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These are the techniques and equipment that I use to produce reloaded cartridges for bolt and semi-automatic rifles. Other techniques and equipment may be: better/worse, cheaper/costlier, safer/more dangerous or whatever. Read this stuff and use it or not, at your own risk!

Every once in a while it becomes necessary to pull the bullets from one or a hundred cases. There are two popular tools to do this type of work.

This is a Kinetic Puller, this one by Midway. Look sort of like a hammer, and is used just that way.

A loaded case is held in a collet, the silver colored thing with the black stripe, and the bullet/collet is inserted into the hammerhead and held in place with a threaded cap.

Once secured in place, the puller is "whacked" down on a firm surface, just as if you were pounding a VERY BIG NAIL. The kinetic energy stored in the bullet might cause the bullet (and powder) to leave the case and end up (mixed together) in the lower end of the compartment. The cap is unscrewed and the bullet and powder is dumped out. If one whack doesn't do the job, whack away!

The other way of pulling the bullet is the press mounted collet puller. This device has a body, much like a die, with a locking nut. A collet, 5 are shown above, is fitted in the body from below and a T-handle threaded collet tightener goes in the top.

The body is installed in a press, the cartridge to be broken down is placed in the shell holder, and the ram is raised until the bullet enters the collet. The T-handle (barely visible top the top of the photo) is tightened a quarter-turn, and the ram is lowered, leaving the bullet in the collet. The case (with its powder inside) is removed and the T-handle unscrewed a quarter-turn and the bullet drops out.

This is the puller with all its parts. (Less the press) A standard shell holder is used.

This shows the collet gripping the bullet.

For pulling one or two bullets, the kinetic puller is OK, unless the bullet is crimped or sealed (military), and then sometimes it won't work. The collet puller will pull most anything, and is faster to use, once set-up.

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