Thread: Why didn’t I get one earlier

Just picked up a hornady cam lock bullet puller after years of useing a hammer one
As I had over 100 rounds of unwanted ammunition to pull and save bullets etc
Took less than an hour and doesn’t so much as Mark the bullets wow

Bloody Excellent bit of kit

Would highly recommend one

Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

Just picked up a hornady cam lock bullet puller after years of useing a hammer one
As I had over 100 rounds of unwanted ammunition to pull and save bullets etc
Took less than an hour and doesn’t so much as Mark the bullets wow

Bloody Excellent bit of kit

Would highly recommend one

Went exactly the same route about 5 years ago. Night and day difference. Far faster.

I found in the end that the little collet widgets in the hammer would eventually break if I used them for too long, leaving me with a see through green hammer that was pretty much useless.

Originally Posted by Max Headroom

Went exactly the same route about 5 years ago. Night and day difference. Far faster.

I found in the end that the little collet widgets in the hammer would eventually break if I used them for too long, leaving me with a see through green hammer that was pretty much useless.

Mine also broke, now I use a shell holder instead of the collet.

Depending on the ammo you are pulling, one trick I learnt with the cam lock pullers is if you run the bullets through a seating die set to seat the bullet a little deeper than it is to start with, it breaks the seal / or whatever has been used to hold the projectile in place making it easier to pull. I did around 1000 rounds of 7.62x39 FMJ and reseated cheap Soft points on chinese mil surp. Worked a treat. Was a toungh pull to getthe projectile out initially but once I started to pus them in first they were much easier. I almost suspect there was adhesive of some sort involved....

Originally Posted by timattalon

Depending on the ammo you are pulling, one trick I learnt with the cam lock pullers is if you run the bullets through a seating die set to seat the bullet a little deeper than it is to start with, it breaks the seal / or whatever has been used to hold the projectile in place making it easier to pull. I did around 1000 rounds of 7.62x39 FMJ and reseated cheap Soft points on chinese mil surp. Worked a treat. Was a toungh pull to getthe projectile out initially but once I started to pus them in first they were much easier. I almost suspect there was adhesive of some sort involved....

@timattalon

Similarly for mil surp primers. It's for water proofing, not for adhesive purposes, though it does stick. Some use some lacquer, especially for primers, which must be what you find in the chinese stuff at the front end too. Others like HXP .303 got seated with something tarry.

Originally Posted by Cordite

@timattalon

Similarly for mil surp primers. It's for water proofing, not for adhesive purposes, though it does stick. Some use some lacquer, especially for primers, which must be what you find in the chinese stuff at the front end too. Others like HXP .303 got seated with something tarry.

Anyway, @timattalon, what did you do with all those 7.62 FMJ bullets. Think they'd shoot nice out of my whippy barrel SMLE?

Originally Posted by timattalon

Depending on the ammo you are pulling, one trick I learnt with the cam lock pullers is if you run the bullets through a seating die set to seat the bullet a little deeper than it is to start with, it breaks the seal / or whatever has been used to hold the projectile in place making it easier to pull. I did around 1000 rounds of 7.62x39 FMJ and reseated cheap Soft points on chinese mil surp. Worked a treat. Was a toungh pull to getthe projectile out initially but once I started to pus them in first they were much easier. I almost suspect there was adhesive of some sort involved....

I get that there may be laquer involed, but wonder if seating the projies slightly deeper disturbs the crimp enough to make pulling them easy.

Originally Posted by timattalon

Depending on the ammo you are pulling, one trick I learnt with the cam lock pullers is if you run the bullets through a seating die set to seat the bullet a little deeper than it is to start with, it breaks the seal / or whatever has been used to hold the projectile in place making it easier to pull. I did around 1000 rounds of 7.62x39 FMJ and reseated cheap Soft points on chinese mil surp. Worked a treat. Was a toungh pull to getthe projectile out initially but once I started to pus them in first they were much easier. I almost suspect there was adhesive of some sort involved....

I have a modest stock of Tula SP that won't chamber in my SKS without slicing off a chunk of lead, making their accuracy pretty dire.

So I was wondering about pulling them and seating a 123 gn ballistic tip of some sort instead. I take it you pulled your FMJ's from steel cases. Did you crimp them afterwards,and if so, how did it go?

Originally Posted by Cordite

Anyway, @timattalon, what did you do with all those 7.62 FMJ bullets. Think they'd shoot nice out of my whippy barrel SMLE?

@Cordite I sold them to someone who was reloading a 303 with light "zingy" loads where I was using them in a bolt action (or a few to be precise) It was a while ago now though....before I was a forum member at least.