I started reloading in 1965.. I was all of 7 years old.. pouring bullets, sizing and lubing, processing brass, trimming cartridge's .. I was taught to load with a powder that will not allow a double charge.. simply too much volume to happen.. Had served me well.. maybe not always the optimal charging media but can not double charge.. :)
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been using this tool wrong for a long time. I mangled brass and damaged projectiles repeatedly and got very frustrated. Your technique is different from the manufacturer but works better. Using the instructions from this video I recovered ALL the components from a load that was too hot. No stress or fuss and no damaged components. Please keep this great content coming.
With Gavin's many YT vids, he is one of the best sources of reloading info, including both processes and equipment reviews, on YT! He knows his stuff and produces a Professional Grade Video Product. Hats off to him......
Agree he does. This is my post today on the subject of the bullet puller. Have you had success on the 9MM Hi. Just want to do some fact checking. I called Hornaday tech line (1 (800) 338-3220) and I asked if this bullet puller would work on my Dillion 650 and the short answer is yes. I informed the tech my application was for use on 9mm bullets copper jacketed. The tech informed me Hornaday does not have a Collet for use on the 9mm. He told me there is not sufficient surface to grab the bullet. He also said the collett 338/358 the closest to fit a 9mm would have to be crimped down to accept the 9mm (not recommended). In addition my Berrys - 115 grain .356 diameter copper jacketed is to soft a bullet. Your thoughts.
It's also great for working up a load when you've reached max pressure and you still have cartridges with more powder. Rather than waste them you pull them and reuse everything.
The hornady cam lock bullet puller works great. I gave one and use it when it's needed. I recommend it and you can't go wrong. Good luck and shoot safe.
I purchased a rifle with several hundred reloads…. Not wanting to shoot anyones reloads, I decided to pull bullets! Had used the kinetic puller in the past, but did some research and found this Hornady puller and ordered one. What a great tool when you need to pull a lot of bullets. I highly recommend this tool!!! Hopefully I won’t have to mass pull anymore, but having the tool…
I own a Hornady Cam Lock Bullet Puller and have used it for at least 6 different pistol and rifle calibers. I can attest that it is an excellent piece of equipment to own and easy to use. If you have a large number of bullets loaded and you are not certain which ones are incorrectly loaded with a powder charge, you can always weigh a properly charged bullet and then use that weight to check the others for a proper powder charge.
So long as your brass, bullet, and primer weights are highly consistent. I've seen weights vary by 2 grains or more from round to round, even using the same headstamp. I really wish it was that easy, but in my experience it's safer to check every 10-20 rounds by taring the primed case and weighing after a powder charge.
I bought 1500 rounds of 9 mm that were sold as components only due to the companies progressive press going out of spec. I’ve been searching the Internet for a solution and you have just shown me the way to go. Thank you for this video and the cam lock bullet puller.
Purchased Hornady cam lock collet bullet puller and set it up to your instructions. Works great for pulling some 147 grain 9mm bullets that I didn't trust as I had some no powder charged cartridges in the lot.
I'll never need a bullet puller, I mean who would seat bullets on a cartridges without powder...I mean who would do that...just ordered a bullet puller.
My buddy and ran into an issue where the powder was not metering correctly - (powder was less than desired). We went through about a dozen bullets until we noticed the issue.
Can always count on you, Gavin! I was just given one of these with no collets since I was complaining to a friend I had 100 .44 cartridges to disassemble. Found the right collet from the Hornady website, sourced from Midway, and with your vid here on UA-cam University I'm in business. Thanks!
Just order one and a few collets as I failed to turn my 300 Blackout cases while resizing and failed to doubled check with a case gauge. It will save me a catastrophic failure down the road! Great video!
Thanks I was struggling with this thing until I saw your video. Screwing the die all the way down and visually checking where the bullet is was the key for me. I was down on the case mouth before I saw this. Frustrating as hell!! Thanks!
I had some Remington primers that failed to ignite for my .308. Luckily I received one of these for Christmas. Easy to setup and use, the 165 Hornady plugs came right out with no effort. Good product.
Thank You for explaining this. I had not figured it out yet and was frustrated. I just had to pull some bullets off some 7MMMag rounds and it destroyed my ELD Tips. This will let me keep all of my components. Thanks again.
I had a similar mishap awhile back and using my inertia puller It took my all day to pull 300 rounds of 9mm. Thanks for bringing this tool to attention. I'll be picking one up ASAP.
The Hornady Bullet Puller use lever seems to make it faster than my RCBS bullet puller with its turn side to side motion. Another reason to invest in a tool like this is that a source of reloading components (bullet, brass and sometimes primer but never powder) can be unsafe old surplus or new commercial ammo that you can get an occasional deal on. Would be interesting to see a comparison between the RCBS and Hornady bullet pullers. Thank you for demonstrating this tool since I had wanted to see it in use.
Thank you Gavin I need one these for my 10mil loads I've got roughly 300 to tear down my issue was I got greedy with brass life not by under or over charges yes I ruined a mag at the range but thankfully nothing else was hurt including my hands so this tool will be fabulous
I found out it was easier to take the top of the assembly off and to look down the throat with a flashlight. When you are old enough to wear bifocals, it is hard to focus from underneath, and it is really hard to get underneath in the first place! Thanks for your videos, they are much appreciated. (Have a 9 3/4 inch tall Ultramount with quick change base and some other goodies coming from Inline Fabrication, thanks for that vid too!)
I see a lot of guys using turret presses that automatically drop the powder charge into the case, and then seat the bullet right after. Not for me. I use a Reloading Block. It's a piece of plastic or wood with 60 holes in it for your cases. I do 50 rounds at a time. I weigh every charge at the beginning of the reloading session, and use a powder trickler to bring the charges up to weight. After the measure settles down, I check the charge every five or 10 cases. I keep my loads within 0.1 grain of powder. I use a Redding Perfect powder measure, and have both rifle and pistol micrometers for it. After I dump powder into the 50 cases In the block, I VISUALLY INSPECT ALL CASES to see that they all have the same powder in them. No half or double charges. Only then will I seat bullets. This is how I was taught. I haven't needed to use a bullet puller very often.
