powder with a propane torch..

Faster than a vacuum and eliminates the chance of a primer detonating in the roller of the vacuum...

I believe that it was in an old copy of Handloader that I saw a picture of a kinetic puller that had gone to pieces.

WOW! I have probably pulled 2000/3000 bullets with a kinetic puller and never a problem. Guess it's time to retire it. Seems I've been lucky - so far.
Ironically, I have 5 collet pullers. Looks like they're going to be installed in my Hollywood turret press.

I have an RCBS collet puller I have used for many years on jacketed bullets but it is pretty much helpless on cast bullets, they are too slick for the collet to get hold of them so I use the RCBS inertia puller for the few occasions when I need to pull a cast bullet.

Have always used a collet pullet, just couldn't get my head wrapped around whacking on something that has a small quantity of chemical that is impact sensitive and just waiting to light off the propellent in a case with a bullet over the propellent.

I ran a test once. Pulled thinly-jacketed varmint bullets with an inertial puller, a collet-type, and also by using a pliers. Reloaded them and tested for accuracy against an un-pulled batch exactly the same. The "pliers" bullets were the most distorted.

This will surprise you. There was NO meaningful difference in accuracy or velocity. My theory is that the force of jamming the bullets into the rifling "reformed" the bullet jackets to their original form, or very nearly so.

Moral: Load 'em and shoot 'em.

Never had it happen, but picked up a 3 piece set of these "Grip-n-Pull's" last year, works pretty well and can't beat it for being easy!

Link


Phil

Had one go bang with a loaded .45 Colt round. Have no idea where primer went. I was in my garage banging on the pavement like an ape.

JM, you nailed it for me. I objected to the "banging like an ape" deal. Just seemed undignified.

I use a collet puller now (RCBS), but used a kinetic puller a bunch back in the day, mostly with handgun rounds. To my mind and experience the key with kinetic pullers is to hit something SOLID, like an anvil. Bullet pulls with first or second strike, and I never had a detonation.

I just mostly object to whangin' on chit when I don't need to.

Light bullets in long neck cartridges are hard to get moving with a kinetic puller. Had never heard of an explosion like this happening until this thread. I'll switch now too. Thanks for the heads up. Learned something today. Oh, and the propane torch trick is sweet too. Can't wait to try it.
Could work for testing gunpowders temp sensitivity as well.
First, get the powder can red hot, then... regain consciousness after surgery.

This afternoon I got another call from Cabelas, from a different department. I seem to have got their attention. This one said they'd had other reports of this happening and they're going to review them to decide if they should delete them from their shelves.

That will make some manufacturer happy-LOL, but they shouldn't sell them IMO.

I never used them with rifle cartridges, just pistol rounds and still had an ignition.

I ain't much on surprises of that kind.