Pulling bullets and enjoying it !?!?!

[Mygrainman]

I made the mistake of loading a bunch of 5.56 made from military range brass without checking my work with a chamber guage, and sizing with a Full Length rather than a Small base die. The result was several hundred rounds that would not cycle in my AR15s. Good Lake City brass... it just happened to get fireformed to an automatic with an especially large chamber.
Lesson learned.
Seriously... if you don't have chamber guages... Get them! Less than $20 will save you a ton of frustration at the range!
I've been putting off pulling and resizing because it is a pain in the arse, and my wife and kids get annoyed with the hammering of the inertia puller that I've used for the last 20 years...
I have been casually looking out for a collet style puller or something similar, and last weekend I came across this little gem at the WAC gun show in Puallup.


I've read a little about them before, and for $20(lightly used) I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I set up my little portable press stand, and a few empty containers in front of the dining room window last night and enjoyed my view of Longview's beautiful industrial area while listening to an audio book...

Waaaayyy faster and easier than the inertia hammer or a collet puller. I chewed up several bullets before getting the hang of it. Once I found the sweet spot to grip the bullet without it slipping out and found my rhythm...It became a strangely enjoyable process to refill my precious reloading components rather than use them up.

I checked the web, and they do make a few size options for pistol or rifle. The one I have happens to be the "Mill Spec" size that will do 5.56, 7.62, .338, and .50.

Now I get to remove the depriming pin from the SB die... resize, and recharge... good times!



I definitely give the Grip-n-pull Mygrainman's official smiley of approval.

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[DizzyJ]

Do t think I would "enjoy" it regardless.

Thanks for the write-up though!

I know all too well how hard machine gun fired brass can be to resize. Had to resize 1,000 .308 LC cases that were EXTREMELY oversized from being fired through a machine gun chamber.

No fun there.

 

[Kruel J]

Good, maybe that will keep you busy for a while instead of nabbing up all the good stuff in the classifieds. Dirtbag.

 

[Pete F]

I love mine, although I had to smooth out a couple of the holes for removing military bullets to prevent gouging them. Another trick is to run your bullet seater down a little and then run the cartridge through it to break the seal when doing military or hard to pull rounds,

I am not perfect with it, but for range ammo, it does quite well. Most of them look close to new.

I like your portable reloading stand.

 

[Mygrainman]

Good, maybe that will keep you busy for a while instead of nabbing up all the good stuff in the classifieds. Dirtbag.

Not likely

 

[P7M13]

I pulled about 60 bullets last night, ones that also did not fit the case gauge. Same road to get there -- wouldn't cycle, or jammed. Pizzed me off.
What I found in a lot of them: 7.62 brass (thicker) necked down to 7-08, gave a neck that was too thick and needs turning. There, a tight chamber is not your friend....
Happy pulling!

 

[Mygrainman]

I like your portable reloading stand.

It's just a cheap steel grinder stand from harbor freight...
I put my little RCBS Partner press on one side and a small vise on the other... works great.

 

[KKG]

I've tried one of those and really didn't care for them. I do like the inertia bullet pullers and found that if you slightly pushed the bullet just a bit further down in the case before using it makes things easier.

 

[ageingstudent]

I was thinking about trying to make one of those out of a tough hardwood like Brazilian Cherry or maybe ipe. Seems like it would be gentler on the bullet.

 

[GRMPS]

I looked at those but was to cheap to get one

Budget Bullet Puller
1) wire stripper
2) Drill out a hole in wire stripper or? 1 size smaller than the desired bullet; round off edges with a file
3) Get proper shell holder
4) If cartridge won't reach through the top of the press, get pipe/tubing (PVC is OK) that will fit over the ram on your press and is ½ in taller than the (brass set in shell case in ram) your pulling the bullet out of. Raise the ram through the pipe/tubing- put the case in the shell holder. lower ram until the boolit base is flush with the top of the pipe/tubing grip with the stripper and lower ram to pull pistol boolits.

 

[Rudedog]

I miss-loaded about four hundred .556 a few years ago. They were intended to be AR 15 practice rounds. Turned out to be too weak to cycle the action.Now they are bolt action varmint practice rounds. Well they work if you plunk them in at 400 yards.I also use the Wilson case gauge. My current .556 problem is precise case trimming. I am using a Lee trimmer in the press with an electronic screwdriver. Yuck!

 

[Retired Guy]

Do you have to do any prep prior to pulling the bullet?

I use a collet bullet puller and it works much better to use the seating die to push the bullet in to break the seal. I've been using mine for "Mexican Match" ammo. I've been pulling the 62 grain bullets on M855 and replacing them with the Hornady 62 grain HPBT bullets.

 

[thorborg]

Well that's about as yummy as milk toast!
I'm going to look into those if they don't mess up the projectile.
I have never had more than a dozen to pull at any one time so while the inertia sort was fine, I could see reworking a large batch could get old real fast. Because of that, I passed up a large bunch of (crimped) 45 colt, unknown hand loads @ a tenth of component cost because I didn't want to pound several hundred + stubborn rounds to death not to mention the time loading, dumping, separating components, reloading, etc... If I had this though, It would have been a different story.
The reality of it though, is I'll get one, never use it because I'll never find a deal like that again!
So, I'm not sure if I want to thank you for sharing or not!
What the heck, Thanks @Mygrainman !

 

[Caveman Jim]

Thanks for the write-up brother, I have been wondering about these for a while.

While learning is the name the game it surely makes one really think the next time they attempt a specific load.

This is why I always resize on the RCBS single stage press. I do all the prep work to a rifle case (223/556) before it goes onto the Lee turret press.

I do loathe pulling bullets of any kind though.