[taprackbang]

I want to know if any of you guys could chime in with your
advice on how to do this.

I know that RCBS makes a berdan decapper and there is also a hydrostatic
method.
Is there another method that is not well known?

[bobotech]

Nope, those are the 2 main methods of decapping. Either hydrostatic or using a claw/punch/something to pierce the primer and pull it out at an angle.

I'm planning on converting my GP11 Swiss 7.5x55 ammo to boxer eventually.

[jpwilly]

As for decapping the two methods you describe are it I'm pretty sure. Below is a link with pictures on converting Berdan brass to Boxer. I wouldn't bother with any of it unless you cannot find Boxer brass...


http://users.ameritech.net/mchandler/primer.html

[evan price]

I do it by using an intermediary step:

1. Collect Berdan brass.
2. Sell to smelter.
3. Buy Boxer brass.

[loadedround]

There is no EASY or practical way to convert berdan brass to boxer brass unless you want to invest in a small machine shop. Evan Price has the right idea. :)

[Jim Watson]

Back before the shooting sports were quite so repressed in England, there were a couple of domestic reloading equipment makers. They had some interesting designs for Berdan decappers that have since dropped out of sight because there is not enough business at home and we can't get the primers to replace the ones their gadgets remove.

There was the Hydro-Punch which was hydraulic with less splash. It put a nozzle firmly against the flash holes inside the case. Whacking a plunger with a mallet opened a little valve and let water under pressure enter the flashholes and push out the primer into a hole in the support base. Claimed to use only "two or three drops" per case.

There was a pin-type decapper. It looked like the usual Boxer decapping rod except that it had two small pins and came with a little spanner to adjust their spacing to match the flash holes in the cases of interest. Screw it loosely into a die body and run a case up slowly, wiggling the rod by hand and feeling for the pins to enter the flash holes. Then lean on the handle to punch the primer out normally.

The wildest was the Power Punch. It also put a nozzle against the flash holes inside the case, only this nozzle held a fresh primer. I recall it used Boxer primers because even then they were cheaper and more commonly available. Rap the firing pin with a mallet, fire the primer, and blow the old Berdan primer right out. The case was set in a steel base to contain the spent primer, of course. So every shot cost you two primers, one to blow out the used one, and one to reprime. Worth it in a Safari caliber, I would say.

[ranger335v]

"Turning Berdan 308 brass into Boxer brass "...is more trouble and slow than it's worth.

[Sunray]

Converting berdan to boxer doesn't work well. If you try to drill the brass, the flash holes will be too big. There are very few cases you can't get with boxer priming these days.
Make some drawer pulls and pitch the rest. Trying to reload berdan primed brass is more trouble than it's worth even if you could get the right diameter primers.

[rondog]

You think Boxer primers are hard to find.....

[dubbleA]

Another vote for "it's more trouble than it's worth" especially in the very common 308 Win.

[taprackbang]

Thanks all.
I guess Berdan is a 'curse.'

[ants]

I don't bother with Berdan, but if someone wants to take a challenge in the name of his interesting hobby, more power to him. We should encourage him rather than discourage him.

As a teenager I reloaded some 9mm Steyr by drilling the pocket to accept large pistol boxer primers rather than small Berdan (the Berdan pockets were too large for SP boxer primers). I selected a numbered drill of the proper size to drill out the pocket, then used a crimped primer pocket reamer to dress the mouth of the pocket. A Win LP primer with the starting load of Unique under a 115g fmj worked great. But I quickly learned that you have to center the boxer pocket perfectly, or the pistol firing pin will miss the LP anvil and fail to ignite the priming compound. It's possible to convert Berdan successfully, but harder than you would think.

[rondog]

Bah, sounds like an exercise in turd polishing.

[shinz]

Trying to reload berdan primed brass is more trouble than it's worth even if you could get the right diameter primers.

Not necessarily so, maybe Yes for 308W/7.62Nato brass even though I've done it, cause I can :p, but definitely not so in the case of the 303 Brass I reload for, it takes very little more time to deprime them than it does to run the same no. of cases thru a depriming die, & from then on it is no more hassle than reloading with boxer primers. This is using 1/4" primers of which I have a thousand & berdan primed 303 brass of decent quality is often available. I use a pick to dig the primers out made from a long concrete nail. I have used the same method to decap the smaller primers used in 7.62 nato cases with only a little more hassle & was able to use it to dig out the primer in a berdam primed 223 case just as easily. Each to their own but if you hate the idea of chucking away the brass & can get the primers then why not? Whatever floats yer boat.:D
Steve

[redactor]

I wonder if you could get a nipple that was properly threaded, could you unscrew the expander rod from your sizing die, and replace it with the nipple connected to an air compressor?

Then you could run the berdan case into your sizing die, it should seal fairly well... Then trigger the air hose to blow out the primer.

You'd obviously need a supply of berdan primers, which can be had occasionally.

[adobewalls]

Ran across this over at the Z-boards...

http://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=46371