Pulling Crimped Bullets

l-girl

January 30, 2003 03:13

My buddy inherited several hundred rounds of reloaded ammo. He is playing it smart by pulling all the rounds and starting over with known quantities of powder.

Using an impact puller, he has had no problems disassembling non crimped rounds. However, no matter how hard he slams the puller, crimped bullets won't even budge.

Is there another tool he should try?

The primers may be 20 years old? Should he pop all those out also?

Thanks

Best regards,Rich

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  nam barney

  January 30, 2003 03:26

  Try seating the bullets in a little deeper before attempting to pull the crimped ones.
  As for the primers. If there is doubt as to the storage conditions I would opt to pop those puppies. Unless they will be used for general plinking. In that case I'd just go to the range and feed them through. If they go pop, thats great. If not; pause a few seconds before removing them from the rifle and than dismantle all that were duds. I would caution you on trying to deprime any undented primers!! There is a lot of power in those little rascals.
  nb

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  king999

  January 30, 2003 08:12

  I have a small (3/8") hole in my workbench. I place the bullet in the
  hole and rock it a bit. This loosens the crimp and/or the sealer. Then I complete the removal with the impact puller. Unless you feel that these rounds are patently dangerous, I would also just shoot them as plinkers or practice rounds. Ammo can last for a long time and still be quite OK for most purposes.
  Have fun, be careful!
  Morty

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  Sunray

  January 30, 2003 09:27

  I've unloaded lots of crimped ammo by whacking my puller on a rock about the size of a human brain. And anyone who asks why I have a rock, I tell 'em it's my duty rock. If, and they usually do, ask what a duty rock is, I say it's that one over there. It's on duty when I'm pulling bullets. Yep, that's the look they give me too. Sometimes I tell 'em I took it out of a Socialist's head so they wouldn't have rocks in their head anymore.

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  Iconoclast

  January 30, 2003 17:01

  To expand on nam barney's comment - set up the seating die for the caliber, back it off in the press so it will not crimp the bullet, but thread the seating stem down enough to push ("bump") the bullet further back into the case. This will usually loosen the crimp sufficiently to permit the inertia hammer to do the work. You can always use a collet type bullet puller, although this will often distort and damage the bullet.
  
  After he has a supply of the brass, dump the powder (makes great fertilzer) and try firing a sample of the primed empty cases. If they go boom, odds are he will be fine. If not, still do this expercise and trash the misfires (don't risk depriming them unless you deaden the priming compound for sure with WD-40 or similar chemicals, which is a real labor intensive task to clean out and not worth the effort except for really exotic calibers). If the sample all fire reliably, just leave the primers in place and reload - although I'd limit this lot to casual shooting.

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