I appreciate you sharing this as I have had o break down rounds and used the single 'beat the floor' pullers for what I needed. A large job to dissect several hundred rounds of what you were faced with would have occupied a humongous amount of time. Thanks for the insight.
I like the RCBS puller. I have collets for everything I load. It works similarly however you twist the top to tighten the collet. Pullers work great for anyone that has to load/unload semi-autos on any regular basis as bullet push-in is an issue easily addressed with a puller. As a LEO cycling rounds in the magazines only goes so far and when you have to buy duty ammo at over $1.50/rnd you can’t afford to throw sumo away and don’t want to risk the over pressure that can come from a pushed in bullet. Plus lord knows reloaders make mistakes do be prepared for them and just get a pulled from jump.
Squib Loads, Hang Fires, and Double Charges: Basically these conditions are brought about by the use of a progressive press with an on-board powder dispenser and static electricity bridging the powder charge as to only dump a small amount, if any, into a case that goes unnoticed and a bullet gets seated. Then the next round gets a heavy charge that will blow a gun into pieces. A squib load is where there is no powder, or very little, to the point that when the primer is ignited it pushes the bullet out of the case into the lands or a small amount of powder pushes the bullet part way up the barrel. A hang fire is where once the primer displaces the bullet into the lands the low powder charge then has too much room to build pressure immediately, so it burns slowly until the pressure builds up and then after a small delay the charge will start to burn faster to the point it will either spit the bullet out or lodge the bullet further down bore. This is why I never recommend the use of a progressive press with an on-board powder thrower, as this type of set-up has been responsible for both squib loads and hang fires, as well as guns blowing up. The guns that get blown up are the ones that got the powder that was hung in the measurer, due to static electricity bridging the powder in the down spout, from a previous squid loaded round so that it ends up with an over charge. Yes one of the rounds in a squib load's batch could very well be one that literally blows the gun apart. Most people that end up with a bad round end up spending a lot of time disassembling the rest of the batch, be it a few or hundreds or even thousands of rounds, for safety sake. A lot of time spent that they tried to save by using a progressive press in the first place with a on-board powder dispenser. Then they have to turn around and remake the rounds a second time, of which if done again in the same manner of using a progressive press with and on-board powder measurer may very well end up needing to be re-disassemble all over again if static electricity rears it's ugly head this go around too. A vicious cycle of which ultimately some one will get hurt or worse be killed by the neglect of a Handloader that refuses to take the time to reload safely! Yes when it happens it will not be an accident but rather a form of Negligible Homicide. Premeditated if one was warned and refused to take head. If one wants to play the odds they should take a trip to Vegas, not the gun range with this variant form of Russian Roulette!!! Personally, I will not run a progressive press because of all the safety checks they cheat us out of. I run all my brass through one step at a time on a single stage press, with hands on every step. This gives me plenty of time to catch cracks/slit cases, primer hole issues, primer seating issues, bullets seating issues, and crimp problems. If anything is out of whack the brass gets reworked or trashed. As for powder I weigh every charge! I use a powder thrower to dispense powder into the scale pan, a trickler to round off the charge weight on a beam scale, and then I set the pan onto a digital scale as a double check. If the two scales do not agree I recheck the beam scale poises and re-zero the digital scale. Normally it is the digital scale that has drifted, but once it was a beam scale poise got moved by accident. Either way all my powder charges get checked three times. Twice by scales and once with a visual, in the loading block, after I have charged a batch before seating bullets. I do what I do for safety not speed, cause as the old saying goes "SPEED KILLS!" And I encourage all to avoid finding out the hard way.
Noob here! Went shooting my newly reloaded 223! So excited to shoot my own loaded ammo! Trouble is what you said at the beginning, check, double check and triple check your load! Had 4 squib loads out of 2 30 round mags! 🤬 So I bought the hammer type puller and it made it to about 150 rounds and won't hold a bullet anymore. 🤬 So I still have 5 mags to go, because what I found out from where I started the load,14.2 grains to zero powder, some have very little, a few without. 😠 Anyway I ordered this unit and thank you for letting me know that I needed a collet as well, or it would of pissed me off even more! I have been watching apparently not enough of your vids. Will do better! Thank you again for the information you give!
Switched my setup over from 45ACP to 9mm on the Dillon. Double-checked seating depth since I changed from 124 to 115 9mm rounds and got some coffee and started slamming them out. Used the case chamber fit check gage on every one of about 300 rounds and then thought "WTF, did I re-set the powder from the 45?" Put the collet puller to good use. When I started reloading 6.5PRC, I (again) screwed up on a charge weight so bought a collet for the 6.5 rounds. Those pulled 6.5's went into new brass to get some once-fired cases to use for precision loads. In the old days, I used a drill chuck on the old single-stage press to grab the bullet and pull it. I'd just toss the rounds in the trash because of the dents.
Thank you for sharing. Had a similar issue. Just bought the cam lock puller for my lock and load. Thanks to your video I'm ready to go to work and correct my loads. Great channel. Just subscribed. Keep up the great videos.
Gavin, I realize this is old video, but bear in mind that powder measures without baffles tend to reduce charges as the process continues. Foreign matter in measure bottom tends to reduce loads as the process continues. Always check for that ball of fuzz or chaff in the measure and while recovering powder maybe pour it into a container that has a screen. I had a can of 800X that had been tampered with carpet fuzz; what a PIA! I have trouble getting the Hornady unit to pull cast lead bullets, it just pulls throuh the lead oftentimes.
This is why I do a quality check every 50 rounds which includes verifying powder charge on a scale and COL measurement. You never know if something starts walking on you so it’s worth it to check.
I bought the Hornady not long ago. Used both the ancient RCBS puller or just regular pliers with an empty press. The Hornady is a superior design which is why I got it, but the finish inside is too smooth so it slides off bullets easily. Need to rough it a bit but I don't have any mistakes to practice on. ;-)
Someone commented why not weigh a correctly loaded bullet and just weigh each bullet to find which bullet or bullets need broken down at that point ? And yes that is a good point !!
