Why?

[Aaryq]

Why did the Soviets and her sister states choose Corrosive Berdan Primed Ammo for their guns? Does it have any benefit?

 

[rbernie]

From what I've heard, Berdan primers are less expensive to make (since the anvil is part of the brass casing) and using corrosive compounds gives more brissance for a given sensitivity and price point.

Until well past WWII, all primers were corrosive. We just moved to noncorrosive compounds while the USSR did not.

 

[JohnKSa]

It's very reliable and keeps well--less sensitive to storage conditions from what I understand.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

Yup. Boxer or berdan is a moot point.

The older corrosive compounds are much less sensitive to less than perfect storage conditions than our current non-corrosive compounds are.