308 case berdan or boxer primed ?

[kiwi**]

May be somebody can help me to determine if these cases, i think are made in South Africa with the head stamp of B82 7.62 RI MI I want to find out if they are Berdan or Boxer primed.
These are on auction and the guy is not being helpful, I suspect they are Berdan primed if so they are no good to me.
Cheers,

 

[yooper_sjd]

take a scribe or an awl to the primer of a SPENT/SHOt cartridge and pry it on out. one hole center:boxer
two holes:berdan

 

[rcmodel]

I think he said he doesn't have them bought & doesn't want to buy them if they are Berdan.

If he already has them, all he needs to do is look down the hole in the end.
No need to pry the primer out!

rcmodel

 

[Walkalong]

the guy is not being helpful,

I would be hesitant to deal with him then. AC

Someone will be along that knows, I am sure. Lots of serious .308 shooters here.

Welcome to THR

 

[WNTFW]

Kiwi,
If you don't mind me asking are you located in the US? If so you have options.

I can't say for sure. I will tell you I get a lot of range pickup & a lot of it is berdan.

 

[bullseye308]

BRB with an answer..........It is not reloadable. Had to figure out what I sold before because it wasn't reloadable and that was it.

 

[USSR]

Yep, berdan primed, and not reloadable.

Don

 

[blkbrd666]

Why IS Berdan primed not reloadable??? Somebody loaded it once.

 

[lamazza]

Well, techinically you could reload it if you bought Berdan primers and somehow managed to get some sort of a 2 pronged depriming die that would fit in those holes. Line those 2 holes up real carefully and pop them out.
In a practical sense berdan primed brass is just not reloadable.

 

[WNTFW]

Have that headstamp in my hands
Actually a B81 7.62 R1M1
Berdan Primed
same on the A80 - I am assuming those are the years

 

[kiwi**]

Re 308 shell case .

Hi, Thanks for your information, that settles that.
I am from New Zealand, we have to pay reasonably high prices for used cases. I have got them from ebay in the past, but they dont list them now.
I think this forum is a good one, it has miles of info on it.
Thanks very much for your replys.
Regards kIWI

 

[Ben Shepherd]

It's South African. Good stuff to shoot. Not the best, but better than a lot of surplus 308. The A80 and B81 are the years(1980 and 1981 respectively). the R1M1 denotes standard 147 gr FMJ(ball) ammo.

If the price is right you may want to pick it up and stash it for a rainy day.

edit: Forgot, it is berdan primed.

 

[WNTFW]

Ben,
Just curious if you know why the year has the A & B in front? Is it a month or quarter or location?

I hate Berdan more than .243 when it come to .308 cases. At least someone can use the .243. I guess about 10% of what I get is berdan primed so the upside is 90% is good stuff.

Later,
WNTFW

 

[THR4L]

If you're down under you may have easier access to Berdan primers--that is the bottleneck in the States that keeps many from reloading Berdan. It's certainly doable, with special decapping tools and whatnot, and some do it very successfully.

However, the supply of Berdan primers in the US is almost nill.

 

[bonza]

I've been reloading some of the mil-surp South African .303 British ammo that is also Berdan-primed. It is very good brass &, as I like to tinker anyway, didn't want to waste it. I bought an RCBS berdan depriming tool &, once adjusted, does a pretty decent job depending on how severe the primers are crimped in.....this is only an issue on the initial decapping. When I was on vacation in Australia a few years ago I bought a couple of thousand RWS (Dynamit Nobel) 5.5mm berdan primers, as they are virtually impossible to get here in the U.S. As was mentioned, as Kiwi** is located in New Zealand, he may well have more ready access to berdan primers down there (PMC also make them). If so, I wouldn't hesitate reloading those South African cases.