Depends if youre using super high quality brass and bullets, even if you are its probably not worth the gamble for a couple of extra hours work. Can you be 100% certain you can account for the variation in brass and bullet weights? With high energy density powders the weight difference between a hot and a dangerous load might be less than the variation in weight of other components.
Thanks! What you need is the cam-lock bullet puller die, plus the #13 45 caliber collet: www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/00005392166/cam-lock-bullet-puller-collet-number-13-(45-caliber)
I'm glad you showed this device. I saw them when I be scrolling around looking at dies but wasn't sure of how it worked. Had an idea but now I know how to set it up.
Auto powder measures are a blessing.. once I fill them I tap the hopper until there’s no more compression. I have two favorites, Redding match grade and RCBS Uniflow. The RCBS is dead on accurate and I’d buy it if I could only choose one.
I've had good luck using these on rifle ammo. Although if kneck tension is really high, you may need to grab the bullet so hard that it very slightly deforms it. It won't be obvious to the eye though. Good tool overall.
Most of the ones I've had to pull were on powder feed issues, too much or too little or the cases got mangled in the seating process. The bullets if they're seated properly don't have any scrapes or deformation.
There are people selling super cheap 3D printed powder cop dies on ebay, and they actually work. I added one to my progressive press and it sure beats trying to judge visually by looking at how much powder is in each case, or being super picky and weighing your charges constantly which defeats part of the speed advantage of a progressive. I think the powder cop die I bought was 14 bucks. If you have a printer Im sure the files are out there to print your own. I just ordered one of these pullers and a few collets. I have a big tub labled "failed loads to pull" and it has ten years worth of loads that weren't right and need pulled. I bet it's a good 15 lbs. Im a bit picky and paranoid so I cull more than I need to I am sure. Better safe than sorry. I was never going to do it all with an inertial puller. That would take forever, is loud and annoying. I almost got a couple of those grip n pull pullers, those are a cool idea but IMO they are priced too high for what they are and I feel like this Hornady puller will be more gentle on the bullets so I'll have more that I can re-use.
Maybe wasted effort but I keep a small electronic scale set up next to my Dillon 550B. Every so often I will weigh a completed round to make sure I am still at the correct powder. In doing that I am checking everything about the round because if the weight is off then something else is wrong. That works as long as I stick with all the same head stamp brass. And on my Dillon there is enough clearance after the powder dump to give quick eyeball to determine if the load appears accurate. Usually if it is only of by 10% or so I would not be able to spot visually therefore the double backup of the scale.
For an easier way to set up the puller, check out Hornady Loader's video on this puller. Seems a bit easier than trying to use the flashlight method. Still a good video though!
I found using it on my rock chucker and 5.56 ammo I can't run the die in very far nor can I run the ram all the way up. It is a function of feel to get it right.
I had that happen once. I check every 15 rounds or so, and found after 100+ rounds I started getting an overcharge. I'm still not sure exactly why it jumped after that many rounds, but, unfortunately, the bad rounds were dumped in with the good rounds so I had to pull them all. Now, every time I verify a charge I empty the known good rounds into a separate container so they're segregated. I've never had the charge change like that again, but if it happens, I'll only need to pull the bullets loaded after the last time I checked the charge.
I can relate to the sinking feeling of wondering how many loaded cases don't have powder. This is when a good digital scale is worth its weight in gold. You can breeze through a hundred cartridges in no time flat and find the bad ones. Yes I've done this more than once!! FWIW I love the Dillon electronic scale.
Emil Niec if you don't grab them too tight, you'll barely notice anything on the jacket. The "hammer" puller damages tipped rifle rounds... I stuffed a small piece of rubber floor mat in it to help protect the tips, but it still gets powder everywhere.. the press puller is much cleaner and damages less with tipped ammo. Flat nose plinkers really don't care how they come out.. but again, the press will recover 99%+ of the powder. The hammer will eventually turn into a salt shaker and spill powder everywhere.
I don't use a baffle at all in powder measure dispensers.... no issues. I know what the charge looks like in the case from years of experience, and look at a weighed charge in the case before using a dispenser.
I am attempting to remove 30-06 1944 era bullets. I plan to toss the brass and use the bronze bullets. On my RCBS RC press I can barely thread in the base, the ram arm is not 90-degrees. Problem is the puller seems to be grabbing the neck of the case and not extracting bullet???
Well to start I measure out each charge and weigh it before I put it in the case. Also made sure to buy a bullet puller when I bought my press. I had a puller before I had a case tumbler.
Looks like a piece of kit that will be on my next midway order. I presume the collect will pull any style bullet if the correct diameter collet is used.
I have a lee1000 pro is there an adjuster for the primer seat? Two primers are protruding from the bullet over 1/16 to make a 1.15" load to 1.17-1.18 so out that the bullet is wedged between the bottom case turret and the exit trough casting. Can't pull it out for fear the pressure will crimp the primer and have the bullet go off in the die trying to get it out on angling it with a pliers and the thing going off in the pliers wedged in the press. Just had it sent to lee and back because it was falling apart on every move of every part. They said it was fixed and now the seating pressure is too light. I don't see any adjuster for increaseing the pressure on the primer plunger to seat correctly.
I realize you might have used the last station in the AP for camera reasons, but I would choose a different station for this operation because of the auto eject feature the AP has. If you accidentally let one of those shells down all the way without pulling it off before the bottom of the stroke it's gonna dump the case and powder into your bin and make a mess. Just a thought.
After pulling rifle bottleneck rounds. How do you handle the primed cases. My thought is, they need to be resized. But then you would need to keep expander pin, and remove decamping pin, right?
I have this puller (and the same press as well). I found that there's no need to resize the casing; you can seat a new bullet just fine. As for reusing the bullets, it's a bit hit & miss for me. I inspect every bullet extracted with this device. About 1 in 3 has visible markings on it and I discard those, the other ones get reused.
Question- is is possible to FL size the case if there is primer in? How to avoid uninstalling the primer. I have cartridges which I @€& when seating the bullet. Disforming the neck.
