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January 20, 2023
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If you ever need to pull a bullet from a live .351 Winchester Self Loading round, here’s a helpful hint. The RCBS collet puller does not have a specific collet for this caliber. The seemingly correct one is the “35/38” collet. It isn’t.
From long-ago experiences with RCBS, I foolishly thought I could call and learn whether “35” meant “.350” or “358”. They don’t even answer their telephone. I ordered the 35/38 anyway, hoping for the best.
The next day, as an afterthought, I decided to ask Gemini about it. After cogitating maybe 4 seconds, the answer came back. “Don’t get the 35/38 because they mean .358 and it probably can’t get a good enough grip. If it does, it will probably score the bullet. But RCBS makes a “348” collet that has enough leeway to receive a .351 bullet and it will work just fine.” I’m paraphrasing but that’s what Big Gem advised.
The 348 collet was a little harder to find in stock but Graf had one and I ordered it. It came today, too late to do the job because I had already pulled the bullet with the 35/38 that showed up last Friday. Of course the 35/38 scored the bullet. Fortunately, I was only making a dummy to test the functioning of my Model 07 so it didn’t matter.
So get the 348 collet. And have an extra bowl of Wheaties for breakfast because Western Cartridge crimped those 351 bullets to withstand being slammed into the chamber really hard by the massive breechblock extension of the 07. The bolt is carrying a lot of energy on the return stroke.
Forget trying to use the RCBS inertial puller “hammer”. I have one and all you will do is distort its head. I’ve wondered whether Western applied a sealant to the bullet shank. If so, after maybe 65 years it had plenty of time to cure.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
July 17, 2012
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Great info, thanks for the tip! I have destroyed several of the RCBS inertia pullers already but keep buying them because it saves me an expensive visit to the Therapist each month….
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
January 20, 2023
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There’s something therapeutic about destroying a tool that doesn’t work well. Out of impoverished necessity, I used to buy Harbor Freight power tools and soon discovered the motor windings fried themselves under heavy loads unless the “sealed and permanently lubricated” ball or needle bearings froze first.
After slowly crawling several rungs up from the barrel’s fetid bottom, I finally was able to afford DeWalt and Bosch.
My projects got finished sooner and my wife says my vocabulary cleaned up to the point she could have friends over.
But, somehow, I miss the catharsis of those violent, outrage-filled trips to the dumper.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
July 17, 2012
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Zebulon said
There’s something therapeutic about destroying a tool that doesn’t work well. Out of impoverished necessity, I used to buy Harbor Freight power tools and soon discovered that the motor windings fried themselves under heavy loads unless the “sealed and permanently lubricated” ball or needle bearings froze up first.
I have a different reason for Harbor Freight. Instead of buying another $120 Makita side grinder, I wait for the cheapo 4.5″ grinders to go on sale at Harbor Freight. They used to be $14.99 but now only go on sale for an outrageous $20. I buy 5 of them at a time ($20 less than my Makita) and put different wheels on each of them (cut-off, flap disc coarse, flap disc fine, grinding disk, etc). Saves me from having to stop and change disks during a welding project. And when they die (and they always do), I smile as I drop them in the recycle bin. My rock-solid Makita I save for Sunday use only.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE quality tools, and buy the best when necessary for precision, but I am also lazy (and miserly) at heart when it comes to non-precision work like repairing the cattle gate where some nimrod backed a horse trailer into it. The gate didn’t seem to care that the grinder was made in Taiwan….
And before you call me out on it, I know, I know, now that it has been weld-repaired and repainted, my cattle gate no longer has “collectable”. status…but it still keeps the cows out of the front yard. 
Best Regards,
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
April 15, 2005
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You two are cracking me up
On the topic of pulling bullets from live rounds, I have been using the same Lyman kinetic bullet puller for 45+ years with no issues. I believe that I paid $2.50 for it 
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
January 20, 2023
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The Lyman kinetic puller is, like everything Lyman makes or has made, the handloader’s friend. They make good stuff. My late classmate, loading, hunting and camping partner from 1965 until he died in 2004, was an orange loyalist. He was more an experimenter than I was and took up black powder cartridge shooting early. He was
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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