Why no conversions of Berdan primed brass?

[ny32182]

It seems to me like it would be a pretty simple matter to make a press mounted die (may require a special shell holder as well?) that could punch a nice boxer flashhole in a berdan primed case to make it reloadable? I take it there is some problem with this plan or it would have been done long ago, but what is it?

I've got all this nice berdan .308 ammo. That is what makes me wonder.

 

[NCsmitty]

Here ya go, read away and you'll understand a bit more.

http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/berdanprimers.html

NCsmitty

 

[cracked butt]

Its doable to convert some berdan to boxer, never tried it myself.

http://milsurpshooter.net/topic/25275/t/Berdan-to-Boxer-Conversion-Method.html

I wouldn't bother going through the trouble on something easily available like .308 brass.

 

[achildofthesky]

The question begs: Why? Commercial boxer primed brass is cheap and readily available. Seems like an awful lot of work for so little product. In an emergency and having no other options maybe but for me anyway, my brass buckets are always brimming with easy to reload, recent manufacture commercial brass...

Be safe and have fun what ever route you travel

Patty

 

[rondog]

I think a better question is, why were we cursed with that crap to begin with? Sure seems to me that one large flash hole is much better than two itty bitty little holes. But, what do I know.....

 

[ants]

rondog, I remember a piece of literature on primers that made three points about the advantage of Berdan:

• Two flash holes can propogate a better flame spread through the powder charge.
• The fixed anvil eliminates misfire due to anvil not being seated deeply enough in the pocket.
• It's easy for the handloader to check primers to make sure they have priming compound before priming your brass.

I don't know if it's true or not, but it seems to make sense.

 

[Jim Watson]

As said, it can be done in some cases but is a lot of work. More than I would go to for a caliber I can buy Boxers for.

I was recently poking through a friend's stack of Precision Shooting magazine and found an article on the subject. The shooter compared Berdan and Boxer .308 side by side. He did not set up to decap and reprime the Berdan cases, he just took factory loads, pulled the bullets, dumped the powder, and loaded back with the same "recipe" as he was using in Boxer primed brass. The Berdan primed ammo had less velocity deviation and closer groups on target than the Boxer, no matter what brand of US primer.

 

[ny32182]

I do have about 800 rounds of super crappy Paki .308 that I was thinking about just tearing down and using the primed cases for my own loads.

I have about 2k rounds of SA .308 that is decent surplus anyway, and real nice looking brass that I wish I could reload. Got some interesting articles there.. I guess if it is too much of a pain, that would be a good reason, but... still seems like a process that could be streamlined with the right tools.

 

[donttellthewife]

I have been reloading berdan cases with large rifle (217dia.) berdan primers for a couple years. The thing to do would be to get someone to import 500,000 or so I am sure they would sell out in a week if marketed correctly.

Here is a picture of 10,000 wolf primers ( on top ) and 10,000 berdan primers. This tells me that someone like Powder Valley should have enough clout to bring some in country without much problem since they are already are dealing with the same manufacture or distributor.



Just my 2cents, it would be easier to use berdan primers than alter primer pocket

 

[ants]

He's right, they would sell out in a week.
Probably at $50 per thousand.
If so, there would be no economy to reloading Berdan brass.

The value would be for benchrest shooters as Jim Watson observes. That's not a matter of economy, but performance.

 

[evan price]

I convert Berdan primed brass to Boxer primed brass all the time. It requires an intermediate step:

1. Sort out all Berdan primed brass.
2. Take to smelter and sell.
3. Buy Boxer primed brass.

The Berdan primers are larger than Boxer. You can't just drop a Boxer primer in there.

 

[NCsmitty]

evan price has it right. It's a PITA, unless you have nothing else to do.

NCsmitty

 

[ilbob]

Notice how he cut out the US importer's name on the Berdan boxes.

I have been reloading Berdan cases with large rifle (217dia.) berdan primers for a couple years. The thing to do would be to get someone to import 500,000 or so I am sure they would sell out in a week if marketed correctly.

Here is a picture of 10,000 wolf primers ( on top ) and 10,000 berdan primers. This tells me that someone like Powder Valley should have enough clout to bring some in country without much problem since they are already are dealing with the same manufacture or distributor.



Just my 2cents, it would be easier to use berdan primers than alter primer pocket

 

[ilike223s]

not worth the trouble. I dont even pick brass up if i know its not boxer brass

 

[Linear Thinker]

Have to ask Why?

Berdan brass is a PITA to decap, either by a claw or by hydrostatic (what a mess).

Berdan primers are rare and expensive. Since Dangerous Dave The Scrounger retired years ago, I have not seen any for sale. Heard rumors of PMC importing them, but never seen them.
Do you have a very exotic caliber where no commercial brass is to be had?
No other reason to reload Berdan brass.
Keep in mind - the military Berdan brass will not last for many load cycles, unlike the commercial Boxer-primed.

Many years ago, I reloaded Berdan brass in 7.5 Swiss. Thank heavens for Norma coming out with Swiss brass. Ditto for 7.62 Russian rimmed.
LT