bullet pullers

Trickymissfit

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for years the Forster bullet puller was kind of the standard everybody went to; including myself. Now I find myself in a project of pulling about 300 rounds of .257 ammo in three forms. I don't have a 25 caliber collet, and could really use a 22 and a 24 caliber pair of collets as well. So now I see one from Hornaday as well as RCBS. Has anybody here ever used the Hornaday? And if so, how well does it grip the bullet? And of course will it leave marks on the bullet?
gary
 
Besides using the inertia (hammer style), the only other puller that I have used is the Hornady. It works great, and if it does leave a mark, it is very slight. Just adjust it for the tension you need. I really like mine.
 
Hornday is a great puller. If set correctly there are no marks besides a lil bit from the neck of the case. Very easy to use and works amazing. Will never use a hammer style again.
 
I have the RCBS bullet puller, and lots of collets for various calibers. It works pretty good for large numbers of rounds. I can do maybe 3-4 a minute and everything is saved...bullet, primed case, and powder. Everything is just as good as before the bullet was seated. The collet leaves a very slight ring around the bullet. You have to hold the bullet to the light just right to even see it. No info about the Hornady puller.

-- gr8whyt
 
I still like the old hammer best
Did 150 rounds of 45ACP that were over loaded and short so I couldn't use anything else
 
i have several different pullers. one needs the proper size collets which of coarse squeeze on the bullet.
my favorite is a pair of smooth jaw channel lok pliers.
just remove the die, run the bullet up thru the hole, squeeze it with the pliers and remove the bullet with the handle of the press.
the collets make more marks than the pliers and one size fits all.
 
ALL of the collet, grip style pullers deform the bullet. If you don't believe that just load one up that appears to have no marks and put it in a concentricity gage and watch the indicator dial jump as you rotate the cartridge. Learned this the hard way, and since then only use inertia type pullers if want to get any accuracy out of the pulled bullets, and then I put a piece of foam in the puller for the bullet to impact into.

Dave
 
I built a home made one several years ago that seems to be gone forever! This was the best one I've ever used, and left zero marks on the bullet. It used a piece of grade eight all thread that had the I.D. reamed for Ericson "B series" collets. You can get the collets in just about anysize they make a drill bit in. Collets are expensive, but I managed to find them in the trash can often enough to get everyone I needed. But as I said that one has disappeared (probably loaned it out never to be seen again). I didn't keep the reamer I used to create the I.D. with, and that makes that idea out of the question these days. Forster collets are about ten bucks a piece, and by the time I buy two or three more (there were things I didn't like about the Forster) I might as well buy something I like a little better. So I think I'll just get the Hornaday and be done with it.

By the way I've debated about posting this subject for a few weeks (why I'm pulling these bullets), and maybe I ought to run this one by all of you. The rounds belong to my brother. All of them have either Sierra 117 grain bullets or 85 grain Nosler BT's. He used four different kinds of powder (all IMR stuff) and mostly CCI match quality primers. Cases were cleaned in his RCBS tumber, and were very clean (I know how he does things). He used RCBS case lube when he sized the brass. Something reacted inside the cases to kill the powder! It actually solidified the powder into something that looked like a cinder! The case O.D.'s were badly etched as well. But the primers are still live! The only thing we can see is that there was somekind of a reaction with the case lube and the powder! The 117 sierras were heavilly corroded into the shoulder, but the Noslers look OK. Sad thing is that a lot of the cases were the thin wall .257 Roberts cases that make really nice 6mm rounds.
gary
 
Tricky,

Sounds like nothing is really salvageable from pulling bullets from these, other than maybe the Nosler BTs, so why waste the time and effort? Not sure what could have happened to cause what you've described, but I would destroy the lot and forget about them. I only use a puller if there are components that I want to re-use.

-- gr8whyt
 
Collet pullers work by gripping the bullet in the collet. There is no magic in any of them, it's the nature of collets to leave marks when they they are tightened. How much they must be tightened depends on how firmly the bullets are held.
 
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