Got a bunch of .223 I have to disassemble and the bullets have a crimp. Impact puller, even after breaking the crimp, takes 8 to 12 hard whacks to pull. Beating a hole in my floor. So which press mounted puller is best? Hornady looks good but what are y'all using?

RCBS one works well. Generally you can still reuse the bullets. If you keep up with the inertia puller, it will probably eventually break, depending what kind it is. I did read once to use a chunk of thick solid rubber over a cement floor. Something about the rebound produces excellent results with the inertia. Those .22 bullets don't have much inertia going for them, that's the trouble.

I have a Hornaday, I haven't had too much luck with the inertia pullers, had two, broke them and went the the Hornaday.

I've got the RCBS and it works ok. You will ruin some bullets until you get the feel for it, but it works pretty good.

I have the Hornady puller and it's worked good for me.

I've got the Horny press-mounted puller. Haven't pulled crimped rifle bullets but my six-gun loads with heavy roll-crimps are not easy to pull. Bullet just gets mangled. I'm guessing that your 223 loads will pull much easier but you may still get a ring-around-the-bullet from the collet.

I use a pair of sidecutters. Remove the die from the press, put the loaded round in the shellholder and raise until it almost clears the top of the press. With the sidecutter open and laying on top of the press, close the cutter gently into the bullet at the cannelure (if the bullet has one) or at the juncture of the caseneck and the bullet. It doesn't take much pressure. Lower the ram while holding onto the bullet and the bullet comes out pretty easy and will be unharmed if you don't squeeze too hard. Try it, it works. I got a little leery of hammering with that loaded plastic hammer.

Rcbs collet works great!

Yea, .223's are a bitch with a kinetic bullet puller. I once bought a 1000 round lot of Amerc factory rejects. At the end of the manufacturing process they tumbled the ammo. Most of the necks were split and the bullets were pushed back into the cases. I found a solid piece of hardwood worked best to pound on, and a good pair of leather gloves helped too.

I use and like the RCBS puller.

Michael

That's what I use. It works great with the exception of LBT-type bullets. Then, I'll give the cartridge a couple of whacks in a kinetic puller to get the bullet out a little bit where the collet can grab. Then it'll work.

RCBS -- have broken TWO impact "pullers".

I too broke my impact puller. I went with the RCBS collet puller just because that is what my local shop had at the time. I think if I were to do it over I would look at the Hornady Cam version. I think this would be a little easier to manipulate if you are concerned with speed/large lots of bullets to be pulled. I could be mistaken though.

Also, I have learned that if you go to the next size up compared to the bullets you are pulling, the RCBS collets usually still have enough squeeze to pull the bullets but don't mar them nearly as bad as the collets designated for that caliber. For instance, I routinely use a .257" collet to pull .243 Win cartridges apart. I even use a .284" collet to pull .264" bullets (I don't have a .277" collet) and it works quite well surprisingly. I don't know if this would work with crimped bullets.

Have an earlier version (early 90's) and found the design of the collets left much to be desired on the larger bullets and their ability to grab and pull with out marring the bullet. Went to the RCBS puller and have not looked back. It just works and the collets seem to be much stouter.

I have been using an RCBS collet puller for about 25 years. I tried a couple of impact pullers over the years and both broke pretty quickly. For the last 15 years or so the RCBS it the only one that I have used, on everything from .22 centerfires up to .458s.

I have the hornady puller and find it works great. I like the quick throw lever on top, makes things go fast when you need to pull a bunch of them.

Hornady

I have broken several impact pullers, but still keep one around for occasional use. Aside from the fact that they don't work very well for pulling light bullets, they can also loosen the cores in non-bonded jacketed bullets--not so much you'd notice, but enough to make them shoot really weird.

I use an RCBS collet puller for smaller caliber bullets, but use the side-cutter method describer earlier for larger bullets, especially those with cannelures. It's amazingly effective and if done with the least possible pressure doesn't affect accuracy at all.

After I broke my inertia puller I got a collet puller and love it.

I'm thinking of ordering one of these...amazingly simple but seem like they would work very well.

http://grip-n-pull.com/

MD,
I originally borrowed the idea for that sidecutter method from you.....either in one of your books or RLN. I don't remember which, but it does work and is fast. Thanks.

Watched the demo film on the grip n pull. I may become a customer. On another note I learned a few things today. Turned out only about half of the 120 or so cartridges I needed to disassemble were crimped so I decided to just give it a go with the RCBS impact puller and get done today. Yesterday I was beating the puller on the floor of my loading room which is concrete covered with thin carpet. Even after bumping the bullets down a bit to break the crimp it still took 8 or more whacks to pull the bullet.

Today I brought a chunk of oak off the firewood stack inside to beat on. It's about 18" tall and 10" in dia. Amazing difference. 3 to 4 whacks and the bullet is out. The recoil of the hammerhead is noticeably greater off the wood vs concrete and apparently magnifies the inertia. When I got to the uncrimped cartridges it took only 2 whacks and the bullet was pulled. Another thing I learned was the life of the aluminum collet that grips the case groove is something less than 200 rounds. I had noticed the cartridge head was cutting into the collet and had picked several slivers of aluminum out of my powder dump already so knew the end was near. With 20 or so cartridges to go a case finally punched thru the collet. As near to finishing as I was I just ran those left up into the die hole of the Rockchucker, grabbed the bullet with pliars and dropped the ram.

As JB said the impact puller is good to have around for occasional quick use. But for more than a handful of cartridges something better is called for.

lastround,

Glad to hear it worked for you too!

shootem,

One easy trick to use with inertia pullers is substituting the regular shell-holder for the aluminum collet. It works great and solves the problems you mention. (I picked that up from somebody else, somewhere....)

The standard shell holders work great in my inertia puller. I haven't seen the aluminum collet in a couple of years.

Well Duh! Kinda obvious once you know isn't it. Thanks for the tip on non-bonded bullets too. I can see where they'd get a little squirrelly after being slammed down 8 or 10 times especially. The bullets I pulled were the 64 gr Nosler Bonded. Hoping they really are.

Another thing about the last bunch I pulled with pliers. That was actually pretty easy. Just reached down into the die hole with the angled square nose set and kinda let the bullet feed up till I felt the case mouth bump. Last resort though, still worried about squeezing them a little out of round. Saving those separately to test.

Love my hornady cam puller. I find doesn't mess neck tension much at all and cases don't need resizing. Makes it nice if you decide a batch is loaded a little hot....quickly pull bullets and simply reseat an assortment of lighter ones and get back to shooting/testing.

Think I may have to order one of those. Thanks for the link!

ETA - Just ordered one of these. I'll try it out and post some initial impressions.

RCBS Collet Puller. Throw that stupid inertia hammer in the trash.

Just thought I'd update this.

I ordered and received one of these shortly after my post and have been using it regularly ever since. It's a simple, easy to use product that works as advertised. I've never used a collet puller so can't comment if this is better, but I'll never use my inertia puller again!