Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Kinetic Bullets Puller = KB. Possible?

I had a primer go off in a Lee priming too about 25 years ago...?? I've never used it again..
Back in the late 70's when I was shooting BR,a guy at the loading table across from me had one to do it with the same tool. Everything went silent after the "POP"

For pulling bullets, I use the RCBS with the collects.

Didn't have a KB but did have something weird (to me) happen. My bench is on a concrete slab covered with the indoor/outdoor type thin carpet so I just bang the puller on the floor. Last time I tried pulling a bullet on the second or third impact the inner circle part of the retaining cap blew out along with the powder, case, bullet and retainer collet! The threaded ring of the cap was still screwed down on the hammer head. No answer for it. And no, I didn't have it upside down . Thinking the press mounted puller may be my next purchase.

A couple years ago, I had a primer go off on a .338 round I was pulling with a kinetic puller. No powder burn, but the primer embedded in the unfinished ceiling joist directly above.

I always have, and continue to, make sure I'm pounding off to the side (and look away a little too, at the impact )

All primers vary in sensitivity. You get one at the wrong end of the Bell Curve - BANG!

I knew a kid in Jr high school who decided that ammunition would be a good source of gunpowder for homemade fireworks. He was pulling one bullet with pliers and the charge went off. He wound up with half of one middle finger missing.

Since no one else has mentioned it, I recall reading that tracer ammo is also a major problem in bullet pullers - at high risk of going off.

absolutely, this has occurred three times to me. the round did not go off , but in all three cases the primer was ejected with enough force that you would definetly be hurt bad if struck by it. I have my own theory as to how / why this happens , but will keep to myself. It would take to long and probably would create a pissing contest , which I'm not interested in participating in.

I had it happen to me pulling 7mm mag bullets from loaded rounds that I had seated too deep. The primer missed my head, since I was leaning off to the side, and stuck in the ceiling. I put it away and bought a RCBS collet puller. The collet pullers are easier, faster and MUCH safer. They don't bugger up the bullet tips like the kinetic pullers do. Flinch

here is the best bullet puller I've ever owned!

This has been a very informative thread. An eye-opener, so to speak.

I never realised how many people have experienced accidental primer ignition using a kinetic bullet puller. That story about the bench rest shooter blowing a cartridge out the back of the rifle while poking down with a rod and killing his wife? Well, if true, it's very sad.

So, I got to thinking. What set of circumstances would cause a primer to detonate in kinetic bullet puller, especially when there is nothing that can touch the primer?

It has been postulated here that the primers were loose and the abrupt stop of the cartridge when the hammer hits the ground lets the loose primer seat further abruptly and that causes the anvil to crush the primer compound and off it goes.

If that's the case, that sequence of event can be duplicated in a semi-auto action. I don't know if you have seen how fast and sharp the cycle is in an AR-type rifle or any other semi-auto, but I would think it's at least as fast and sudden as a kinetic bullet puller. But I don't hear about ADs a lot (or at all). I certainly do not remember one in the years that I shot Service Rifle and most everyone reloaded they brass, and some of it had pretty loose primer pockets.

As for 9mm and .45, I used to shoot IPSC in the 80s and I would go through large amounts of reloaded ammo with the same cases, match after match, just like all the other competitors. Never heard of an AD (lots of NDs, but no ADs.)

Perhaps it has to do with the way the shellholder holds the cartridge in the bullet puller. This shellholder holds the cartridge only at the extraction groove. Could the impact on the ground cause the shellholder to "squeeze" the case head and this "squeeze" affects the primer from the sides rather than from the front and by squeezing the anvil, it causes the primer compound to detonate? In a firearm, the case is stopped by the shoulder or the mouth of the case, a long way from the primer.

I read of a person who turned the body of one on a lathe. He used aluminum.

I don't know enough physics to explain what happened, but the theory was that the aluminum body was rigid enough or the shell was supported enough for the primer to ignite.

When the loaded cartridge is in the puller, it is something like a live cartridge being in a rifle chamber, with the bolt removed. Imagine that 50K of pressure getting loose with nothing behind the cartridge head but your head, and a 180 grain bullet has got the barrel plugged on the other end.

Whether or not it can be explained, there's no question that it happens.

That's the only important thing to remember as long as a completely authoritative answer is still far beyond us.

What we do know for sure is that primers are designed and made to be very sensitive to impact (inevitably including vibration) and docile before a steady, even push.

And we know also that a single primer in a stack of primers in an automatic primer-feed tube can "bridge" long enough for the upper part of the stack to stay in place long enough to let the lower part of the stack go down normally, then drop down onto it with enough impact to set-off the entire stack. (This doesn't happen often, but when it does, that once is once too often for the fellow whom it happens to, who isn't all that interested right then in explanations and theories.)

What happens happens, irrespective of the ability of human cogitation to say why.

Mr. Ken how are you doing these days? It's always good to see your comments here. Just said a short little prayer that you and your family will be blessed with happiness and good health during this celebration of Easter. Best wishes sir.

Dr Ken,

You have been on my mind of late. I, too, extend greetings and best wishes for the Easter weekend, the new spring, and beyond.

From across the web I extend a warm handshake, and a hug to you.
The sermon last Sunday was partly about how short life is, and about not missing opportunities to say and do things when we have the chance. In that spirit I say: "Have a good day, Sir."

neever had a round go off when using one,but I have had a number of rounds ,where the bullet comes out,gets powder in the puller body,then the bullet will rebound ,and go back in to the case mouth.The only way I know it happens ,is there is powder in the puller,and the bullet is still in the case.