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bullet pulling with a 550

milktree

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I realized after making (way too many) .38 spl rounds that the charge was wrong. Now I have to pull all the bullets.

I'm going with an RCBS collet type pullet 'cuz "The Internet" says its better than the other color version because reasons. (I didn't think about it too hard)

Can I pull using the 550's shellplate, or will it deform/bend? I'd rather not borrow a single stage if I didn't have to.
 
Last time I used my inertial puller it was to pull 80 rounds of Korean M2 Ball. Didn't take very long at all. I have a 20 lb.steel cylinder that I use on my bench to strike the hammer on.
Only took 2, maybe 3 whacks, and those rounds had asphalt sealed bullets. My hammer is Berrys from Dillon. I have a collet puller from Forster and never had occasion to use it.
Could be the surface being struck has something to do with how effective the hammer puller is...
 
What is this you speak of? Don't you just use the thing that looks like a hammer? It's what I use. I find beating the living sh#t out of a bullet exhilarating. I know it won't fire, but think about it 😀

I somehow ended up with *three* inertial bullet pullers.

They're fine if you're doing like 1 or 5, maybe 20, but they suck otherwise.
 
I bought a bunch of brass from someone…it contained 200 loaded flush seated wadcutter rounds. Going to have to bang them out 😢
 
Had a bunch of 38 that needed to be pulled because of undersized plated bullets and thin walled cased years ago.

Started with the hammer and quickly gave up and built a collet puller.
The only positives to the hammer are its cheap and takes no setup time.

Collet is fast and make powder recovery easy.
 
I bought a bunch of brass from someone…it contained 200 loaded flush seated wadcutter rounds. Going to have to bang them out 😢
The bullet puller is cheap (like $20-30). It will save you so much time and aggravation.

Years ago I bought a hammer, I used it for a handful of rounds and gave up. I started accumulating any rounds I messed up, then one night decided to Google if there was another way and found the bullet puller (I started a thread about it). It changed my life. [laugh]

Thread:
 
I have the collet puller and it works great for all rounds where the projectile protrudes. These are flush seated full wadcutters, so I have no choice but to use the hammer.

I remember your post and I ended up buying the Hornady puller. I have a dedicated single stage that I use for it.
 
I have the collet puller and it works great for all rounds where the projectile protrudes. These are flush seated full wadcutters, so I have no choice but to use the hammer.

I remember your post and I ended up buying the Hornady puller. I have a dedicated single stage that I use for it.
Ah, damn. I never had to deal with Wadcutters. Good luck.
 
The puller showed up today.
Holy forking shirt balls! I should have bought one of these years ago!

It took a little while to get the technique down and into a rhythm, but once I did, it's fast and painless!
Now that I know how little force it takes to pull a bullet, this whole thread and my question seems silly.
This was about 2-1/2 hours start to finish.

pulled-bullets-IMG_9375.JPG
 
So much easier than the hammer right? I have an RCBS collet puller, I set it up in my old Rock chucker as a single operation. Sometimes when I find old ammo I can at least save the bullets if not the brass. Powder and primers usually go though, the powder fertilizes the garden nicely. I've had friends give me reloaded ammo from relatives etc, and I simply will not shoot reloads unless a trusted source with documentation.

The hammer is still used but only when I have one or two to pull due to a bad primer or my own mistake.
 
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