I've broken a few. They have their place but I prefer a collet puller. If I don't care about saving the bullet I do what mjbgalt does. I use linemans pliers and this damages the bullet. Then it goes into the melting pot to be recycled!
Another happy Grip-N-Pull user. You don't have to worry about the tool breaking, primer detonation or damaging the bullet. One tool handles multiple calibers and they are quick and easy to use.
I have had no problems with accuracy from pulled bullets using the inertia puller, the collet puller works great but the bullets are ruined 100% of the time.
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I'll never use an inertia puller again after getting a grip-n-pull. So much easier. I've got two of them, the one for the standard bullets and the one for the big boys.
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You did not "seen" anything, you "saw" it. A "creek" has water in it, a "crick" is what you get in your neck. Liberals with guns are nothing but hypocrites.
Those hammers make you look like a monkey trying to fix an automatic transmission with a plastic bat. Collet pullers are the only way to go. If I'm only adjusting powder charges I use mine to put the bullet right back into the case it just came out of. I use the RCBS model.
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NRA Patron Life Member, Gunsmith, Instructor, Chief RSO
I have had no problems with accuracy from pulled bullets using the inertia puller, the collet puller works great but the bullets are ruined 100% of the time.
This, I can not understand. I have the Hornady collet puller and have used it for nearly ten years to pull many hundreds of bullets. It has never left a mark on a cup and core, or on a mono-metal in 6mm, 6.5 mm, or 7mm.
I do not have collets for 22 or 30 cal. But there are 3 inertia pullers in the drawer for those.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
I have had no problems with accuracy from pulled bullets using the inertia puller, the collet puller works great but the bullets are ruined 100% of the time.
This, I can not understand. I have the Hornady collet puller and have used it for nearly ten years to pull many hundreds of bullets. It has never left a mark on a cup and core, or on a mono-metal in 6mm, 6.5 mm, or 7mm.
I do not have collets for 22 or 30 cal. But there are 3 inertia pullers in the drawer for those.
I use the Hornady Collet Puller in a Coax. As long as there's bullet bearing surface to grab, the only time I've messed up a bullet it's been my fault, e.g. I used the wrong collet (usually knowingly), had collet too tight, manhandled lever, etc.. Run the collet down to within a half hair off the case mouth and grab the bullet by the bearing surface with just enough grip to extract it plus a smidgen.
Assuming you've got bearing surface to grab, if your wrecking bullets, then either you have the puller adjusted with too much grip or it's a neck tension/crimp issue. I run minimal neck tension. The smaller the bullet the trickier. I did wreck a few .204 bullets back when I first started using the Hornady Collet Puller.
My thinking has been, any slight surface damage to the bearing surface will get worked out by a trip down the bore. Regardless, If there's any doubt a bullet was damaged, it gets used in a fouler or velocity check. This choice is a function of an unsubstantiated belief that pulled bullets are substandard.* It should be noted that, the bulk of my loading these days is for matches ranging to 1200 yrds. or practice for said matches.
I don't typically pull too many bullets. If I did, I wouldn't be loading them in match rounds, regardless of how they were pulled. *See above.
Originally Posted by 16penny
If you put Taco Bell sauce in your ramen noodles it tastes just like poverty
I keep a four inch long piece of rail road rail on the bench for an anvil. With a solid anvil, a couple whacks with an inertia puller is all it takes, unless the cartridge is crimped hard.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
The hammer type, inertia pullers work fine if the bullet has some weight to it, 45 Colt, 45-70. And if you throw the aluminum collet away and use your shell holder instead. Collet pullers are a nicer solution!
"Camping places fix themselves in your mind as if you had spent long periods of your life in them. You will remember a curve of your wagon track in the grass of the plain like the features of a friend." Isak Dinesen
Most of the time there is no mark at all but I start out with very little tension and just add enough to do the job. Even on the really soft bullets without much sticking up to grab, sure a collet puller might leave a pretty good ring dent but I guarantee you that bullet's BC will not be affected nor will it affect accuracy or the performance on game. At least nothing I can see on paper. I have tested it every which way during 40 years of having to pull bullets during load development and never once has accuracy been affected.
I even super tightened it just short of bending the handle on a batch of 20 bullets that had 43 grains of H380 which is way too much for a 22-250 when it's over 100 degrees out. and sure it left a huge ring on the soft little .224 Hornady 50 grain SPSX still found the ground squirrels every time to 300 yards. That or that barrel being over 8000 rounds has so much experience it just tells the bullets where to go.
I will say the best way to wreck a bullet is using a pair of side cutters and squashing the bullet way out of shape. I assume that will affect accuracy and performance a little bit.
I got a hammer puller for Christmas once. I tried it a few times and since I like to use my puller to push the bullets right back in once the powder is corrected I didn't have any use for it so I gave to to the neighbor kids to smash potatoe bugs with it. If a guy is determined to use those I recommend buying them buy the dozen.
My RCBS is kind of cool because I can adjust the tension and once you collect all the collets you can pull from 17 through 50 cal. A lot of collets will do several calibers close in diameter. A 270 will do 6.5 and 7mm if you want to. 30 cal will grab 8mm. Over the years I finally have collected them all just because.
"Hired Gun" Quickest and fastest all motor sand car on the planet. 3.008 at 104.8 300' of sand.
NRA Patron Life Member, Gunsmith, Instructor, Chief RSO