[RoxboroRedneck]

What does that mean, and how does it affect the performance of the round?
Also how is it different from boxer primers?:confused:

[Mr White]

A boxer primer has the anvil built into the primer and has one flash hole, right in the center. On a Berdan primed round, the anvil is part of the case and there are 2 flash holes, side by side.

Berdan primers are not reloadable using standard dies. The primers are harder to remove, they are more expensive and harder to find and are more difficult to seat.

Berdan primers were invented by an American and are used mostly in European and Eastern Bloc ammo. Boxer primers were invented by an Englishman and are used in all American and NATO ammo.

Not sure how either effects performance.

[RoxboroRedneck]

Thanks for the explination in the difference, but i would still like to know if there is any difference in performance between the two if anyone out there knows

[win308]

The only 2 ammo performance issues I am aware of are speed and accuracy. Berdan or Boxer are identical in that regard.

Because Boxer is easier to reload, more experimentation to find an accurate load takes place with Boxer.

Lastly, Bench rest shooters use, and win matches with, Boxer primers....as do Highpower, PPC, skeet, and every other type of shooter out there.

[RoxboroRedneck]

Alright, I was just wanting to make sure since i have aquired a couple hundred rounds of it and wanted to know if it was inaccurate or if it was harder on the rifle or whatever. Thanks guys RR

[Mr White]

Thinking about it, I don't think that Berdan primers are inherently less accurate than Boxers. I say this because I have several hundred rounds of Danish 30/06, some of hte best surplus '06 ever made and it is Berdan Primed. Also, Swiss GP-11 ammo is widely known as the best military surplus ammo, hands down. It is considered to be match grade ammo, and it is Berdan primed also.

OTOH, all of the cheap, crappy combloc surplus ammo is Berdan primed. I think the quality of the ammo is more closely related to the powder charge and the bullet rather than the primer.

[cracked butt]

I think the berdan primers are a bit more reliable or are a bit better at igniting the powder charge.
They aren't hard to reload, run the case into a sizing die with the expander ball removed, fill the case with soapy water, then rerun the case up your sizing die with the expander ball set as low as you can get it. the primer will pop right out.

Finding Berdan primers and paying hazmat for shipping if you do find them make it not worthwhile reloading them unless you are reloading for a cartridge where the brass is impossible or prohibitively expensive to replace.

[heviarti]

ok, you got my attention, and i have to drop a ***. how do you expect to deprime a berdan primed case with a boxer die, even with the ball set low? I had some berdan '06 I got mixed in with my LC69. I broke my depriming pin into three pieces. the only ways I know to deprime berdan are hydraulically, pluck it out from the back (good chance of destroying the brass) or with a forked pin and base. Drilling a boxer size hole in the case doesn't work either, because you will drill the anvil out of the case. Berdan primers are larger than boxer primers, and they are a pain in the butt to find. Old Western Scrounger had some at one point, but I don't know if they still do. I heard drom a friend who is thinking of reloading some berdan cases about OWS. He said most places are out of stock right now. He's loading (or going to try to load) .308. I just gave 140 rounds of Turkish 8mm brass from 1942 to a friend to recycle because I sure don't want to load Berdan. A british fellow told a friend reloading berdan is *miserable*.

[Mr White]

I think cracked butt's method uses water pressure to push out the primer. With the neck sized down, the expander ball acts as a piston.

I've seen posted somewhere plans for a berdan decapper that works on the same principle of fluid pressure.

[hagar]

Just get an RCBS decapper for about $45, it hooks into the primer and pops it out. Check EBay. Forget about the soapy water make a mess thing. Most berdan primed cases are not crimped, at least the 30/06 Danish cases are not. It primes just fine with no extra pressure using a Lee hand primer tool. I bought 2000 large rifle berdan primers on gunbroker for $56 shipped.

[donttellthewife]

Ok, everyone thought that I was crazy to try it but it has worked fairly well so far, reloading the berdan cases that is.
Finding and purchasing the primers,
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=65556872
Finding and purchasing the RCBS berdan decapper
http://www.rcbs.com/default.asp?menu=1&s1=4&s2=3&s3=35
That's the easy part.
Learning to use your decapper takes soom time and destroyed cases, even in the best of times your going to lose about 20% of the cases from ruining the anvil in the primer pocket
Polish them now, clean the primer pocket out and remove any crimp.
Lube and size them without the decapper pin in the die.
The hard part is priming them, they are .217" in diameter, a tad larger than boxer primers. I alterd a RCBS primer device on a old press to accept the larger size, and made a new primer feed tube.
Finsh loading with a powder load for a magnum primer and your off to the range
I've done this with spent cases of 7.62x51 surplus ammo and am planing to do the 7.5x55 swiss as well.

Oh ya, to answer the original question, I don't believe the berdan primer vs boxer primer has much effect one way or another on perfomance, the other components would matter more. Be aware that most surplus berdan primed ammo is corrosive newer stuff is not, but I am not sure if even the supliers know for sure unless they test it. That's not a problem if you clean your rifle right after shooting.

Hope I've been of some help