While not the most common, I did find in my searches questions about primers other than the standard Boxer types. So I hope good info can be gathered here for others to benefit from.
First up is an item I found almost twenty years ago, CCI shotshell caps, if you want to go to the trouble of rebuilding battery cups this is the item to do it, stamped on the back with ink, "209B 203", and the box says they are Winchester size.
Next is a listing of RWS Berdan primer sizes:
Model Diameter Wall
4506 4,5 mm 2,2 mm Small Pistol
4520 4,5 mm 2 mm Small Rifle
4521 4,5 mm 2,2 mm P Parabellum
5005 5 mm 2,2 mm Medium Berdan
5608 5,5 mm 2,8 mm Standard Nato
5620 5,5 mm 2,5 mm more common
6000 6,35 mm 2,8 mm Large Berdan Rifle
6504 6,45 mm 2,2 mm Extra Large Berdan
6507 6,45 mm 3,4 mm Oversize Berdan
The model numbers should help greatly with your web searches, I found good info just doing a search with RWS 5620, which is the primers I got from Old Western Scrounger twenty plus years ago, last I heard they want no part of selling Berdans now. They came 250 to a simple flat cardboard sleeve and are loose, NO TRAY, so open carefully over a clean box cause they can go everywhere. These will not feed through a Lee AutoPrime unless you open up the slot a bit as they are .007 wider than large boxer primers. If I remember right I had a single stage press with primer arm that worked okay but I'm sure other priming tools might need some tweaking to function both safe and well.
A webpage with some good info as of 2008:
http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/berdan_supplies_dimensions.html
And a page about decaping:
http://davecushman.net/berdandecap.html
Just as reloading is not for everybody, reloading Berdan cases is not for most reloaders, the tools are not common, the primers hard to find and the process trying for those who just want ammo to shoot in great uncle Georges old gun. The rewards are reusing some excellent brass.
So what info do I hope to see here?
Where to find the primers.
Which primers work for whos brass.
What brass is just to good to pitch cause someday I'll find those primers.
How to deprime and reprime with out getting soaking wet, tearing up your hands
or tearing whats left of your hair out.
Lastly, lets keep this positive, anybody who spends much time in research of this topic will have read plenty of negative postings about reloading Berdans, this can be the how-to.
First up is an item I found almost twenty years ago, CCI shotshell caps, if you want to go to the trouble of rebuilding battery cups this is the item to do it, stamped on the back with ink, "209B 203", and the box says they are Winchester size.
Next is a listing of RWS Berdan primer sizes:
Model Diameter Wall
4506 4,5 mm 2,2 mm Small Pistol
4520 4,5 mm 2 mm Small Rifle
4521 4,5 mm 2,2 mm P Parabellum
5005 5 mm 2,2 mm Medium Berdan
5608 5,5 mm 2,8 mm Standard Nato
5620 5,5 mm 2,5 mm more common
6000 6,35 mm 2,8 mm Large Berdan Rifle
6504 6,45 mm 2,2 mm Extra Large Berdan
6507 6,45 mm 3,4 mm Oversize Berdan
The model numbers should help greatly with your web searches, I found good info just doing a search with RWS 5620, which is the primers I got from Old Western Scrounger twenty plus years ago, last I heard they want no part of selling Berdans now. They came 250 to a simple flat cardboard sleeve and are loose, NO TRAY, so open carefully over a clean box cause they can go everywhere. These will not feed through a Lee AutoPrime unless you open up the slot a bit as they are .007 wider than large boxer primers. If I remember right I had a single stage press with primer arm that worked okay but I'm sure other priming tools might need some tweaking to function both safe and well.
A webpage with some good info as of 2008:
http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/berdan_supplies_dimensions.html
And a page about decaping:
http://davecushman.net/berdandecap.html
Just as reloading is not for everybody, reloading Berdan cases is not for most reloaders, the tools are not common, the primers hard to find and the process trying for those who just want ammo to shoot in great uncle Georges old gun. The rewards are reusing some excellent brass.
So what info do I hope to see here?
Where to find the primers.
Which primers work for whos brass.
What brass is just to good to pitch cause someday I'll find those primers.
How to deprime and reprime with out getting soaking wet, tearing up your hands
or tearing whats left of your hair out.
Lastly, lets keep this positive, anybody who spends much time in research of this topic will have read plenty of negative postings about reloading Berdans, this can be the how-to.