How to Pull Bullets The 2 Best Methods

How to Pull Bullets: The 2 Best Methods

 

How to Pull Bullets: The 2 Best Methods
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Some Shooters like to reload, so do many preparing for TEOTWAWKI or WROL, it’s also a skill for those like to DIY or roll their own.  Many of the types of people that visit my sight reload themselves or are interested in it.  Therefore, I am going to start publishing articles on reloading and reviews on some of the equipment I have.

That being said, I am a relative novice with reloading.  I do hold instructor credentials in this field, but I stick to published loads and am pretty conservative when it comes to reloading as I don’t like unplanned explosions….

Before we do any serious reloading I want to cover one thing very well, you are going to have waste, you’re going to have mistakes, and your going to have to be able to take ammunition apart – mostly to recover components, but also to prevent anyone from attempting to shoot your goofs.  This post will show the two main ways of how to take apart your mistakes – otherwise know as How to Pull Bullets

There are two main ways of pulling bullets from their case, and each has individual’s drawbacks and benefits so you would be wise you invest in equipment to do both.

The cheapest and simplest way to deconstruct ammunition is to use an inertial puller.

Inertial Puller

How to Pull Bullets
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This is basically a plastic hammer with a hollow head.  One end unscrews and the cartridge is placed bullet down inside a special collet and the end screws back on tightening the collet on the head of the cartridge.

When the puller is smacked briskly down on a block of wood the cartridge stops moving, but the law of inertia makes the heavier bullet to want to continue to move.  With enough raps of the hammer the bullet will eventually slide out of the cartridge case and be collected in the hammer head along with any powder that was inside the case.

The collet is made out of three small pieces of metal and a small rubber band, and some reloaders find it to be pain in the neck to use, some resourceful reloader began using shell holders instead of the collets and the trend caught on UNTIL a couple shells detonated in the puller.

ANYWAY, this should not turn you away from inertia pullers, just using them incorrectly.

This type of puller costs around $15-$20 and works best with pistol calibers with heavier bullets.  Bullets like .223 or with a heavy crimp may not come out at all, or at least without a lot of effort.  For cartridges of that type you may need a collet puller.

Collet Puller

How to Pull Bullets
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A collet puller screws into your press just like a die, and is used in much the same way.

The round is placed in the ram’s shell holder and then raised into the collet die.  The collet is then tightened around the bullet and the ram is lowered.  This separates the case from the bullet.

You get much more mechanical leverage this way.  It works on rounds that cannot be broken down with the inertial puller.  The powder also stays in the casing, unlike in the inertial puller.  This lets you recover it more easily.  If your doing a lot of deconstruction, this method is faster than the inertial puller.  You must be careful or you can tighten the collet too tightly on the round.  This leaves either “pull marks” or is may change the size or shape of the bullet.

A collet puller starts around $15.00.  Unfortunately, you will have to buy a collet for each diameter of round want to pull.  A collet costs around $10.00.

Personally I like my inertial puller the best when I am only doing one or two rounds.  It is fast and not a hassle to set up.  However, when I have a lot of rounds to dismantle, I use the collet puller.

 

How to Build a 12 Volt Chlorine Generator for Water Purification

 

DIY Chlorine Generator for Water Purification
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The way I approach prepping is that I have a list of tiers of preparedness, and I try follow a consistent approach of not jumping tiers for specific sections until all sections on a tier are filled (This is flexible based upon situational factors).

In my Defense tier, I would really like to have .45 Camp Carbine with an integral suppressor and mounted thermal imaging. If I spent my resources on that and only had a CB radio and a 72 hour kit as my only other preps, then I would not be spending my resources wisely.

It is most cost effective to buy a year supply of food using the LDS list before you spend twice as much on a 3 month supply of freeze dried food.

Water Purification is Important

That being said, you might have noticed I am on a water purification kick. Some of that is that I have noticed the amount of water I have been using on livestock and gardening.  Some is that I realize its impossible to store water for an extended period due to space and weight issues.  The third reason is that I ended a preparedness tier with my Calcium hypochlorite prep.  One small purchase game me the ability to disinfect approx 50k gallons of water.  It is easiest to start the next tier on water since that’s what I have been researching lately.

What is a Chlorine Generator

Today’s project is a device used to create a practically inexhaustible supply water purification chemicals.  Basically, it make the same disinfecting solution as the calcium hypochlorite makes. You might ask why I went through the trouble of buying the HTH pool shock if I had planned all along to make a device that does the same thing.  Especially considering the storage considerations of the corrosive chemical. Well, the pool shock is does not need an energy input to work. I cannot break it.  Additionally, I bought a lifetime supply for under $25.00.

The DIY Chlorine Generator for Water Purification is also called a Chlorine Producing Unit (CPU) I am about to show you works very well, but it requires 12 volt electric input, uses expensive and technologically advanced electrodes and cost a little over twice as much to make.

I have found that American missionaries that work in the third world are an excellent supply of information in what some call “appropriate technology” This is people centered, small scale, labor intensive, energy efficient, environmentally sound devices and processed. It’s a lot like “Macgyverisms” from my favorite 80’s TV show. He had advanced knowledge and primitive supplies and was able to cobble together 1900’s level tech with modern scientific principles.

One famous example of this is the CD3WD which is a collection of appropriate tech, Travis Hughley and barrelponics (which I AM going to build one day) and Safe Water International Ministries the developers of the CPU that is the focus of today’s article.

SWIM has developed the CPU to provide a chlorinating solution for water disinfection in third world countries. I would highly recommend you check out their website and consider donating to their mission as they are doing wonderful work.

