Who designed this thing, ISIS?

For the number of pictures of kinetic pullers that have forcefully disassembled, I am surprised that they are still made. Perhaps people are using them with their fingers on the trigger.

Primer is still in orbit somewhere. I'm going to watch for it tonight at dusk and make a wish.

After pulling maybe a couple dozen bullets total I just got tired of it. I had bullets loaded in cartridges I no longer owned a rifle for on my reloading bench for a few years cause I hated getting my hammer on to get them. So for Christmas my wife got my a collette puller......where had this been all my life. Took no time at all to pull the 100 or so rounds apart that I made up from a 260 I sold so I could use the bullets in my 6.5.

I still have my inertia puller but no plans to ever use it again.

What brand collet puller? Does it disfigure the bullets?

I use the hornady collet puller. There are several on the market but the hornady has a flip over lever that makes tightening the collet much easier and quicker than the other brands that you have to screw in to get the collet tight. If it's properly set up it won't disfigure the bullets enough to make any difference, it'll leave a light mark on it but it hasn't affected accuracy in any that I've shot. If I were shooting competitive benchrest I might not want to use bullets that had been pulled, but for any normal use they're fine after they've been pulled.

https://www.amazon.com/RCBS-Bullet-Puller-without-Collet/dp/B000N8N1YQ

Of course you gotta by the collets for each caliber at $5-$6 each but now pulling bullets is not a dreaded operation as I can pull 3-4 bullets per min vs. 1 per 3-4 minutes with the inertia one.

Thanks for that link as I found some helpful info in one of the reviews: if you can't find a 6mm collet, [there should be some from RCBS], 6mm = .234 caliber, so email RCBS and ask what caliber collet is closest, (probably .25 caliber), that's only .016 smaller and the collet opens up a LOT bigger than that.

Seriously though, I have the RCBS collet puller too and has never not worked. The Hornady cam-style may be slicker, I don't know. Regarding price of collets, I just got a couple from Midway that I paid $10 each for, on sale. Do you have a source for them at $5-$6?

And yeah, I had one go off the last time I used an inertia puller too.

Sorry I guess they were more than they thought but amazon has them for all for $10 with free shipping even to Alaska unlike Midway

Even this little elusive devil:
https://www.amazon.com/RCBS-9421-Bu...5180&sr=8-8&keywords=rcbs+collet

My collet puller paid for itself when I had 800 rounds of Garand ammo loaded with defective WLR primers. I couldn't even imagine doing that job with a kinetic.

I did a hundred or so a weekend without fuss. Winchester bought my primers back and paid for the new bolt I put in my Garand.

I have the RCBS, but the I believe the Hornady may have a better setup for tightening the collet. Looking at your puller, I am surprised that you used the piece that came with it and had the incident. Every one I have heard of up to this point had a shellholder involved.

The inertia type puller is the biggest piece of chit ever designed. Every new hand loader should listen up and only buy the collet type pullers. Money well spent IMHO... I use the RCBS collet type puller and it has worked very well on every damn thing I've tried it on, including 800 8mm mauser my dad thought he was getting a heck of a good deal on.

I have run into one instance where the inertia puller was necessary. That was disassembling some .45-70 loads that were not very uniform, and the bullets were LBT hardcasts. The collet could not grip until the bullet was partially out of the case, so I had to start the bullet out with the inertia and finish with the collet. Much neater, no granules of powder in the lube.

Other than that situation, I completely agree with your assessment of the inertia puller.

^^^^That's good info to know. I guess after buying the inertia type puller (RCBS) and breaking it after the first few whacks on the wood work bench, I had some serious doubts about what it was good for.....

I use the Forster collet puller with very good results. No marring of billets.

John

I don't know if it is a contributing factor, but it looks like you have the split ring in there upside down.

'I don't know if it is a contributing factor, but it looks like you have the split ring in there upside down."

That's what I was thinking.

I use regular shell holders in using this tool instead of the split ring.

Never had an issue but I guess there is always a first time.

I always wear shooting glasses when operating it.

Never an issue with mine, but I don't run commercial numbers of cartridges through it either.

Glad nobody was hurt, but this cracked me up.......!

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?

I've never had a problem with mine either other than the cap coming loose after a few whacks, but I can pull literally 10 times the bullets if needed with the collette puller than I can my inertia.