Pulling Bullets

Guy Miner

Guy Miner

Master Loader
Apr 6, 2006
17,489
4,653
Was busy for a bit this morning pulling bullets from old 7mm Rem Mag ammo that won't fit my current rifle. I've been using the RCBS collet style bullet puller. It's easy to use, quiet and effective. No marred bullets today!

Some of this ammo was loaded nearly 20 years ago, other only about 10 years ago before I sold my last 7mm Rem Mag rifle.

One disconcerting thing I discovered, the ammo I loaded in 2000 used H870 powder which is a spherical powder. It was an excellent choice I thought then. Sent the 175 Nosler Partition to 2930 fps with good accuracy. The bullets pulled easily, however... Some powder kernels stuck to the bottom of the bullet, and most of the rest had compressed into a pretty solid lump inside the brass case! I used a small screwdriver to break up the "lump" and then poured it out. I'm not trying to save powder, though some ammo I'd loaded with H4831 and Reloader 22, and both of those poured right out, no problem.

This morning I recovered:

49, 175 gr Sierra SPBT Gamekings
19, 175 gr Nosler Partitions
20, 160 gr Nosler Partitions
05, 160 gr Sierra SPBT Gamekings
08, 150 gr Barnes TSX

I'll try to size down the brass enough to fit the new rifle, but I'm not sure that's going to work. We will see. At least I've got the bullets!

This box of 19 brought back good memories of the elk hunt, back in 2000, in the Wind River Mountains. The missing cartridge was expended on a bull elk.
uyd8ZUFh.jpg


Some H870 stuck to the base of a Sierra 175! Good grief. I wonder if these would have been safe to shoot?
5688Rsdh.jpg


And as a result, I've got quite a few "new" old 7mm bullets. All of useful types & weights. Cool.
rWnijpCh.jpg


Every now and again, a bullet puller comes in handy.

Regards, Guy
 
I’ve seen it stick to the bullet base myself a bit. I’ve still got some old loads with H870 and 140 Partitions that we’re real good for me back when I was 16-17. Don’t have the 7 Rem anymore.

Looks like you have a good pile of bullets though Guy. Should be enough to give you some decent range time.

I’ve heard those big 175 Sierras were danged good bullets. Looking forward to you shooting the big 7 more.
 
I used H870 in a 25-06 several years ago and it grouped well with 115 Nosler PT. Guy if it had been me I'd have touched one off just for old time sake, lol. Dan.
 
wvbuckbuster":2vznrh0t said:
I used H870 in a 25-06 several years ago and it grouped well with 115 Nosler PT. Guy if it had been me I'd have touched one off just for old time sake, lol. Dan.
Click to expand...

I guess that I didn't explain. I pulled the bullets simply because the old ammo won't fit in the new rifle's chamber... Though the old rifle and the new were built about the same time.

If the old ammo would have fit, I'd have tried it. Ruger's Number One is supposed to be one of the strongest actions available. And that old ammo worked fine from a Remington 700, another strong action.

Ya, if it would have fit, I'd have tried it, but it didn't even chamber. So... I'll build more 7mm Rem Mag ammo. Factory ammo fits fine, and I've built some ammo with virgin brass that works fine. Not sure if I'll be able to get the old brass squeezed down enough to fit the "new" 7mm RM chamber. I've worked with this problem before, with 308 Winchester ammo, when I installed a new barrel on my old match rifle.

Guy
 
I had the same issue with 2 7mm RM’s. Rounds sized with Lee dies would chamber in one but not the other. Bought a set of Redding full length dies and problem solved. Now my loads will chamber in both rifles, and shoulder set back seems more precise with the Redding dies.
 
Any of you guys ever use a F/L bushing die with the bushing removed or a body only die (Redding makes them ) to bump back the shoulder on a loaded round? I and many of my friends have. Just need to wipe external lube off well.

It works really slick as long as you have loaded ammo that wasn't on the ragged edge of pressure for the previous rifle.
 
