Bullet Puller?

I have an inetia, RCBS , and a Grip n Pull. I prefer the grip n pull over the others. I find it is faster and leaves zero damage when used properly..

Grip N Pull - been using one for years in several different calibers. I'm quite finicky about wasting bullets, especially high priced monos. G n P works fine with them also. Good grip, no marring.

Hammer type bullet pullers will getcha in trouble if you tend to use cases with loose primer pockets. Had a bad experience one afternoon that way and immediately dumped the plastic hammer device. Been a safe happy shooter ever since.

I have a grip n pull and to be honest I hate it. I end up damaging bullets more often than not with it. If you have any neck tension it will slip on the bullet and gouge the heck out of it. I use an inertial more than anything.

I have so many calibers and very few times need to pull a bullet. Therefore; I decided years ago they aren't worth it. I simply take the die out of my RCBS press, put the cartridge in the holder and lower the lever to push the cartridge up through the threaded hole for the die. Then I take a pair of pliers that I coated the ends with a rubber grip compound and grab the bullet. Then I raise the press arm gently and since the pliers will not go through that die hole it has never failed to pull any caliber bullet, most without so much as a scratch.

ER collets held in a milling machine work amazingly well at pulling bullets without marring them if you already have the tooling laying around. I use a ER 32 square holding block in the milling vice to hold the shell holder. Then clamp onto the bullet with an ER collet held in a ER 16 or ER 20 3/4" straight shank holder mounted in the spindle with the appropriate R8 collet (3/4" in this case). Not cost effective if you don't already own this tooling, but vastly more useful in many other ways if you do. As a plus, if the ER collet that is used on the bullet itself is tightened just by hand, it doesn't damage the bullets at all.

I have a Hornady puller and use it in my old Lock n Load to remove bullets. I like the Hornady lever because you can bring the bullet up into the collet then push down on the lever with only the necessary force to allow you to remove it. After a few tries I got it down now where I don't even leave a mark on the bullets and can reuse them like new.

Also use the LNL to punch out primers with a lee decapper. Works well to have those dies in the Hornady die holders , just pop them in and out as needed.

Use my rock chucker and Dillon for all the reloading.

HBoothe said:

I have and use the Hornady collet-style bullet puller and like it fine. You may have an easier time finding the collects for it. I seem to recall it was fairly inexpensive.

I have an inertial bullet puller and it works. But I have to whack the snot out of it to get the bullets out, it's not consistent, is prone to damaging ballistic tips, and requires a solid surface which won't be damaged upon which to whack it (pine lumber gets dimples pretty badly, I use a piece of 1/4" steel plate on top of the lumber).

FWIW.

--HC

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I only have an inertia puller and whack it on a concrete floor Have not lost too many bullets due to damage Just my take

demarpaint said:

First off hello, it has been several years since I posted here. I started shooting and reloading again and have been out of the loop for quite a while. Boy have prices gone up! Anyway, I have a Forster Collet Bullet Puller. I am trying to source a few collets for it and I am having difficulty. I'd like to have collets for .22 cal, 6 mm, 6.5 mm and 7 mm, 30 cal I have. I was thinking of scrapping the idea and buying a Grip-N-Pull puller, but the reviews weren't impressive. I have an intertia puller, but like the collet pullers. Any help is appreciated, go easy it's my first time posting in a long time.

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A few years back I bought an RCBS collet puller from Midway for around $20. I got an entire selection of Collets on Ebay for $6.00 each for the lot. Yes I got some that I didn't need, but I have all the ones that I need. I never deal with crimped bullets and when I reload I never crimp unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Let me add that I'm only pulling bullets on rounds to correct mistakes or rounds that show evidence of needing a crimp.

HBoothe said:

I have and use the Hornady collet-style bullet puller and like it fine. You may have an easier time finding the collects for it. I seem to recall it was fairly inexpensive.

I have an inertial bullet puller and it works. But I have to whack the snot out of it to get the bullets out, it's not consistent, is prone to damaging ballistic tips, and requires a solid surface which won't be damaged upon which to whack it (pine lumber gets dimples pretty badly, I use a piece of 1/4" steel plate on top of the lumber).

FWIW.

--HC

Click to expand...

My Hornady collet puller works just fine, and doesn't mar the bullets at all. The collets seem to grip above the ogive just fine too. Only a little tension on the lever is needed to grip the bullet.
Original cost of the puller was about $30, 3 months ago, and each collet was (I think) under $10. They never wear out.

I own an inertia, Gripper, and RCBS. The RCBS is my favored approach.

demarpaint said:

First off hello, it has been several years since I posted here. I started shooting and reloading again and have been out of the loop for quite a while. Boy have prices gone up! Anyway, I have a Forster Collet Bullet Puller. I am trying to source a few collets for it and I am having difficulty. I'd like to have collets for .22 cal, 6 mm, 6.5 mm and 7 mm, 30 cal I have. I was thinking of scrapping the idea and buying a Grip-N-Pull puller, but the reviews weren't impressive. I have an intertia puller, but like the collet pullers. Any help is appreciated, go easy it's my first time posting in a long time.

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My bullet puller is a half inch drill chuck , it fits everything ..

I use the inertia puler with great results. However, I use very little tension on my bullets. As far as damage to the bullet tips...I glued a small piece of rubber to the bottom of the portion that catches the bullet when I whack it and I get a bullet with no damage to the tip.

I have a Forster-Appelt collet puller, with 4 or 5 collets. It is hard to get sufficient wrenching action on the collet top to pull bullets, and the collets are pricey. I'd like to find something that is faster and easier. I have been wondering about the Grip-N-Pull. Maybe I should try that.

birdiemc said:

I've never seen a collet puller so I'm curious, does the collet clamp down on the tapered portion of the bullet? What's the ID of a collet used with say a .264 round?

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No it doesn't clamp onto the ogive of the bullet, but the outside diameter of the .264 thousandths. That is the reason that other replies has stated that the bullet has to be started with an inertia puller first to move the bullet out of the casing so the collet can grab onto the .264 thousandths diameter. The collet is slightly larger, in your case .264 thousandths, there is a threaded rod with a T-handle on top of the die that goes into the collet, tighten the T-handle, it draws the collet back (that has three slots in it) which in turn will draw the collet back tightening around the bullet. Try doing a Google search and in the drop down bar click onto "videos" I am certain there will be a video there on the RCBS bullet/collet puller.