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Member Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: Michigan

Between setting up different loaders, and trying new loads. I always manage to buckle a few hulls, get some bad crimps, or just a bad load. So, I take these disfunctional loads and throw them in a 5 gal. bucket. Well, I've got about half a bucket. And I'd like to cut open the hulls, and at the very least, salvage the shot. Is there a good way to do this. Can someone post a picture of a homemade cutter maybe. Help me out guys.

Dave,

I have used the hull trimmer sold by Ballistic Products, I know it's not homemade but it works well for that task. I have been cutting up a bunch of 10ga Federals for the tungsten and it's been working fine.

rudyc

All you really need is an old, very sharp plain edged bread knife or carving knife. The long blade helps. Start by laying the shell on the edge of a cutting board and let the rim hang over a tad. Put the back edge of the knife on the spot you want to cut the shell open and begin pulling the knife handle towards you while gently pressing the palm of your other hand on the spine of the blade. Let the shell roll towards you as the blade edge cuts around the hull wall. Just guide the blade so it cuts a good straight ring around the shell as it rolls along the board towards you. If you do it right, the wad will keep the shell halves together so you can unplug each end to dump the powder and shot. A little practice will have you zipping them open easy as pie. the sharper the knife, the better it works. Just go easy so you don't cut the wad in half as well. you'll soon get the right touch to make a perfect cut every time.

I came up with this technique years ago. We once had one of our club members assemble over 400 shells without powder. Yup, you read it right. Laughing

He was a bit tired one evening and just plain forgot to check the hopper of the club's PW press. My little trick helped really shorten the time to open them all up and save the wads, shot, and primers.

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: Michigan

16gg,

With the wife gone for a few days, watching the Grandkids. This would be a great time to try your suggestion, with her bread knife and cutting board.
Because if it works, she'll never know the difference. Wink

Okay, but I also must post a disclaimer involving any zipped off fingers. Just lay off the single malt while you try this trick. Laughing

PS: sharpen the knife very well first before you get all POed 'cause the knife keeps sliding over the shell. Wink

Don't ask me how I know this tiny little detail. 8)It also helps to gently roll the shell back and forth a bit as well to get things started.

Member Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 371 Location: mpls mn

I have gotten away with kitchen shears just start at the edge cut an opening squeez the shot into a breaker, pull out the wad carefully with needle nose pliers, dump the powder into another breaker, punch out the primer for reuse hardly wasted a thing

Guest

I have the hull cutter from BP for several years and IMHO, this is a product that is really worth their weight in gold. The great thing with this product is where it is no fuss with cutting the top part of the shell and you can reuse the shot, wad and powder with minimal spills. When I have several shells that are messed up, I just set them aside and use this hull cutter to take apart the shell. The only problem is you have a hull with a hot primer which I take out to range and shoot them in my double. (I don't want to put the live primers in the trash). It's really a good product.

Terry, why don't you just punch them out and reuse them. I've been doing this for over 30 years without one detonation or one ruined primer either. I've heard the old wive's tale about it not being safe. Hooey. If you think about it, we take a bigger risk ramming them into the hull. However, the primer seating pin rests against the battery cup, not the primer cup inside it. If you use a soft push instead of whacking the depriming pin down, the primer will slide right out without a bit of damage or any danger of detonation. Primers are designed to ignite from the other end. As long as nothing is resting against the primer cup when you deprime the hull, they will not go off.

Neither are they any more likely to detonate when reusing them. the priming seater punch on a press is designed not to impinge against the primer cup. This is done so we do not crush the the priming pellet when seating them. Crushing the pellet with a slow applied force will not ignite the mixture, but will ruin the primer. It takes a short sharp jab on the face of the primer cup to upset the priming pellet enough and in the right way to detonate it. Otherwise, we could not safely prime any hull.

The one time I witnessed a primer going off as it was seated, was because a small piece of loose gravel from an uncleaned out hull got under the primer and on the ram nose. The guy tried to force the reloading arm down sharply and the primer went off. Still, the only damage done was to the guy's skivvies. Laughing

Guest

I do almost all of my home repairs and improvements except for concrete and electrical. I figure in either case, if I screw up it up can cause greater damage than my "repair" or "improvement". I figure that primers are relatively cheap compared to the posibility of them ingniting in my press. I understand that primers work from the outside but I always figure s**t happens and I wouldn't want to have a primer pop on my reloading bench.

Just my own opinion...

I'm with 16gaugeguy, I salvage the primers too. no problem, they seem to come out easier than a spent primer. My oldest reloader is a pre-83, 600 jr. not exactly sure which year I bought it.

I use a utility knife with the blade extended to its shortest length to cut the crimp off reloads when I want to salvage components. It's low cost because almost everybody has a utility knife around the house. It's much safer than a regular knife because there is only a small exposed blade with a large hand-filling handle.

After removing shot, wad and powder I simply punch out the primer for re-use. I've been doing it for 35 years and haven't had one fire yet. Of course, I wear safety glasses and my press has NO POWDER in the bottle.

Member Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 401 Location: Tennessee

I press out the primers on my drill press. I cut the handle off a damaged screwdriver, put the tip-end into the chuck, that leaves a nice square surface to push out the primer. Never had one fire in 30+ years.

Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 35

Hi,
My buddy makes a shell cutter out of walnut and puts a hinged piece with a razor blade mounted in it...works great...I'll try to post a pic.
Terry

Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 35

HI,

insert shell, apply pressure with hinged arm, lining up blade where you want the cut, and turn.
Terry

That is as neat a job as any I've ever seen. I just love good workmanship. It shows here.