Berdan vs. Boxer cases

[M-Rex]

I have a bunch of Berdan primed rifle brass in various calibers. Rather than going through the mess of using water pressure to decap these things, and hunt for Berdan primers, would it be possible simply to drill a central hole in the primer pocket and use Boxer primers?

Thanks,
M.

 

[Jim Watson]

Diameters don't match.
There are a few possible conversions but few of them are easy.
What calibres do you have that you think would be worth fooling with?

 

[M-Rex]

I have some old 7.62x54R and some .303 Brit. They are brass cases and it'd be a shame just to throw them away.

 

[Jim Watson]

Simply not worth the effort. Find a junk dealer to pay scrap brass price for them.

 

[longrifleman]

info on removing primers

I've been playing around with removing the berdan primers on some 7.5 Swiss and it isn't that big a deal. Graf sells new primers, and the cost is higher than boxer but still cheaper than buying new brass. I haven't bought any yet, so I can't give you any first hand info on reloading but the folks who have done it say it is basically the same as boxer.

I think it comes down to how you want to spend your time.

Or, you could just send me all your old brass.

 

[M67]

Alternative to messing around with water. It works pretty well.

http://www.rcbs.com/default.asp?menu=1&s1=4&s2=3&s3=35

 

[lee n. field]

And it seems to me that RCBS also had (I'm not seeing in on their site now) a Berdan priming kit, consisting of a modified ram prime die and shell holder. The price of it was such that you would be really, really better off just spending the money on brass that takes Boxer type primers. Neither .303 or 7.62x54 should be too hard to find.

(edit to add: This must be what I'm thinking of. Halfway down the page, the "HDS Berdan Primer seater". "We have taken the RCBS Ram Priming Unit and adapted it to take the RCBS Berdan Primer Assembly. ")

 

[Sunray]

"...simply to drill a central hole..." Nope. The resulting hole will be too big. And like Jim says, the primers are a different diameter. Reloading Berdan primed brass isn't worth the time.

 

[M-Rex]

Thanks folks! It looks like a labor of love to try to reload this old brass. Thanks for the links!

M.