I found some old 7mm mag loaded rounds the other week while cleaning up my loading room. They were left over from when I FOOLISHLY went through my bigger is better phase deer hunting YEARS AGO. I had been using a 30-06 with the brand new on the market Nosler Ballistic Tip 150 gr. I was in east NC at the time and hunting over bean fields, long power line cuts etc. I would heart/lung shoot a deer and more than not they would run off a good ways and leave little to no blood trail. Bullet blew up with no exit. Times were hard and money was tight at this time so just going out and getting another brand/style bullet was not easily in the cards. My hunting buddy got tired of helping me crawl around in the jungle and swamp trying find the deer I shot and gave me a box or Sierra 150 gr Game Kings and the running off after the shot dropped considerably and if they did a blind man could follow the blood trail and they did not go far. Turned out that, I under, Nosler had to change those first BTs because they were too expansive. They are great bullets these days. After a few years of using the 30-06 times got better and the cash flow was there and I just HAD TO HAVE a 7mm Mag because "BIGGER IS BETTER". Rifle had some teething problems with accuracy until I found that I needed to use cases that were previously fired and then just part sized, "neck sized" with a full length die. This rifle turned into a bug hole shooter with about anything you wanted to shoot. First deer I killed with it was in a power line cut and the only shot I had was off hand and the buck was broadside at exactly 300 of my long legged 6'2" tall paces. The rifle was zeroed dead on at 300 yards with 139 gr BT Hornady Interlocks.
I have killed hundreds of deer in my life but this has to go down as one of the best shots I ever made. I nailed this buck with a perfect shoulder shot. I expected to see him laid out on the ground but instead he just took off into the woods. Luckily he ran down a path that was easy to get through the thick cut over type area because there was NO BLOOD TRAIL,(no bullet exit) and I found him a little over 100 yards away. That started my head scratching and education that for certain game bigger is not always better. About this time I got into crop damage control with my buddy and we were killing a bunch of deer. I got to experiment with many different bullets that all shot lights out in this rifle but unless you hit CNS 90% of the time they were going to run off a good ways which was into jungle so thick with green briar and mess you could not see 2 ft or into swamp. Most of our hunting was in the evening a couple of hours before dark and recovery of deer was usually in the dark. I finally decided I could not carry enough flashlight batteries to hunt with that 7 Mag any more. I finally listened to my hunting buddy who had been ridding me hard over that "running rifle" he called it and traded it for a 25-06 Rem. that my buddy had been trying to get me to get for years. Turned out he was correct. You set your scope how you want, put the cross hair on the deer and squeeze the trigger and 99% of the time you find them laying where they were standing. Now if I was after really big deer or elk the 7 mag would be different but with the under 200ish pound deer I was shooting it is too much gun in my experience. Different strokes for different folks.
 
Joec7651":2hpxbkjv said:
I had the same issue with 2 7mm RM’s. Rounds sized with Lee dies would chamber in one but not the other. Bought a set of Redding full length dies and problem solved. Now my loads will chamber in both rifles, and shoulder set back seems more precise with the Redding dies.
Click to expand...
Turns out the rifle I mentioned here has excess headspace. The bolt closes on a Forster NoGo gauge. TC is replacing the rifle without fuss. I hope the replacement shoots as well as the first one. I checked the headspace because the brass from this rifle wouldn’t chamber in my Remington even after full length sizing with Lee dies. Both 7mm RM obviously. If I sized with my Redding dies the rounds chamber in both rifles. Shot well but chamber dimensions were out of spec. Excess headspace and was reamed too large just above the belt.
 
Interesting. I too hope that your new rifle shoots as well as the old. Maybe it will shoot even better?