First let me say that I am not versed in reloading at all. What is the risk in just weighing the final product to determine the amount of powder in the cartridge? Is there too much variance in the weight of primer, casing, and bullet that you can’t tell the difference in weight of the powder?
Gavin, I don't understand why you didn't mention a simple and very accurate method for determining which cartridges were actually overloaded. The electronic weigh scale. You simply load a cartridge to the accurate powder load, weigh it, and then weigh all other cartridges to verify load weight. Any cartridges that don't have proper weight are then separated for dismantling. Seems to me that this could save significant time as well as sparing bullets from the deformation process.
Exactly what I was thinking the entire time I watched him rework his loads. If you load a bunch of Rounds and don’t know where the problem started, you’re better off comparing weights. Why spend that much time dismantling everything you spent time building ? Heck, the last couple of dozen could be suspect while the remaining like 800+ rounds could literally be good to go lol
As a german I had to laugh at 1:06. Look at all the powder on the top shelf. Unthinkable here in germany. Here's why: Storing NC powder inside your house (excuding living room, kitchen, office, boiler room, garage, in general where people spend time doing other stuff): max 3 kg. In another building like storage shed: max 5 kg. If the room is not safe or does not have windows: Reduction of the allowed amount by 50%. Of course there are many more details you need to follow but it would be too much to put everything here. The leaflets you can find online are about 3 DIN A4 pages long listing do's an don'ts. To get a powder license you need the following: - Proof that you took a 2 day course on reloading + safety and passed a small test: ~ 200 € - Proof that you are allowed to buy ammunition: part of the gun license - Proof from your gun club stating your need: ~ 20 € - Proof from the state that you are not a criminal, terrorist or bad person with pending cases: ~ 150 € and 4-8 weeks time - You need to be over 21 Okay so you got your powder license. Now you can start reloading everything you want, right? Yes, but watch out how much you use! On your license the amount of powder you can buy in a 5 year period is predetermined. Every time you buy powder in the store (in person, no shipping) you need to take your license with you and the dealer stamps in the serial number of the bottle + amount into it and signs it. If you are out of your "allowance" you can't buy more. Some district (like mine) have the limit set to 10 kg. Others ask you how much you need. No idea if I could increase that limit. I've not asked yet. I can see the people buying bread and powder from the same store laughing right now :-)
What do the bullets look like after they are pulled? You said you can re-use them but are they showing signs of the original crimp or impact from the puller dye?
I'm interested in buying one if these, but it specifically says it's for rifle calibers only. Do you have a different one that is maybe no longer available?
So I just got on. the collet appeared bent and would not let go of the bullet. I tried to un bend it and it snapped. Called Hornady and got a lecture about how this is intended for rifle bullets only..... thanks...... they are sending a new collet, hopefully this one will work....
I have heard that wonce the shell gets crimped around the bullet. The removed bullet has the crimp mark around it. Preventing the bullet. From being reused, is that true? Thank You
Depends. I try not to crimp so hard as to distort the bullet. If in doubt, measure it. One of the advantages of the kinetic hammer type pullers is no collet has gripped the bullet, but they are slow, and don’t fit large cartridges (338LM for example).
I gave up on the mallet and went to a similar system. Quieter, and easier on the bullet. Still a pain to clean the brass so I don't get another overcharge because of residual powder. JM2C
Do you think this could work on a Forster press? I'm thinking that the lever handle would probably bump into the press arm if it needed to be at an odd angle.
Thanks for sharing! Just a thought here, I was curious if you weigh your bullets after? This will ensure you are in the correct range and this has saved me a few times. The Hornady Cam Lock Bullet Puller is a must indeed; instead of the hammer! Thanks you.
Curious. Are all the components able to be reused when using this bullet puller? Brass, powder, primer (pretty obvious), but most curious, the bullet itself?
I started reloading in 1965.. I was all of 7 years old.. pouring bullets, sizing and lubing, processing brass, trimming cartridge's .. I was taught to load with a powder that will not allow a double charge.. simply too much volume to happen.. Had served me well.. maybe not always the optimal charging media but can not double charge.. :)
I just called Hornady and asked which collet I would need for .40 S&W and was told that it wont work with handgun loads yet here you are doing it.
I just bought for 9mm
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been using this tool wrong for a long time. I mangled brass and damaged projectiles repeatedly and got very frustrated. Your technique is different from the manufacturer but works better. Using the instructions from this video I recovered ALL the components from a load that was too hot. No stress or fuss and no damaged components. Please keep this great content coming.
With Gavin's many YT vids, he is one of the best sources of reloading info, including both processes and equipment reviews, on YT!
He knows his stuff and produces a Professional Grade Video Product.
Hats off to him......
Agree he does. This is my post today on the subject of the bullet puller. Have you had success on the 9MM
Hi. Just want to do some fact checking. I called Hornaday tech line (1 (800) 338-3220) and I asked if this bullet puller would work on my Dillion 650 and the short answer is yes. I informed the tech my application was for use on 9mm bullets copper jacketed. The tech informed me Hornaday does not have a Collet for use on the 9mm. He told me there is not sufficient surface to grab the bullet. He also said the collett 338/358 the closest to fit a 9mm would have to be crimped down to accept the 9mm (not recommended). In addition my Berrys - 115 grain .356 diameter copper jacketed is to soft a bullet.
Your thoughts.
It's also great for working up a load when you've reached max pressure and you still have cartridges with more powder. Rather than waste them you pull them and reuse everything.
The hornady cam lock bullet puller works great. I gave one and use it when it's needed. I recommend it and you can't go wrong. Good luck and shoot safe.
I purchased a rifle with several hundred reloads…. Not wanting to shoot anyones reloads, I decided to pull bullets! Had used the kinetic puller in the past, but did some research and found this Hornady puller and ordered one. What a great tool when you need to pull a lot of bullets. I highly recommend this tool!!! Hopefully I won’t have to mass pull anymore, but having the tool…
I own a Hornady Cam Lock Bullet Puller and have used it for at least 6 different pistol and rifle calibers. I can attest that it is an excellent piece of equipment to own and easy to use.
