Pulling bullets with wire cutters vs accuracy

[Edd]

I pulled 100 of them about a month ago pounding on a 20 lb piece of cast iron that was setting on a wood bench.

 

[royinidaho]

I pulled them with the green whacker for well over 30 years before I had the incident.

The incident occurred in Wildcat Bullets shop. Was glad Paul stepped out and missed the event.

The concrete floor was what was available at the moment.

The primer ignited ricocheting around the shop. One more whack, after the nerves settled pulled the bullet.

It was taking three whacks, usually to on my carpeted concrete floor at home.

I ran a couple of tests immediately following the incident.

On some cases the first whack did nothing but lift the primer out of the pocket. The second whack would had very firmly reseated the primer. Thus the ignition. Pulled the few remaining with pliers.

Got me a Hornady now and it is useful for many things. If set up properly there is no measurable distortion of the bullet. Great device!

 

[Eaglet]

Alright buddy, in any event it's a great thing to keep our eyes on after the first whack.
I do appreciate that!

 

[BillR]

Always scared the crap out of me to go pounding on concrete with a hammer loaded with a live round. I use the Hornaday Collete bullet puller.
4 years ago I had the chance to buy a whole case of Federal .308 Win blue box ammo that had been dropped off of a forklift and ran over. I needed brass and for the $12 price on it I figured I could rescue some of the brass. I took the die out of my Rockchucker and put the round in the shell head holder and would run the case up till it cleared the top. Grabbed it with the pliers and the raised up the handle till the bullet came out. I then weighed about 5 of the powder loads till I had a good average and then dumped the powder from all the rounds into a bowl. Some of the cases were kind of flattened (read that as some looked like a banana ) so I took the decaping pin out of the die and lubed them as best I could and run them through the resizing die. Surprisingly enough the cases would chamber after doing this. Some the bolt would be a bit hard to close but I I would re size those a second time and they fit. I then took the powder and loaded it back into the cases and then took the bullets which most of them had deformity's but were close to round although some of them the points were bent to one side.
Now here is the weird part. I figured I could fireform the brass back into shape by firing them and getting some trigger time in along with it. When I took those rounds out to the range with the bent cases and bullets they would shoot half way decent at 100 yds. Some groups were under an inch. But when I tried to go to 200 yds that was where the rub began. I would not of been shocked if I ht the other guys target. It must take a ways before that bullet begins to show just how badly it is out of round or crooked. The ammo after fire forming really worked good though.

 

[Trickymissfit]

Hornaday and Forster make pullers that are top notch. I have a Forster, but there are things about the Hornaday that I like better. They'll pull a bullet without destroying it.
gary

 

[21buck]

Loaner you are correct. I had a 7mm mag primer go off with a full load. I was lucky that the powder did not ignite. Now I only use the RCBS Puller.

 

[J E Custom]

Those inertia hammers are junk. You have to pad the inside so the bullet doesn't deform.
On a crimped light bullet you will beat through the basement floor. Get the Hornady
cam puller and never look back.

I don't think they are junk and do have there uses. But any of the collet type pullers
are better and save all of the componants.

I use my collet puller all the time now and Carry the inertia to the range just in case.

When working up loads I can pull the bullet, weigh the powder and adjust it Up or down
and reload it with out scarring the bullet.

I don't think it makes a difference if you pull a bullet without scarring it, but for hunting
or matches I use new bullets (Not pulled) and use the pulled bullets for load
development.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Tikkamike]

WARNING, from personal experience.

Don't use the inertia hammer type with primers that bounce due to very loose primer pockets.

Whacked the concrete floor, the primer ignited on the second whack. flew around the shop bouncing off of more things than one would thing. The 99 grains of US-896 didn't ignite.

Whackin' hammer impact immediately went into the trash barrel.

Also I think I'll retire my brass a few shots earlier.

thanks for scaring the crap out of me roy...I have some bullets to pull, now im thinking maybe I will just shoot them thats SCARY!

 

[J E Custom]

thanks for scaring the crap out of me roy...I have some bullets to pull, now im thinking maybe I will just shoot them thats SCARY!

+1
I have heard of primers going of when decapping and also when seating them but never
while using a bullet puller !!!!

Primers pack a punch (More than most people think) and can be extremely dangerous. I quit
using the hand priming tool after seeing the results of it blowing up with several hundred
primers in the round magazine after the one being seated set them off. (It almost took the guys
hand off).

Sounds like murphy visited you. Glad you were not injured . Did you soil your self, Ha Ha.

Just goes to show you that anything can happen, even to an experanced Re loader.

PS; I think I just retired my seldom used inertia puller "Permanent".

J E CUSTOM