Guy
 
1Shot":2oie7wyn said:
I found some old 7mm mag loaded rounds the other week while cleaning up my loading room. They were left over from when I FOOLISHLY went through my bigger is better phase deer hunting YEARS AGO. I had been using a 30-06 with the brand new on the market Nosler Ballistic Tip 150 gr. I was in east NC at the time and hunting over bean fields, long power line cuts etc. I would heart/lung shoot a deer and more than not they would run off a good ways and leave little to no blood trail. Bullet blew up with no exit. Times were hard and money was tight at this time so just going out and getting another brand/style bullet was not easily in the cards. My hunting buddy got tired of helping me crawl around in the jungle and swamp trying find the deer I shot and gave me a box or Sierra 150 gr Game Kings and the running off after the shot dropped considerably and if they did a blind man could follow the blood trail and they did not go far. Turned out that, I under, Nosler had to change those first BTs because they were too expansive. They are great bullets these days. After a few years of using the 30-06 times got better and the cash flow was there and I just HAD TO HAVE a 7mm Mag because "BIGGER IS BETTER". Rifle had some teething problems with accuracy until I found that I needed to use cases that were previously fired and then just part sized, "neck sized" with a full length die. This rifle turned into a bug hole shooter with about anything you wanted to shoot. First deer I killed with it was in a power line cut and the only shot I had was off hand and the buck was broadside at exactly 300 of my long legged 6'2" tall paces. The rifle was zeroed dead on at 300 yards with 139 gr BT Hornady Interlocks.
I have killed hundreds of deer in my life but this has to go down as one of the best shots I ever made. I nailed this buck with a perfect shoulder shot. I expected to see him laid out on the ground but instead he just took off into the woods. Luckily he ran down a path that was easy to get through the thick cut over type area because there was NO BLOOD TRAIL,(no bullet exit) and I found him a little over 100 yards away. That started my head scratching and education that for certain game bigger is not always better. About this time I got into crop damage control with my buddy and we were killing a bunch of deer. I got to experiment with many different bullets that all shot lights out in this rifle but unless you hit CNS 90% of the time they were going to run off a good ways which was into jungle so thick with green briar and mess you could not see 2 ft or into swamp. Most of our hunting was in the evening a couple of hours before dark and recovery of deer was usually in the dark. I finally decided I could not carry enough flashlight batteries to hunt with that 7 Mag any more. I finally listened to my hunting buddy who had been ridding me hard over that "running rifle" he called it and traded it for a 25-06 Rem. that my buddy had been trying to get me to get for years. Turned out he was correct. You set your scope how you want, put the cross hair on the deer and squeeze the trigger and 99% of the time you find them laying where they were standing. Now if I was after really big deer or elk the 7 mag would be different but with the under 200ish pound deer I was shooting it is too much gun in my experience. Different strokes for different folks.
Click to expand...

Interesting. My uncle told me a similar story. He started with an old Remington 721 in 270. He shot crop damage as well and dumped deer with factory 130 grain ammo with ease across potato fields like child’s play. He too stepped up to a 7mm Remington Mag thinking it would drop deer further out and faster. Didn’t work out that way and he had deer start to run off on him. He sold the 7 mag and bought a new M700 in 270 and went back to DRT kills. I’m sure the ammo he bought for the 7 mag was a stouter bullet probably intended for elk but, all the same you don’t need a cannon to kill deer. And I’ve made the same mistake thinking I’d gain something by running a 300 win mag. All I did was burn more powder and spent more on ammunition. Those cartridges were designed with the intent of knocking over bigger critters than whitetail deer and loaded for such with stouter bullets.
 
H870 I still have a little of that.

I use the RCBS also.
 
Guy,
Having recently done a fair amount of demilling ammo myself; I'd have to agree with you on the RCBS collet puller. It does a nice job. When I have removed the bullet, I take the case out of the press, put my finger over the mouth, tap it twice on the bench and the powder almost always pours out of the case easily.

Scott
 
I just ran into this problem of chamber size on a new rifle. Got a 308 Kimber and found most cartridges on hand won't fit. A few cast bullets loads did, probably cause repeated firing of light loads shrunk the brass some. But even after full sizing 95% won't chamber. I am using RCBS dies. A new piece of brass will chamber.

Is there such a thing as small base dies for 308 and would that help. I have several hundred pieces of brass.

I am using the old Pacific Collet die to pull bullets, which works great on all but cast bullets.
 
Oh ya, I haven't looked in a while, but the 308 likely has small base dies available because so many semi-auto 308's were and are used in competition.

Guy
 
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