If you have a large number of bullets loaded and you are not certain which ones are incorrectly loaded with a powder charge, you can always weigh a properly charged bullet and then use that weight to check the others for a proper powder charge.
So long as your brass, bullet, and primer weights are highly consistent. I've seen weights vary by 2 grains or more from round to round, even using the same headstamp.
I really wish it was that easy, but in my experience it's safer to check every 10-20 rounds by taring the primed case and weighing after a powder charge.
I bought 1500 rounds of 9 mm that were sold as components only due to the companies progressive press going out of spec. I’ve been searching the Internet for a solution and you have just shown me the way to go. Thank you for this video and the cam lock bullet puller.
Purchased Hornady cam lock collet bullet puller and set it up to your instructions. Works great for pulling some 147 grain 9mm bullets that I didn't trust as I had some no powder charged cartridges in the lot.
I'll never need a bullet puller, I mean who would seat bullets on a cartridges without powder...I mean who would do that...just ordered a bullet puller.
Haha. Like s staple remover- who needs one? :)
My buddy and ran into an issue where the powder was not metering correctly - (powder was less than desired). We went through about a dozen bullets until we noticed the issue.
LOL!! Yeah who would do that!!! I need one yesterday!
My friend said the exact same thing when he started reloading. He just tapped a FMJ out of his 16" barrel. Live and learn I guess.
Yea I just started reloading too. already seated a bullet too far trying to set up my lee 9mm seating die lol
Never a disappointment, detailed but to the point and full of great information.
Can always count on you, Gavin! I was just given one of these with no collets since I was complaining to a friend I had 100 .44 cartridges to disassemble. Found the right collet from the Hornady website, sourced from Midway, and with your vid here on UA-cam University I'm in business. Thanks!
Just order one and a few collets as I failed to turn my 300 Blackout cases while resizing and failed to doubled check with a case gauge. It will save me a catastrophic failure down the road! Great video!
27 years of reloading... and I'm just now finding out about this!!! What rock have I been hiding under???
Thanks I was struggling with this thing until I saw your video. Screwing the die all the way down and visually checking where the bullet is was the key for me. I was down on the case mouth before I saw this. Frustrating as hell!! Thanks!
I have had one for years and it has saved my butt plenty.
I had some Remington primers that failed to ignite for my .308. Luckily I received one of these for Christmas. Easy to setup and use, the 165 Hornady plugs came right out with no effort. Good product.
Can this disassemble factory crimped ball ammo?
Just bought this tool some time ago... Very good timing on you for posting this video. I enjoy you channel very much. Thanks for your time!!!
I bought mine a year ago, and just got around to my "9mm rebuild" session now! Better late than never...
Thank You for explaining this. I had not figured it out yet and was frustrated. I just had to pull some bullets off some 7MMMag rounds and it destroyed my ELD Tips.
This will let me keep all of my components.
Thanks again.
I had a similar mishap awhile back and using my inertia puller It took my all day to pull 300 rounds of 9mm. Thanks for bringing this tool to attention. I'll be picking one up ASAP.
Isn't that fun? Family wondering what's happening in the garage...
Been there done that with 380 =(
Your shop is fricken amazing! My bank account hates when I watch your videos.
The Hornady Bullet Puller use lever seems to make it faster than my RCBS bullet puller with its turn side to side motion. Another reason to invest in a tool like this is that a source of reloading components (bullet, brass and sometimes primer but never powder) can be unsafe old surplus or new commercial ammo that you can get an occasional deal on. Would be interesting to see a comparison between the RCBS and Hornady bullet pullers. Thank you for demonstrating this tool since I had wanted to see it in use.
Good points- I'm looking forward to pulling apart old WWII era ammo at some point for various vintage shooting projects...
Thank you Gavin I need one these for my 10mil loads I've got roughly 300 to tear down my issue was I got greedy with brass life not by under or over charges yes I ruined a mag at the range but thankfully nothing else was hurt including my hands so this tool will be fabulous
I found out it was easier to take the top of the assembly off and to look down the throat with a flashlight. When you are old enough to wear bifocals, it is hard to focus from underneath, and it is really hard to get underneath in the first place! Thanks for your videos, they are much appreciated. (Have a 9 3/4 inch tall Ultramount with quick change base and some other goodies coming from Inline Fabrication, thanks for that vid too!)
Great tip I can relate.
I see a lot of guys using turret presses that automatically drop the powder charge into the case, and then seat the bullet right after. Not for me. I use a Reloading Block. It's a piece of plastic or wood with 60 holes in it for your cases. I do 50 rounds at a time. I weigh every charge at the beginning of the reloading session, and use a powder trickler to bring the charges up to weight. After the measure settles down, I check the charge every five or 10 cases. I keep my loads within 0.1 grain of powder. I use a Redding Perfect powder measure, and have both rifle and pistol micrometers for it. After I dump powder into the 50 cases In the block, I VISUALLY INSPECT ALL CASES to see that they all have the same powder in them. No half or double charges. Only then will I seat bullets. This is how I was taught. I haven't needed to use a bullet puller very often.
I appreciate you sharing this as I have had o break down rounds and used the single 'beat the floor' pullers for what I needed. A large job to dissect several hundred rounds of what you were faced with would have occupied a humongous amount of time. Thanks for the insight.
I like the RCBS puller. I have collets for everything I load. It works similarly however you twist the top to tighten the collet. Pullers work great for anyone that has to load/unload semi-autos on any regular basis as bullet push-in is an issue easily addressed with a puller. As a LEO cycling rounds in the magazines only goes so far and when you have to buy duty ammo at over $1.50/rnd you can’t afford to throw sumo away and don’t want to risk the over pressure that can come from a pushed in bullet. Plus lord knows reloaders make mistakes do be prepared for them and just get a pulled from jump.
Squib Loads, Hang Fires, and Double Charges:
Basically these conditions are brought about by the use of a progressive press with an on-board powder dispenser and static electricity bridging the powder charge as to only dump a small amount, if any, into a case that goes unnoticed and a bullet gets seated. Then the next round gets a heavy charge that will blow a gun into pieces.
