I have some 7 mm 08 hand loads that I decided to junk. They were recently loaded so I have separated the bullets and powder using an inertia bullet puller. Are the primers going to be damaged goods or will I be able to simply recharge the case and load another bullet? I didn't know if the pounding that removes the bullet would damage the primer in some way. Thanks for your help.

The primers will not be damaged.

rushisright--I have both inertia puller and collet puller(RCBS). If I am pulling a cast bullet, I remove the die from my press, run the bullet through the opening and clamp onto it with visegrips, raise handle and bullet is removed, but damaged. Big deal, the cast bullet is remelted. On jacketed bullets, there is no comparison of using the inertia vs collet, the collet is the way to go. True, you need a collet for the various size bullets, but they aren't expensive. The inertia works on wadcutters that don't protrude enough to clamp on, but in my books that's the ONLY use of an inertia puller. Never have damaged a primer using any method.

You can just recharge and seat a new bullet.

Decapping the primer can be dangerous and must be done very very carefully. If you do it very slowly it would not give any problems. Try removing the decapped primer after each decapping. The reason for this is that there was a guy who had decapped several primers. Then there was one which exploded and it ignited the rest. The guy was fatally wounded. The best would be to keep the primers in the cases and re-use them.

quote:

On jacketed bullets, there is no comparison of using the inertia vs collet, the collet is the way to go.

+1


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Thanks for the replies. I had planned on recharging and seating another bullet. I figured the primers would be fine but wanted to be sure since this was the first time I've ever removed any bullets this way. It took me a while but I got the hang of using the inertia puller. I ended up wearing ear plugs if you can believe it as this was one noisy operation that finally ended up outside to keep my wife happy. Heck it was her bullets that I was working on!

Before you re-charge the cases and seat another bullet, I would recommend taking the decapping stem from your sizer die and running the cases at least most of the way into the die. Brass will stretch, and having a bullet seated is going to loosen the neck tension. Doing as I suggest will put neck tension back where it should be...

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Originally posted by Doubless:
Before you re-charge the cases and seat another bullet, I would recommend taking the decapping stem from your sizer die and running the cases at least most of the way into the die. Brass will stretch, and having a bullet seated is going to loosen the neck tension. Doing as I suggest will put neck tension back where it should be...

+1, I always do this.

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Originally posted by eagle27:

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
Before you re-charge the cases and seat another bullet, I would recommend taking the decapping stem from your sizer die and running the cases at least most of the way into the die. Brass will stretch, and having a bullet seated is going to loosen the neck tension. Doing as I suggest will put neck tension back where it should be...

+1, I always do this.

+2

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
Before you re-charge the cases and seat another bullet, I would recommend taking the decapping stem from your sizer die and running the cases at least most of the way into the die. Brass will stretch, and having a bullet seated is going to loosen the neck tension. Doing as I suggest will put neck tension back where it should be...

Ok, I'll admit I didn't consider that but then again this is my first rodeo at bullet pulling. I assume I have to at least lube the top half of the case "carefully" as to avoid it getting stuck and avoid touching the primer? This is probably a dumb question but by not doing this is it a safety issue or accuracy issue or both? Thanks for the advice.

quote:

Originally posted by rushisright:

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
Before you re-charge the cases and seat another bullet, I would recommend taking the decapping stem from your sizer die and running the cases at least most of the way into the die. Brass will stretch, and having a bullet seated is going to loosen the neck tension. Doing as I suggest will put neck tension back where it should be...

Ok, I'll admit I didn't consider that but then again this is my first rodeo at bullet pulling. I assume I have to at least lube the top half of the case "carefully" as to avoid it getting stuck and avoid touching the primer? This is probably a dumb question but by not doing this is it a safety issue or accuracy issue or both? Thanks for the advice.

Some times it depends on your cases as to what the neck tension is like after you have pulled the bullets. Many loaders have pulled military hardball from cartridges and then just replaced with a soft point bullet without doing anything else. If the neck tension feels okay when seating another bullet without resizing i.e. you can't turn the bullet or push in into the case neck by hand, then I would be happy with that and would not bother resizing.

Mostly for hunting ammo if I have pulled bullets I will empty the cases, remove the deprimer pin from the stem, lube the cases as normal (I use Imperial Wax rubbed on between finger and thumb and Imperial Dry lube which is just very fine graphite powder brushed inside the neck) then completely resize the whole case as usual. As the case has been sized it will not shorten the case life but will at least resize the neck and give the normal neck tension before seating new bullets.

Thanks. That clears it up for me.