I had the same problem. I left the hub puller on for one night and the next afternoon I gave it another hard blow and it came off with that mighty bang - without damage.
BTW I made a short "howto" when I did this job which came in handy when I decided to do something against the whine of the rear axle - which was no success: when the whine was gone the rear axle got alarmingly hot and when it stood cool the whine was there again. I took the axle apart 4 times and then I declared defeat. The axle still whines 60 000 miles on...