A squib load is where there is no powder, or very little, to the point that when the primer is ignited it pushes the bullet out of the case into the lands or a small amount of powder pushes the bullet part way up the barrel. A hang fire is where once the primer displaces the bullet into the lands the low powder charge then has too much room to build pressure immediately, so it burns slowly until the pressure builds up and then after a small delay the charge will start to burn faster to the point it will either spit the bullet out or lodge the bullet further down bore. This is why I never recommend the use of a progressive press with an on-board powder thrower, as this type of set-up has been responsible for both squib loads and hang fires, as well as guns blowing up. The guns that get blown up are the ones that got the powder that was hung in the measurer, due to static electricity bridging the powder in the down spout, from a previous squid loaded round so that it ends up with an over charge. Yes one of the rounds in a squib load's batch could very well be one that literally blows the gun apart. Most people that end up with a bad round end up spending a lot of time disassembling the rest of the batch, be it a few or hundreds or even thousands of rounds, for safety sake. A lot of time spent that they tried to save by using a progressive press in the first place with a on-board powder dispenser. Then they have to turn around and remake the rounds a second time, of which if done again in the same manner of using a progressive press with and on-board powder measurer may very well end up needing to be re-disassemble all over again if static electricity rears it's ugly head this go around too. A vicious cycle of which ultimately some one will get hurt or worse be killed by the neglect of a Handloader that refuses to take the time to reload safely! Yes when it happens it will not be an accident but rather a form of Negligible Homicide. Premeditated if one was warned and refused to take head. If one wants to play the odds they should take a trip to Vegas, not the gun range with this variant form of Russian Roulette!!!
Personally, I will not run a progressive press because of all the safety checks they cheat us out of. I run all my brass through one step at a time on a single stage press, with hands on every step. This gives me plenty of time to catch cracks/slit cases, primer hole issues, primer seating issues, bullets seating issues, and crimp problems. If anything is out of whack the brass gets reworked or trashed. As for powder I weigh every charge! I use a powder thrower to dispense powder into the scale pan, a trickler to round off the charge weight on a beam scale, and then I set the pan onto a digital scale as a double check. If the two scales do not agree I recheck the beam scale poises and re-zero the digital scale. Normally it is the digital scale that has drifted, but once it was a beam scale poise got moved by accident. Either way all my powder charges get checked three times. Twice by scales and once with a visual, in the loading block, after I have charged a batch before seating bullets. I do what I do for safety not speed, cause as the old saying goes "SPEED KILLS!" And I encourage all to avoid finding out the hard way.
Being concise is a virtue…
Noob here! Went shooting my newly reloaded 223! So excited to shoot my own loaded ammo! Trouble is what you said at the beginning, check, double check and triple check your load! Had 4 squib loads out of 2 30 round mags! 🤬 So I bought the hammer type puller and it made it to about 150 rounds and won't hold a bullet anymore. 🤬 So I still have 5 mags to go, because what I found out from where I started the load,14.2 grains to zero powder, some have very little, a few without. 😠 Anyway I ordered this unit and thank you for letting me know that I needed a collet as well, or it would of pissed me off even more! I have been watching apparently not enough of your vids. Will do better! Thank you again for the information you give!
Switched my setup over from 45ACP to 9mm on the Dillon. Double-checked seating depth since I changed from 124 to 115 9mm rounds and got some coffee and started slamming them out. Used the case chamber fit check gage on every one of about 300 rounds and then thought "WTF, did I re-set the powder from the 45?" Put the collet puller to good use. When I started reloading 6.5PRC, I (again) screwed up on a charge weight so bought a collet for the 6.5 rounds. Those pulled 6.5's went into new brass to get some once-fired cases to use for precision loads.
In the old days, I used a drill chuck on the old single-stage press to grab the bullet and pull it. I'd just toss the rounds in the trash because of the dents.
Thank you for sharing. Had a similar issue. Just bought the cam lock puller for my lock and load. Thanks to your video I'm ready to go to work and correct my loads. Great channel. Just subscribed. Keep up the great videos.
Can you just weigh a good bullet and then check each one for the over weight ones? may save time pulling each bullet and starting over.....
Do you mean "weigh a cartridge"? The variance in brass weight for these is more than the powder charge, so no.
No way brass variation will affect overall weight. A .5gr powder cation vs a .5gr case weight is neglible.
I check powder load, bullets, crimp, and whatever else I can think of every tenth round. It maybe redundant, but it’s happened to me.
Two kinds of reloaders in this world, those who have messed up and those who will.
Very helpful Gavin I just purchased one thank you . Steve from Aussie .
Gavin, I realize this is old video, but bear in mind that powder measures without baffles tend to reduce charges as the process continues. Foreign matter in measure bottom tends to reduce loads as the process continues. Always check for that ball of fuzz or chaff in the measure and while recovering powder maybe pour it into a container that has a screen. I had a can of 800X that had been tampered with carpet fuzz; what a PIA! I have trouble getting the Hornady unit to pull cast lead bullets, it just pulls throuh the lead oftentimes.
This is why I do a quality check every 50 rounds which includes verifying powder charge on a scale and COL measurement. You never know if something starts walking on you so it’s worth it to check.
I bought the Hornady not long ago. Used both the ancient RCBS puller or just regular pliers with an empty press. The Hornady is a superior design which is why I got it, but the finish inside is too smooth so it slides off bullets easily. Need to rough it a bit but I don't have any mistakes to practice on. ;-)
Someone commented why not weigh a correctly loaded bullet and just weigh each bullet to find which bullet or bullets need broken down at that point ?
And yes that is a good point !!
Depends if youre using super high quality brass and bullets, even if you are its probably not worth the gamble for a couple of extra hours work. Can you be 100% certain you can account for the variation in brass and bullet weights? With high energy density powders the weight difference between a hot and a dangerous load might be less than the variation in weight of other components.
Did not see a cam lock for 45ACP !
Your videos are always clear and easy to understand.
Thanks! What you need is the cam-lock bullet puller die, plus the #13 45 caliber collet: www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/00005392166/cam-lock-bullet-puller-collet-number-13-(45-caliber)
I'm glad you showed this device. I saw them when I be scrolling around looking at dies but wasn't sure of how it worked. Had an idea but now I know how to set it up.
