Collet bullet puller - will it damage the bullet?

It mostly depends on crimp and softness of lead alloy. Bullets will be OK for plinking at moderate velocity. Cosmetically - not very nice. ;)

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Sometime helps to run them through a bullet seating die first and seat the bullets a smidgeon deeper - many surplus ammunition has glue, sealant that is hard to make let go and requires lots of grab on the bullet to pull with a collet. Seating them a bit deeper breaks the sealant and makes them easier to pull = less crimping force by collet needed. Personally, I sold my collet puller and just use a kinetic hammer type against the concrete floor.
 
Inertia bullet puller will do the trick. Put something soft in the bottom of the puller head (a foam earplug works well) and the bullets should come out good as new. Instead of the collet you can also use a standard shellholder to hold the cartridge rim.
 
ted_dent said:
Inertia bullet puller will do the trick. Put something soft in the bottom of the puller head (a foam earplug works well) and the bullets should come out good as new. Instead of the collet you can also use a standard shellholder to hold the cartridge rim.
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You sir are a genius - use a shell holder - I hate that stooped collet in all of the inertial pullers!!
 
Potashminer said:
Sometime helps to run them through a bullet seating die first and seat the bullets a smidgeon deeper - many surplus ammunition has glue, sealant that is hard to make let go and requires lots of grab on the bullet to pull with a collet. Seating them a bit deeper breaks the sealant and makes them easier to pull = less crimping force by collet needed. Personally, I sold my collet puller and just use a kinetic hammer type against the concrete floor.
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I tried one of these and ruined the base on several cases - threw it out. If the collet doesn't work (sometimes it just won't grab on) I just use vise grips to hang on. Yup it wrecks the bullet but......whadda ya gonna do?
 
Dogleg said:
I've done that, but found that it can be hard on the rims. Some brass is expensive and hard to get, its not worth it.
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This isn't usually an issue except in the case of very light bullets which due to their lack of weight don't generate much inertia. You may have a point but the OP is talking about lead bullets which should have sufficient density to be pulled with minimum impact and thus little effect on the case rims.
 
Are these lead boolits you cast yourself? Or are they store bought? If they're homebrewed, then grab with whatever pliers work best and yank 'em out and drop them back into the melt.

If they're store bought, and you want to salvage/ reuse, then the kinetic hammer is going to be your friend. I use a block or firewood to hit against, as it is less likely to wreck the face of the hammer like a harder surface will.
 
ted_dent said:
This isn't usually an issue except in the case of very light bullets which due to their lack of weight don't generate much inertia. You may have a point but the OP is talking about lead bullets which should have sufficient density to be pulled with minimum impact and thus little effect on the case rims.
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When the bullets are worth less than the cases I prefer to protect the cases. That can be by using a collet puller or just pliers, or using the original collet that came with the inertia puller. I go through a lot of those but 8 bucks for a new collet doesn't seem like much after you wreck a few 3 dollar cases.
 
Dogleg said:
When the bullets are worth less than the cases I prefer to protect the cases. That can be by using a collet puller or just pliers, or using the original collet that came with the inertia puller. I go through a lot of those but 8 bucks for a new collet doesn't seem like much after you wreck a few 3 dollar cases.
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What cases are you paying $3 each for? Can't be a run of the mill calibre?
 
Lionel said:
Are these lead boolits you cast yourself? Or are they store bought? If they're homebrewed, then grab with whatever pliers work best and yank 'em out and drop them back into the melt.

If they're store bought, and you want to salvage/ reuse, then the kinetic hammer is going to be your friend. I use a block or firewood to hit against, as it is less likely to wreck the face of the hammer like a harder surface will.
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You will not get the maximum effect from a kinetic bullet puller if you strike it on a surface like wood that has give to it. Inertia pullers need just that...inertia. Any 'give' in the surface you strike them on reduces the inertia. I know it's hard to believe but you can whack the crap out of a kinetic puller on your concrete basement floor and it won't hurt it. Been doing it for years and probably pulled 1000 bullets with mine and it's still going strong. If the concrete is very rough the face of the puller might scuff a bit but you won't hurt it.
 
ted_dent said:
Man, how hard are you guys hammering the puller? I've probably pulled 1000 bullets of all kinds of shapes, sizes & calibres and never damaged a case yet.
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It's not because of hitting hard, it's because the casing isn't being held firmly.

Maybe your shell holders don't have any axial play but mine do. The casing smacking the shell holder is the issue and causes the damage.
 
ted_dent said:
What cases are you paying $3 each for? Can't be a run of the mill calibre?
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Anything bigger with Norma or Weatherby on the headstamp. Worse than the price is that things are hard to get, and the sick feeling when a case stays in the chamber when its supposed to be flying through the air. I threw away a bunch of .270 Weatherby that I was using for load development because of mystery extraction problems before I figured it out.

In an unrelated irony, those cases are $2.50 apiece while a new extractor was only 5 bucks.
 
Dogleg said:
Anything bigger with Norma or Weatherby on the headstamp. Worse than the price is that things are hard to get, and the sick feeling when a case stays in the chamber when its supposed to be flying through the air. I threw away a bunch of .270 Weatherby that I was using for load development because of mystery extraction problems before I figured it out.

In an unrelated irony, those cases are $2.50 apiece while a new extractor was only 5 bucks.
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Ouch! I think I'll stick with .223 & .308.
 
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