Very interesting article as some European brass are very high quality. I have always been interested in reloading Berdan cases but my understanding was that the primer pocket was a different size and therefore not compatible with boxer primers. How about that!
There is another way of decapping Berdan primers by making a tool that is not too hard to make. Berdan primers are hard to find but are available if you are lucky. https://www.canadaammo.com/product/detail/box-of-1000-dominion-arms-non-corrosive-boxer-berdan-large-rifle-primers/
RCBS makes a tool to remove the primers and I think Lee does too. Both of which are a pain in the ass. I did see a tool that was home made that fit the bottleneck of a 308 case and he had drilled to small holes in the end of the hard steel rod which lined up with the twin holes of the Berdan primer. Decapping pins were inserted into the holes and secured by solder or brazing. He would drop it in the top of the case and turn the tool until it dropped into the twin primer holes in the case and then hit with a small hammer. Of course the case was in a shell holder on the press. He could do a case about every 10 seconds pretty easy. He did not like the hydraulic method and came up with this tool and it worked great.
Some berdan primers are the same size as boxers, but there are some larger sized - particularly in military surplus. There are videos on you tube that show how to fit a bushing that is made from common copper tubing. It's a fair amount of work, but good to know it can be done if necessary.
2 comments:
Very interesting article as some European brass are very high quality. I have always been interested in reloading Berdan cases but my understanding was that the primer pocket was a different size and therefore not compatible with boxer primers. How about that!
There is another way of decapping Berdan primers by making a tool that is not too hard to make. Berdan primers are hard to find but are available if you are lucky.
https://www.canadaammo.com/product/detail/box-of-1000-dominion-arms-non-corrosive-boxer-berdan-large-rifle-primers/
RCBS makes a tool to remove the primers and I think Lee does too. Both of which are a pain in the ass. I did see a tool that was home made that fit the bottleneck of a 308 case and he had drilled to small holes in the end of the hard steel rod which lined up with the twin holes of the Berdan primer. Decapping pins were inserted into the holes and secured by solder or brazing. He would drop it in the top of the case and turn the tool until it dropped into the twin primer holes in the case and then hit with a small hammer. Of course the case was in a shell holder on the press. He could do a case about every 10 seconds pretty easy. He did not like the hydraulic method and came up with this tool and it worked great.
Some berdan primers are the same size as boxers, but there are some larger sized - particularly in military surplus. There are videos on you tube that show how to fit a bushing that is made from common copper tubing. It's a fair amount of work, but good to know it can be done if necessary.
Merle
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