A picture is worth 1,000 words, and video can be worth 1,000,000 to illustrate a concept, eh? :)
Auto powder measures are a blessing.. once I fill them I tap the hopper until there’s no more compression.
I have two favorites, Redding match grade and RCBS Uniflow. The RCBS is dead on accurate and I’d buy it if I could only choose one.
Another great and informative reloading video!! Safety is the key!!
Thank man!
Excellent accessory. A must-have. Thanks for sharing.
Yeah, this and a kinetic bullet puller and you're pretty much set!
I've had good luck using these on rifle ammo. Although if kneck tension is really high, you may need to grab the bullet so hard that it very slightly deforms it. It won't be obvious to the eye though. Good tool overall.
Just exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
I would of like to see what kind of damage the bullets got scraps or deformation
None really, I just pulled about 20 .300 Blackout 194 ME slugs that wouldn't chamber. You can barely tell that they were pulled.
Most of the ones I've had to pull were on powder feed issues, too much or too little or the cases got mangled in the seating process. The bullets if they're seated properly don't have any scrapes or deformation.
There are people selling super cheap 3D printed powder cop dies on ebay, and they actually work. I added one to my progressive press and it sure beats trying to judge visually by looking at how much powder is in each case, or being super picky and weighing your charges constantly which defeats part of the speed advantage of a progressive. I think the powder cop die I bought was 14 bucks. If you have a printer Im sure the files are out there to print your own.
I just ordered one of these pullers and a few collets. I have a big tub labled "failed loads to pull" and it has ten years worth of loads that weren't right and need pulled. I bet it's a good 15 lbs. Im a bit picky and paranoid so I cull more than I need to I am sure. Better safe than sorry.
I was never going to do it all with an inertial puller. That would take forever, is loud and annoying. I almost got a couple of those grip n pull pullers, those are a cool idea but IMO they are priced too high for what they are and I feel like this Hornady puller will be more gentle on the bullets so I'll have more that I can re-use.
Does it mark the bullet?
Maybe wasted effort but I keep a small electronic scale set up next to my Dillon 550B. Every so often I will weigh a completed round to make sure I am still at the correct powder. In doing that I am checking everything about the round because if the weight is off then something else is wrong. That works as long as I stick with all the same head stamp brass. And on my Dillon there is enough clearance after the powder dump to give quick eyeball to determine if the load appears accurate. Usually if it is only of by 10% or so I would not be able to spot visually therefore the double backup of the scale.
Same, only I zero an empty case before I fill and then again after powder drop just to eliminate weight differences in components
Different headstamps yield different weights.
What Ken said. This isnt smart.
For an easier way to set up the puller, check out Hornady Loader's video on this puller. Seems a bit easier than trying to use the flashlight method. Still a good video though!
I found using it on my rock chucker and 5.56 ammo I can't run the die in very far nor can I run the ram all the way up. It is a function of feel to get it right.
Enjoy this channel keep up the great work buddy 😀
I had that happen once. I check every 15 rounds or so, and found after 100+ rounds I started getting an overcharge. I'm still not sure exactly why it jumped after that many rounds, but, unfortunately, the bad rounds were dumped in with the good rounds so I had to pull them all.
Now, every time I verify a charge I empty the known good rounds into a separate container so they're segregated. I've never had the charge change like that again, but if it happens, I'll only need to pull the bullets loaded after the last time I checked the charge.
Isn't that the worst feeling? But, better safe than sorry- glad you tore them all down!
Sixgun does this puller damage rounds or can I reuse them?
I can relate to the sinking feeling of wondering how many loaded cases don't have powder. This is when a good digital scale is worth its weight in gold. You can breeze through a hundred cartridges in no time flat and find the bad ones. Yes I've done this more than once!! FWIW I love the Dillon electronic scale.
Emil Niec if you don't grab them too tight, you'll barely notice anything on the jacket. The "hammer" puller damages tipped rifle rounds... I stuffed a small piece of rubber floor mat in it to help protect the tips, but it still gets powder everywhere..
the press puller is much cleaner and damages less with tipped ammo.
Flat nose plinkers really don't care how they come out.. but again, the press will recover 99%+ of the powder. The hammer will eventually turn into a salt shaker and spill powder everywhere.
Cool man thanks
I don't use a baffle at all in powder measure dispensers.... no issues. I know what the charge looks like in the case from years of experience, and look at a weighed charge in the case before using a dispenser.
I am attempting to remove 30-06 1944 era bullets. I plan to toss the brass and use the bronze bullets. On my RCBS RC press I can barely thread in the base, the ram arm is not 90-degrees. Problem is the puller seems to be grabbing the neck of the case and not extracting bullet???
Well to start I measure out each charge and weigh it before I put it in the case. Also made sure to buy a bullet puller when I bought my press. I had a puller before I had a case tumbler.
Love your videos. Always alot of good information. Thanks bro!!
Looks like a piece of kit that will be on my next midway order. I presume the collect will pull any style bullet if the correct diameter collet is used.
Actually, these are only for jacketed (or solid copper) bullets that have enough exposed area to grab.
I have a lee1000 pro is there an adjuster for the primer seat? Two primers are protruding from the bullet over 1/16 to make a 1.15" load to 1.17-1.18 so out that the bullet is wedged between the bottom case turret and the exit trough casting. Can't pull it out for fear the pressure will crimp the primer and have the bullet go off in the die trying to get it out on angling it with a pliers and the thing going off in the pliers wedged in the press. Just had it sent to lee and back because it was falling apart on every move of every part. They said it was fixed and now the seating pressure is too light. I don't see any adjuster for increaseing the pressure on the primer plunger to seat correctly.
I have one of those Frankford Arsenal inertia pullers and had a primer go off on me a couple times. Scared the crap outta me! Bought one of these. :)
Throwing the bs flag here! More likely hammering the primer end.
If you use a digital scale to weigh the ammo it would help find the point where things went bad ?