Comes in a Complete Kit Also

If you want a CPU, but don’t have a DIY gene or interest in building one yourself, SWIM sells complete CPU tool box kit which includes an instruction card, a chlorine test kit, 2 mixing bottles, a salt measuring cup, and a couple of solution droppers. All you need to provide is 12 volts of electricity, salt, and water. A donation of $150 to their ministry would support this kit.

I wanted to turn this into a project so I gave a $50 donation and received the anode and cathode from them. They will email you the plans for free if you contact them on the website, and they have a technology link online with the instruction manual and a basic lesson plan for teaching this to others. I will warn you, the cathode and anodes are the main expense in the CPU, and you may have a hard time finding a supplier. One is a titanium mesh; the other is a mixed metal oxide (ruthenium).

However, I must tell you that their primary mission is to provide these units for missionary work in third world countries, so if demand causes a supply backlog, I would imagine they would fill that need first.

Basically what happens is when you bridge the electrodes with a salt water solution and apply an electrical charge to them you start a chemical reaction called electrolysis. In this particular process the water bubbles and produces a caustic chlorine solution roughly half as strong as laundry bleach. After the 9/11 attacks many municipal water treatment plants converted to this process so that they could remove their one ton chlorine gas tanks from their sites to mitigate their attractiveness as a terrorist target.

Per the SWIM for Him website the directions for use are:

  1. Mix salt & water solution ( approx. ¼ cup salt to 16 oz water)
  2. Connect wires to 12 volt source (negative, or black, to negative; positive, or red, to positive)
  3. Pour the saltwater solution through the CPU into another bottle (observe the bubbling process)
  4. Carefully repeat the pour-through process 5 times.
    1. This is different from a chlorate cell as that the water free flows through the unit which does not allow chlorates or perchlorates to form. This process operates at a different voltage and a much lower temperature.
  5. Unhook the battery wires.
  6. Rinse the CPU by pouring clean water through it.
  7. Add 10 drops of the solution for each gallon of drinking water.
  8. Wait one hour before drinking.

It works with Solar Also

Additionally, if you are using solar power to charge your battery, you will want to recharge it for 3-5 hours after this process to ensure it is fully charged.

You will also need a test kit to ensure you use enough chlorine solution to properly sanitize your water supply.

This was a very simple project and I built the device in under an hour, I have to wait about 24 hours for the sealant to set, and then another 30 minutes in finishing touches. Please watch the video below to see all the steps.

 

Build a Parabolic Solar Heater With an Old TV Dish

How to Build a Parabolic Solar Heater

 

Build a Parabolic Solar Heater With an Old TV Dish
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My last tenants got direct TV without asking me, that’s not so bad, but they set this big metal post in concrete right at the edge of my house. I don’t like it, but I really did not want to grub out this post. Rather than rip it out, I re-purposed it to make a parabolic solar heater

I am a fan of solar energy, especially when its limitations are accounted for. Through research, I have decided that the heating aspects of solar is easier to utilize than converting it to electricity.  Its also much cheaper.

A man that has done quite a bit of work in this area is Dan Rojas of Green Power Science.  He has done quite a few projects that I admire and plan on emulating.  He also sells some supplies for these projects and that where I bought the solar film I used in this project

Re-purposing a Direct TV Dish

What I did was dismantle the Direct TV dish and sand it smooth, I then painted it with black paint (and should have sanded that smooth also).

I cut strips of the mirror film and attached them to the dish.  Its easiest to just cut straight strips and overlap them slightly.  Early cartographers learned that it is impossible to draw a round earth accurately on a flat sheet of paper, its the same with the film and a parabolic dish.  You cannot just slap the film to the dish, it will bubble up and refuse to form to the shape.  Some try to calculate the curve and cut out “pie” slices, but this works best in theory, the math works, but it does not translate well to the real world.  Strips that are allowed to slightly overlap each other works the easiest.

You will find its impossible to separate the thin strip of film from its backing by hand.  Mr. Rojas suggested to use slap a piece of tape to both sides of the film (at the end of the strip, and don’t let your tape strips touch).  When you do this the film and the backer adhere to the tape so when you pull the tape in opposite directions the film will peel away.

Its a lot like Window Tint

Very carefully install the film on your dish, if you have ever installed window tint, its the exact same process.  I started in the center and worked outward, as this was easiest for me.  I imagine it does not make a big difference.  Just try not to overlap the strips too much, don’t allow bubbles to form, and don’t get two worried about the holes for the mounting bracket.

After the strips filled the dish, I took a very sharp razor knife and cut a cross into the area of the mounting bracket holes.  This allows the screws to be inserted back into the dish.  I also trimmed around the edges of the dish.

For some reason (dust and a bad paint job most likely) the film did not want to stick at the edges.  I had planned on running around the center of the dish with tape for decorative purposes, but I ended up doing it to help hold the film down.

Reinstall the Dish and Focus the sun on the Jar

I then reinstalled the dish on the post (don’t just leave it there, the focused sunlight can be dangerous – so don’t leave it unattended for long periods).  Pointed it a the sun, and rigged a empty glass jar at the focal point.

The sunlight then heats whatever is in the jar.  You can use this to cook.  I have seen this on a large scale to boil water, and even make steam.  In California, Rojas’s dish actually burned a wood board.  I was not patient enough for that, but it did heat the jar uncomfortably hot.  (it was about 4pm in the afternoon, and there are a lot of trees in my neighbor’s yard, so that contributed to the heat difference.)

I plan on working with this a little more, and seeing how effective this can be to cook.  Who knows, I may even come up with some recipes.