in a method for operating an indirect extrusion press , wherein the indirect extrusion press includes an indirect punch having a tool head that can be accommodated on the indirect punch , a closure piece , and a longitudinally movable block holder having a material block accommodation for accommodating a material block , after pressing a material block and forming a shell in a shell chamber , a tool head to be replaced is pushed out of the block holder by a tool head to be inserted , so that very operationally reliable removal of a shell formed during one or more pressing procedures is possible . for this purpose , an indirect extrusion press can have a maximal distance between a closure piece and an indirect punch that corresponds at least to the sum of the expanses of the tool head and of the block holder in the movement direction .