Is it possible to just pull the bullet out a little? I rechecked the lands and I want a closer tolerance
I realize you might have used the last station in the AP for camera reasons, but I would choose a different station for this operation because of the auto eject feature the AP has. If you accidentally let one of those shells down all the way without pulling it off before the bottom of the stroke it's gonna dump the case and powder into your bin and make a mess. Just a thought.
After pulling rifle bottleneck rounds. How do you handle the primed cases. My thought is, they need to be resized. But then you would need to keep expander pin, and remove decamping pin, right?
i am not sure what the powder weighs but wouldn't a high quality scale help you narrow down the defective ammo?
Any deformation? .. i may have missed if you recommend resizing. And reusing those bullets
Thanks 😊
I have this puller (and the same press as well). I found that there's no need to resize the casing; you can seat a new bullet just fine. As for reusing the bullets, it's a bit hit & miss for me. I inspect every bullet extracted with this device. About 1 in 3 has visible markings on it and I discard those, the other ones get reused.
Does this puller leave dent or scuff marks on the bullet to the point that they can’t be reused?
Question- is is possible to FL size the case if there is primer in? How to avoid uninstalling the primer.
I have cartridges which I @€& when seating the bullet. Disforming the neck.
First let me say that I am not versed in reloading at all. What is the risk in just weighing the final product to determine the amount of powder in the cartridge? Is there too much variance in the weight of primer, casing, and bullet that you can’t tell the difference in weight of the powder?
Can you reuse the bullet or does the collet damage the bullet to the point where it’s no good?
Will the Hornady cam lock bullet puller work in a Frankford Arsenal Coaxial M-Press?
What size collects are available in this kit
How well does that work with lead projectiles?
Very informative. Good video, glad I found your channel (subbed a while ago)
Another quality video, thanks Gavin.
Is there two models of Hornady [cam-lock] bullet puller? Amazon listing states 'for rifle cartridge only'.....
Gavin, I don't understand why you didn't mention a simple and very accurate method for determining which cartridges were actually overloaded. The electronic weigh scale. You simply load a cartridge to the accurate powder load, weigh it, and then weigh all other cartridges to verify load weight. Any cartridges that don't have proper weight are then separated for dismantling. Seems to me that this could save significant time as well as sparing bullets from the deformation process.
Exactly what I was thinking the entire time I watched him rework his loads.
If you load a bunch of Rounds and don’t know where the problem started, you’re better off comparing weights.
Why spend that much time dismantling everything you spent time building ? Heck, the last couple of dozen could be suspect while the remaining like 800+ rounds could literally be good to go lol
As a german I had to laugh at 1:06. Look at all the powder on the top shelf. Unthinkable here in germany. Here's why: Storing NC powder inside your house (excuding living room, kitchen, office, boiler room, garage, in general where people spend time doing other stuff): max 3 kg. In another building like storage shed: max 5 kg. If the room is not safe or does not have windows: Reduction of the allowed amount by 50%. Of course there are many more details you need to follow but it would be too much to put everything here. The leaflets you can find online are about 3 DIN A4 pages long listing do's an don'ts.
To get a powder license you need the following:
- Proof that you took a 2 day course on reloading + safety and passed a small test: ~ 200 €
- Proof that you are allowed to buy ammunition: part of the gun license
- Proof from your gun club stating your need: ~ 20 €
- Proof from the state that you are not a criminal, terrorist or bad person with pending cases: ~ 150 € and 4-8 weeks time
- You need to be over 21
Okay so you got your powder license. Now you can start reloading everything you want, right? Yes, but watch out how much you use! On your license the amount of powder you can buy in a 5 year period is predetermined. Every time you buy powder in the store (in person, no shipping) you need to take your license with you and the dealer stamps in the serial number of the bottle + amount into it and signs it. If you are out of your "allowance" you can't buy more. Some district (like mine) have the limit set to 10 kg. Others ask you how much you need. No idea if I could increase that limit. I've not asked yet.
I can see the people buying bread and powder from the same store laughing right now :-)
What do the bullets look like after they are pulled? You said you can re-use them but are they showing signs of the original crimp or impact from the puller dye?
Does it damage the surface of the pulled projectile.
It actually doesn't - that's where a collet is great (even grip on bullet).
Can you use this method with forester unit
I'm interested in buying one if these, but it specifically says it's for rifle calibers only. Do you have a different one that is maybe no longer available?
So I just got on. the collet appeared bent and would not let go of the bullet. I tried to un bend it and it snapped. Called Hornady and got a lecture about how this is intended for rifle bullets only..... thanks...... they are sending a new collet, hopefully this one will work....
Does that cam hurt the bullets at all?
I have heard that wonce the shell gets crimped around the bullet. The removed bullet has the crimp mark around it. Preventing the bullet. From being reused, is that true? Thank You
Depends. I try not to crimp so hard as to distort the bullet. If in doubt, measure it. One of the advantages of the kinetic hammer type pullers is no collet has gripped the bullet, but they are slow, and don’t fit large cartridges (338LM for example).
After pulling the bullet, do you need to resize the casing neck?
I gave up on the mallet and went to a similar system. Quieter, and easier on the bullet. Still a pain to clean the brass so I don't get another overcharge because of residual powder. JM2C
Does this work well with cast bullets
Hi Gavin .Thank you for a fantastic channel
Can the Hornady bullet puller work on a lee pro 1000. Thank you
Where did you get your ammo boxes
Do you think this could work on a Forster press? I'm thinking that the lever handle would probably bump into the press arm if it needed to be at an odd angle.
Does anyone know if this will fit in a Dillon XL750 press?
Thanks for sharing! Just a thought here, I was curious if you weigh your bullets after? This will ensure you are in the correct range and this has saved me a few times. The Hornady Cam Lock Bullet Puller is a must indeed; instead of the hammer! Thanks you.
How does it work on SWC bullets?
How do you know if the powder in those old cases match the powder in your hopper? I love your videos. Reference material.
Does Hornady powder measure even come with a baffle? I see you have one. Where did you get it?
Curious. Are all the components able to be reused when using this bullet puller? Brass, powder, primer (pretty obvious), but most curious, the bullet itself?
I love mine…never going back to whacking a kinetic puller over and over again haha