[Fivehead]

I bought some handloaded 17 remington cartridges for components at a gunshop last sat. My intention was to pull the bullets and use the brass and tips. My RCBS inertial puller isn't budging them. Is there another tool or trick to use? I did try seating the bullet a little deeper, but that didn't help. Thanks.

 

[Ackman]

Don't even mess with an inertia puller. Throw that thing away and get a Hornady collet puller, the one with a toggle. You'll never again want to mess with an inertia puller.

 

[Rocky Raab]

Amen to that, ESPECIALLY if you have more than a few bullets to pull.

If you can afford to possibly lose the bullets, you can use the "poor man's bullet puller collet": your press and a pair of pliers. Remove any die from the press. Raise the loaded round up through the top of the press. Grip it with a pair of slip-joint pliers. Lower the ram. The pliers will jam in the die opening, gripping the bullet very tightly. Pop! Bullet pulled.

Very thin-jacketed bullets may or may not be ruined by this method. I use the worst ones as foulers or plinkers. But, surprisingly, most will shoot just fine even with gouges, grooves and dings in the jacket - at less than hyper-speeds, anyway.

 

[T.Zimm]

RCBS collet puller.

It got the highest marks on Midway. I ordered one. I can tell you after pulling a LOT of bullets, it is awesome. Easy to use and versatile. You just order the collets you need by caliber. It works in reverse of seating. Most times you can reuse the bullets as it doesnt mark them. I give it an A+....

 

[Dbingen]

Ditto that. I got my RCBS at a gun show for $5. I see them all of the time for cheap at shows, etc. If you can wait, keep an eye out for them there.

 

[Kyle]

For just a few bullets the inertia puller works great, as long as there is some weight to the bullet. The heavier the bullet, the easier it is.
I almost broke my inertia puller (and shoulder) trying to pull some .17s.
I ended up using a pair of pliers in the press...the bullets were totally unusable when I got them out, some jackets broke and I never got the bullet out.

 

[Ackman]

About collet pullers. My first one was a Forster, which worked. Then it sat unused for years after buying an RCBS, which seemed to work better and over the years pulled many hundreds - literally way over 1,000 - bullets. Then several years ago I bought a Hornady toggle puller, and the vertical motion of the toggle is what makes it work so much better than the others. Now the RCBS sits with the Forster, never to be used again. Maybe one day I'll sell them for $5 apiece at the gunshow.