Using inertia bullet pullers with a dead blow hammer.

[BCRider]

So I got an idea to try this today. And so far it seems highly promising.

I've used my Lyman inertia bullet puller for a long time now by bashing it onto a hardwood block and occasionally against the anvil face on my bench vise. But I've got a big batch of bullets that I need to pull and thought I'd try using a dead blow hammer as the striking anvil.

I gotta say so far it seems quite promising. I'm getting one and two hit separations where the other stuff takes two to four good smacks.

The way I'm using the dead blow is I'm holding the head turned mostly sideways but with the face I'm using rotated slightly down. Then I'm swinging the Lyman puller sideways and slightly up to smack it against the face of the deadblow. There's a lot less shock to my hand this way but the bullets are popping out with what seems like less hits.

I'm holding the deadblow this way so that the lead shot inside is somewhat more resting against the face I'm striking with the Lyman puller instead of being on the other side away from the face if I were to just hold it normally and swing down onto the top face

I tried a few pulls on the other things and my impression so far is that the deadblow seems to work easier than the big heavy block of wood or even the face of the bench vise. And it's certainly putting less shock into my hand.

If you have a dead blow handy and need to pop some bad reloads give it a try and let me know what you think.

 

[zuke]

I use a block of lead I made by filling a small pot with molten lead and letting it cool

 

[Tazzy]

I was a little upset when I broke my Dillon inertia hammer but after I bought the RCBS press mounted bullet puller, I was glad I did. So much easier.

 

[mbogo3]

I find collet pullers marred the bullet jackets.

 

[coyoteking]

I find collet pullers marred the bullet jackets.

I pulled a few SMK’s tonight. If you’re careful about how hard you tighten the collet it won’t leave any marks. Of course, crimped rounds are another story, my .223’s are only at .002 neck tension so they pull fairly easy.

 

[bearhunter]

Your call, but I use a lead block about 2in x 6in x6in as the anvil to pound against.

The lead acts like a deadfall hammer in reverse. It's soft enough that it doesn't damage the Lyman puller I have had for close to 20 years now. Mine is the model with the aluminum handle.

I know people cringe at the suggestion but I also found the system to be more effective using an appropriate RCBS shell head holder to hold the rims, rather than the four piece spring holder the hammers come with.

I've pulled thousands of bullets with that hammer. Everything from 8x63, with tar sealer surplus to factory loads and hand loads. IMHO, the lead block is the reason the hammer is still together.

Mine has the aluminum handle, embedded into the plastic holder. I tried one of the all plastic variants and was extremely disappointed.

 

[bc308]

Push them in a couple thou first with the seater die.

 

[Uisge]

I use my practice pad (drums), it has the rebound to get them moving and was built to be hit with sticks. Works great! Plus it’s quiet.

 

[mactroneng]

I'm giving a +1 to the collet-style bullet puller. The only thing I've found you can't pull with it is full and semi-wadcutters, and it often does squish lead bullets of other shapes but I haven't had any problems other than superficial marks on jacketed or even plated bullets (maybe the plated bullet have a slight deformation but I can't feel it and they still shoot well after being re-used).

The hammer-style is an absolute pain in the rear after having used the collet-style puller.

 

[jethunter]

You need something hard and solid for an inertia puller to work well. Wood is soft enough that it absorbs a portion of the force. Soft lead is a little better than wood. Concrete shop floor is the best I've found.

 

[MRP]

I believe that it says in the instructions not to use metal surfaces. I use concrete floor.

 

[BCRider]

I was pulling a bunch of .45acp which had LRN bullets which the collet wouldn't grab correctly due to the nose shape. Half would pull and half would just smear the lead. So frustrating.... Hence switching to the inertia puller for this particular job.

 

[New Camper]

I use my practice pad (drums), it has the rebound to get them moving and was built to be hit with sticks. Works great! Plus it’s quiet.

Snare drummer? I'm a piper so just whack the hammer against a piece of blackwood... I use concrete floor or a piece of laminate beech leftover from a stock build. I like that practice pad idea though: they are made to rebound and I'd otherwise have a hard time believing you because at first glance they are not a solid plate.

 

[BCRider]

Looks like I'm going back to a block of wood. But this time a really BIG block. I've got a hunk of very heavy and dense hardwood about 5x4x22 inches and a half dozen of the cartridges would not budge while hitting them against the dead blow. But when hit against the end of the big heavy block they busted loose in a whack or two.

Got you all thinking though...

The lead block sounded good too. I may give that a go when I get around to melting down some range scrap to make ingots. I might just have to pour a bunch into a 15 lb or so block. Or maybe I'll just keep using the block of wood and cast that 15 lbs into bullets. We'll see. I do know that I want to make a couple of lead mallets for the machine shop.

 

[vagrantviking]

Use the end-grain on the wood if you can. I've found that to be the most effective. Even 18" of 2x4 held in the opposite hand works really well.

I've got a cheap Frankfort Arsenal on and have almost worn out one of the aluminum shell holders. It's never taken any impact damage and seldom needs more than 2 blows.

 

[Bigbubba]

I bought a collet style (Forstener I think) bullet puller. Love it 100X better than inertia (my 2 cents)

 

[bearhunter]

You need something hard and solid for an inertia puller to work well. Wood is soft enough that it absorbs a portion of the force. Soft lead is a little better than wood. Concrete shop floor is the best I've found.

Concrete floors or a steel plate work very well. The thing is, they cause cracks and broken off handles from my experience.

 

[coyoteking]

Use the end-grain on the wood if you can. I've found that to be the most effective. Even 18" of 2x4 held in the opposite hand works really well.

I've got a cheap Frankfort Arsenal on and have almost worn out one of the aluminum shell holders. It's never taken any impact damage and seldom needs more than 2 blows.

Is that the model with the collets held together with an O ring?

If so, I have the same model and I quickly discovered those things were a pain in the rear. I now just use a regular RCBS shell holder in it. So much faster and they fit perfectly in the hammer. I assume other brands of shell holders will work the same.

 

[Uisge]

Snare drummer? I'm a piper so just whack the hammer against a piece of blackwood... I use concrete floor or a piece of laminate beech leftover from a stock build. I like that practice pad idea though: they are made to rebound and I'd otherwise have a hard time believing you because at first glance they are not a solid plate.

I play full kit in a punk band. And I have a smaller one that’s got thick plastic base with a silicone like pad in the centre, not the thin ones that sit on top of the head, although I’m sure they would work on a solid surface, might not take the abuse as well though.

 

[BCRider]

I bought a collet style (Forstener I think) bullet puller. Love it 100X better than inertia (my 2 cents)

BB, in this case the collet style doesn't work. The bullets I was pulling were tapered pretty heavily and the collet just skidded off them. I've got a collet puller too. But it tends to work best on rifle rounds. Pointy tapered bullets with no parallel portion showing not so well.