RCBS Standard bullet puller

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AyoWusPoppinB

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Started to get into reloading a bit ago and I’ve been looking to get a bullet puller. I noticed these RCBS bullet pullers that go into your press like dies and you have to get collets for each caliber and so on... Has anyone used these and are they any good? I’ve seen some people have a bad experience with the hammer style bullet puller and was looking for an alternative. Just wanted to get some advice on what everyone likes using.
 
Kinetic pullers are a high-effort, time-consuming way to pull a bullet. They are low-cost, and often the bullet can be extracted without damage, but in general good only if you have a handful of cartridges to disassemble. In addition to the time and effort the pullers have limited life before the plastic cracks, or the aluminum collets strip out.

Once I found myself in a situation where I had a couple hundred reloads from an unknown source, and no way I wanted to disassemble those with a kinetic puller. I borrowed an RCBS collet puller from a friend. Significantly faster, much easier, bullets still usable, and the puller still in good shape to do hundreds, probably thousands, more.
 
I have the collet puller and it paid for itself on day one.

A friend of mine had been given almost 200 rounds of 308 that wouldn’t chamber in his rifle. Since he learned i had the puller he offered me the brass and anything else I could salvage if i wanted to pull the bullets for him (nosler something or other).

I ended up with a whack of H4895, CCI BR primers, and 183 brass cases out of that deal. (I would not have used the powder but I knew what it was and I knew the loader as well).

It works extremely well and smoothly without marring the bullet at all.

It is not all that cheap as individual collets are 25$ or so but if u find u need to pull ammo, especially light ammo (like varmint 223 rounds), you will be glad u paid the extra.


My kinetic puller has never seen the light if day since and never will.
 
The RCBS unit also works really nicely with heavily crimped military ammo. If you bump the bullet a little deeper first using a seating die then pull it with the collet die it's a huge time saver and infinitely better than an inertia hammer puller.
 
Another vote here for the rcbs, no issues and it’s also handy to have if you like messing with seating depths and go too deep. I like press mounted gear since I got the lyman 8 hole turret so I mounted a dedicated deprimer, bullet puller and swaging tool and still room for couple calibers of resizing and seating dies. Fits my setup style and no more cringing when smacking that hammer style one over and over heheh
 
The hammer pullers are great for a handful of rounds. I use the Hornady collet pullet for larger amounts. The RCBS is similar but I dont' think I've used one. So I'm not sure if one is "better" than the other.
 
I have both the press-mounted collet puller and an inertia puller.
The collet puller will work peachy keen if you have a straight portion of the shank to grip. Full wadcutter (or semi-wadcutter bullets with a tapered nose), the inertia pulle does the trick.
 
AyoWusPoppinB said:
Started to get into reloading a bit ago and I’ve been looking to get a bullet puller. I noticed these RCBS bullet pullers that go into your press like dies and you have to get collets for each caliber and so on... Has anyone used these and are they any good? I’ve seen some people have a bad experience with the hammer style bullet puller and was looking for an alternative. Just wanted to get some advice on what everyone likes using.
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I've always used the RCBS die, with collets to pull bullets. It does not occur often for be to pull bullets, but it does come in handy when required. The RCBS hammer.............never!
 
I have the RCBS and Forster versions of the press mounted sets. They both work very well, as long as there is enough of the shank for the collets to get a grip on.

That's why I have a Kinetic puller as well.

The nice thing about the kinetic puller is that it doesn't do any more damage to the bullet than was done during the loading process.

I've never had an issue with collet pullers, other than some Milspec ammunition with heavily crimped necks and pullets seated to the ogive.

Ganderite sent me a neat little press mounted puller which is caliber specific, it's no longer being made, so I won't go into detail. It has spring steel petals, which the bullet is pushed through and as the ram recedes, the petals grip the bullets, even on the ogive. However, it does leave marks on the bullet, which don't seem to effect accuracy.

OP, if you're pulling bullets from handloads, unless you crimp the necks, a kinetic puller will usually do everything you need to do, if you use it properly.

Some folks just can't bring themselves to apply enough force to the unit to get the job done, or they use it on surfaces that are soft or absorb the impact. I use a two kilo, lead bar as an impact base.
 
either one works better after breaking the seal or 'seize' between the bullet and case, push the bullet in a couple thou'
collet puller is good for this as it can be done in the same process as the pulling
 
I use the RCBS collet style puller and I am very happy with it....especially if you need to do a large amount of bullet pulling. Set up correctly with the right amount of tension, bullets will not slip and there is no marring.
 
I have both.

The kinetic puller is great if you only have 2-3 bullets to pull or the shape of the bullet doesn't allow the RCBS unit to used. The downsides of the kinetic puller are the noise, more physical effort, it takes slightly longer to go between rounds than the RCBS unit, and dealing with retrieving the powder & bullet is messier.

The RCBS unit is better if you have many rounds to pull. The downsides is that you need a single stage press to operate it, initial setup takes a bit (unless you have a press dedicated for it), and it won't grip certain bullet configurations.
 
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