Bullet pullers?

I use an RCBS hammer puller, it is inexpensive and quick to use. After 20+ years of service the head cracked and RCBS replaced it no problem. It is my go to puller for fixing mistakes.
I also bought a Hornady Cam-Lock puller. I was breaking down over a hundred 308 Win reloads that a friend had gotten from his brother in law and we just didn't trust them. It was worth the purchase for that job and it worked great but honestly I haven't used it in the 4 years since.
 
Suther said:
Depends what you need/want it for. If you just want it to have in case you need it, kinetic is cheap and effective. If you plan on pulling down surplus or gun show reloads, then collet would make sense.
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Pretty much this - I use a kinetic hammer for low volume work, 5-10 rounds in a session at most. Otherwise, I'm dealing with more and the collet pullet from Hornady works great, especially dealing with surplus rounds.
 
Thanks for all the input guys, think I’ll start with a kinetic puller and pick up a hornady cam lock once I feel the need for a press mounted pulled. I see no disadvantage to having both to be honest.
 
I have a hammer type and the RCBS collet style. Use the hammer when doing only a few. I was given a few hundred 270 and 7mm rem a few years ago. Took about 10 hits on hard wood to get them to go.
After a few I bought the collet for those.

The Hornady looks decent. I probably would have gone that way but the RCBS was more available.
 
Hammer and collet, I reload so many calibers now that i tend to use hammer mostly, its quicker than keep changing out different size for collet and adjusting.

I have concrete floor in my reloading room so at most 2 hits with hammer, even for the biggest calibers and the bullet drops.
 
I pulled down some unknown-from-who hand loads a few days ago. Used an RCBS collet style in a press to pull about 30 rounds - no drama. Could see some corrosion on some cases and some bullets - put all into a tumbler with Dawn + Lemi-Shine + stainless pins - BIG MISTAKE - about a dozen bullets ended up inside the previously fired cases. Shook out as much of the pins as I thought were in - then used my RCBS inertial "hammer" - got careless smacking it on the concrete floor - not hitting "square", I guess - see picture:

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Yup, that's what my hammer looked like when it broke. It's not a flaw in the design but more a result of smacking a plastic hammer against a hard surface for 20+ years. Call RCBS and they will be happy to send you a new one.
 
Wish I would have sent my RCBS broken hammer in. I threw it out when it broke. Was hitting on a 2x4. Both are good, but I like my RCBS collet puller.
 
Never used a kinetic puller. I have a Hornady cam lock puller and an RCBS collet puller. I snapped the metal handle off the Hornady cam lock. Hornady cam lock is faster and nicer than the RCBS but they need to make the cam lock beefier. The RCBS puller works well, the collets are heavier and should last longer than the Hornady collets. The only downside of the RCBS is that it is a little slower.
 
I use the kinetic ( hammer ) style when I've over-seated a bullet during load testing ( using standard RCBS seating dies ).A light rap with the puller will back out the bullet enough to re-seat the bullet after adjusting the die.

I use the collet style RCBS pullers for .338 Lapua and .416 Rigby when needed during load testing because those case head sizes won't fit into the chuck assembly holder on the RCBS puller.
 
I use a foam earplug to protect bullet points in a kinetic puller. I dump powder and bullet into a can and sort out the bullets when I am done. I usually discard the powder unless it is something I just loaded and am sure I know what it is.
 
f55 said:
Hammer and collet, I reload so many calibers now that i tend to use hammer mostly, its quicker than keep changing out different size for collet and adjusting.

I have concrete floor in my reloading room so at most 2 hits with hammer, even for the biggest calibers and the bullet drops.
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This ^^^ , eventual handed off the collet style and all the collets, slow to set up and would not grip lighter shorter bullets in large caliber with any consistency.
 
howard2 said:
I have used the hammer type puller for real tight mil surp bullets and collet type for others but more recently did buy a "grip N pull" puller. For pulling my own mistakes it works great and is fast.
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That is a pretty slick tool as well. Something worth looking into for the OP.


Of course, if you want to be cheap, you can use pliers in the same fashion. If you dedicated a pair of pliers for this work you could probably grind the teeth down to reduce damage to the bullet.
 
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The collet bullet pullers work well with sporting ammunition unless you run into crimped ammo with bullets having deep crimping grooves. They are less useful with cast rifle bullets for a similar reason, and useless for many handgun bullets, so how useful the collet puller will be for you, depends upon the style of bullets you intend to pull. If you intend to pull a high volume of surplus rifle ammo, for Mexican Match where a different style of bullet replaces the FMJ, not only do heavy crimps have to be overcome, but also occasionally some sort of sealing compound as well. The collet won't hold the bullet tight enough to pull them. What I use for these are a pair of plyer style wire strippers/crimpers, the ones that have wide handles that will lie flat on top of the press, and have the wire strippers between the handles. These bite into the FMJs and allow them to be pulled with little damage to the bullet, typically it leaves a couple of small indents in the jacket, but if you aren't squeezing the handles tight enough, it'll strip copper from the bullet when you lower the ram. The FMJs can be loaded with low velocity loads for small game. Pulling apart pistol ammo is best done with a kinetic puller, but with heavily crimped light weight bullets, it can take a lot of pounding. I generally consider a kinetic puller a consumable item, so I don't worry about damaging the striking surface and get faster results striking a steel plate, anvil, or concrete than I do a wood block.
 
Spyderfire1 said:
The Hornady Cam lock puller is pretty slick. Uses collets and has a quick throw leaver.
I bought one a while back and although I don’t use it much, I like it much more than the older hammer style pullers.
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I've had the Hornady Cam Lock Puller for quite some time and it paid for itself the first time I used it. The list of circumstances where you find yourself using it is endless. I've even just left it set up in one of my presses when doing load development. If you end up pulling the same bullet a bunch of times during load development the collet will eventually mark up the bullet. You will develop a feel for how much grip pressure to use and you will figure out how to minimize the damage that the collet does do to the point where the damage and the marks that the collet makes on the bullet's tip are insignificant. If I end up having to use a lot of pressure causing damage to a particular bullet then I can live with that no problem given the overall ability to recover components that the Cam Lock gives me. I save those marked up projectiles for the first shot down a bore that has just been cleaned that way it doesn't go to waste.

Pulling Bullets Safely and Efficiently with a Collet Puller
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2018/01/pulling-bullets-safely-and-efficiently-with-a-collet-puller/

 
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