The actual technique is accomplished by holding the shell between the thumb and side of the second knuckle of one hand and griping the pliers with the other.  The plier hand then bends the bullet so that the knuckles of both hands come together as the bullet, now severely bent, exits the shell casing.

I'm sure I did some grunting and groaning in the beginning, but once I worked out my technique, it was quite effective.

I only did this with long rifles.  I'm not certain that it would work with shorts.  I never shot longs, so I can't address that at all.

Bill



>>> Bob Skiles <[log in to unmask]> 2/11/2009 3:44 pm >>>
Bill,

I dunno what brand of .22-cal shells you were using, but the slugs were 
quite difficult to remove from the .22-cal shorts available to me/us in 
northeastern Texas in the 1950s (it seems they were made by Stevens, but I 
don't really remember the mfr's name). It would have been impossible for a 
young boy (and likely a strong adult man) to wrench the bullets out of those 
cartridges by holding the casing with one hand and using pliers with the 
other. I have accomplished that feat with much wiggling and bending 
back-and-forth ... but this was strenuous work that hurts the fingertips 
(it's was somewhat easier to accomplish with longs/long-rifle ammo, as they 
are much longer than the shorts and provide a better grip ... and also they 
work more advantageously as a lever since they are longer). Using a 
knife-tip as a punch to make that judicious puncture (right at the base of 
the slug) and then 'levering' the knife to push the bullet forward (although 
you could only nudge it forward a tiny amount, this was enough to flare the 
crimp and loosen the slug enough that it could usually then be pulled out 
with the fingers ... this method was quite effortless and quick. If you had 
a nice crack to work with, you could even gain the "efficiencies of the 
assembly line" by lining up several cartridges end-to-end.

Whenever using the "pliers method," some method/device was necessary to 
firmly hold the rim of the casing (no hand would suffice) to pull the 
bullets out cleanly (without wiggling it back-and-forth and thereby 
distorting/deforming both the slug and the casing). We used a plain claw 
hammer with the handle fixed firmly in a bench vise, and the claws pointed 
skyward. You would grab a cartridge with your pliers, hook the rim behind 
the claws, and "tug" mightily. On a rare occasion (when you jerked roughly 
rather than tugging smoothly), the cartridge would discharge (because the 
detonating material is in the rim, and pinching or slamming/bending the rim 
in any way, as when it was yanked against the hammer's claws, would set it 
off).

It was not this occasional discharge that made me eschew the pliers method 
in favor of the time-honored extraction method we had been taught by our 
peers (punching with a knife with the cartridge lodged in a porch crack) ... 
after all, any explosion thrilled a boy of our peer group ... even the ones 
that were a little bit dangerous and hurt/stung a little ...and a 
richocheting shell casing fortuitously never hit me in the eye ...and they 
didn't even sting too bad after having invariably richocheted off something 
first and spending all their momentum ... you would occasionally get a 
little flash-burn on the back of your fingers ... but it was just quicker 
and more efficient to do it the "old way."


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lockhart, Bill" <[log in to unmask]>

> These .22 bullets were made from relatively soft lead, and pulling the 
> bullet from the cartridge case was a very simple operation with a pair of 
> pliers, holding the shell end between the thumb and index finger.  There 
> was no danger of an accidental discharge because the fingers were simply 
> not hard enough to cause one.  The bullet popped out quite easily.