Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles RCBS kinetic bullet puller/bomb.

It makes a difference. With the chuck upside down as you tighten the cap your actually tightening the chuck into the extraction groove of the case putting pressure against the primer. You get almost another full turn of the cap with the chuck installed properly. With everything installed properly the cap seats on top of the chuck which seats on top of the hammer body. Down pressure only.

Forgot to mention my puller is a Quinetics brand I bought in the mid 80's.

I've used an inertia puller just to tap bullets back out some after seating too deep, but I've always kinda cringed banging that hammer on the bench....

Wow ! I have used one of the inertia hammers for years with no issues. Had no idea that they would go off like that. I think i am going to look into one of the collet pullers.
Glad your ok.

Interesting. I've disassembled many rounds with a Quinetics without such a thing happening; they are pretty much the only thing that works on most pistol bullets.

But I like my RCBS collet puller much better and use it if at all possible.

Am I the only one that has used the sameone for the past 30yrs and never had a problem with it? Only problem I ever run into was the rubber o ring breaking and RCBS sent me 2 new o rings with chucks for free.
And mine has probably pulled close to 1000 rnds. And some had a pretty good crimp on them

I've got both kinds. Depends on how many I have to pull. If just a few I use the hammer type RCBS. Hasbeen

Never had an issue.
Mine is 25+ years old.

Throw the o-rings and chucks in the trash. Use the shellholder out of your press instead.

You're welcome.

That's the setup that is used in the vast majority of puller kabooms....

I have been using that impact puller for years and never had an issue with it till last week. Primer went off and took out the overhead florescent light! That particular round had a loose primer pocket which I believe caused the issue. Sure was a surprise.


I am glad the powder didn't ignite. My guess is the unsupported primer moved away from the flashhole quickly enough so no burning material entered the case. Any comments on that?

This is comical...most kabooms are reported being due to using a shell holder instead of the collet. Now I'm being told its because I didn't use a shell holder instead. Then others claim have the collet flipped upside down causing it.

I took it apart, emptied the powder and bullet, and slapped it back together for quick photo...not paying attention to which direction it went. That being said, not sure how any of those scenarios would matter. There is nothing pushing on the primer. I've used this for ten plus years too without incident, but it finally happened.

You obviously had your finger on the trigger or else you had tampered with the adjustment - could never be the fault of the mechanism. (In fact, since it has never happened to some people, it is obvious that it never happened to you, either - you just made the whole thing up. )

Lol. I forgot to mention I taped a nail to the back because I thought it looked cool.

No one said an upside down chuck was causing the problem. In fact no one suggested any scenario that was actually causing it. Mathman wondered if it could be a contributing factor. It was mentioned again so I tried it and found it made a difference in how the chuck held the case. Would it cause the problem? I have no idea. Maybe you had the thing assembled right during the explosion and all this doesn't matter.

I've even stopped after a couple of hits to make sure the cap was tight because it wants to loosen up.

Is there any chance at all the primer wasn't fully seated?

Yep the cap does loosen don't it. Check this out:

https://www.shootersforum.com/warning-notices-recalls/50347-inertial-bullet-puller-warning.html

I imagine it would be like a little pipe bomb if the powder went...

I've never had a problem with my kinetic puller but I prefer to use my RCBS collet puller. However, I've had situations where the collet puller couldn't seem to get enough of a grip on the bullet to extract it so I had to use the kinetic puller. I think it's good to have both.

I've used the same RCBS kinetic puller since the 1980's... never a problem, and I use it often. I wonder whether there's some sort of user problem? Perhaps, not tightening it enough?