Inventive Way To Remove Berdan Primers

[rivitir]

I was watching this youtube video Iraqveteran made. He came up with a pretty cool idea on how to remove berdan primers.

 

[gun nutty]

Folks have been using hydraulics for case forming and - I also believe - removing Berdan primers for years. Two major issues that I see:

 

1. The mess. That water goes everywhere. Thank goodness he's using a non-ferrous Lee press! Most of the work I've seen with this type of setup used hydraulic or motor oil; just as messy but less likely to cause rust.

 

2. Overcoming that crimp. I've had boxer-primed brass with a crimp and tight primer that I thought would never come out; I question whether this hydraulic method would remove such a sticky primer. Maybe it will. He just might be lucky with the brass he has.

 

You could do something similar with a Vickers type die on top of the press using an extended press ram; you might be able to control where the water goes a little better and the assembly could be made of stainless steel and aluminum to limit rust.

[AzRednek]

The biggest problem is locating the correct Berdan primers. Berdan primer sizes are all over the place, they don't follow the same sizes as USA boxer small and large and vary from one country to another. When one is lucky enough to locate the correct Berdan primer, hang on to your wallet cause they ain't cheap. Punching or drilling the anvil out and installing Boxer primers is inviting trouble.

[pacrat]

gun nutty is right.

 

I did the same long ago without near the mess. Simple Lee Loader has the depriming base and the depriming punch. Fill case full of water (outside of course) place on base insert punch and smack with a plastic hammer.

 

 

AzRedneck is also right.

 

After wasting the time to deprime 200 milsurp cases. Only then did I find out that Berdam primers are as rare as frog feathers on this side of the pond. And darn expensive.

 

So they went into the scrap brass bucket and I was back to square one.

[rivitir]

Well I just learned a heck of a lot. Thanks!

 

Is their a way (with the right tools) to change brass from a berdan into boxer? Or would it require melting it down and starting over?

[gun nutty]

That's just the issue.

 

You can usually get or convert Boxer brass for almost any cartridge. This is sometimes at a "premium" (cost-wise), but still relatively affordable.

 

Berdan primers vary considerably and are an absolute pain to mess with.

 

There are some cartridge cases that are very difficult to find or convert; these cases are prime candidates for salvaging and re-priming with Berdan primers.

 

If I had a fantastically large amount of Berdan cases that I got for no cost, I knew exactly what type of primers were needed for those cases, and I had a reasonably inexpensive source for those primers, I'd run the Berdan route. But the previous "ifs" rarely pan out.

 

Now with all of the above said, sometimes the adventure is in the travels to where you need to go, not the actual arrival. This board wouldn't have half the membership it currently does if folks actually listened to "NO". Read De Haas' "Bolt Action Rifles", especially the articles on the Carcano and Mosin Nagant. Then look at what is being done here. "It can't be done" begs for defiance!

[pacrat]

Converting berdan primed cases to boxer is an invitation to disaster.

 

Can it be done? Sure. Should it be done. Not by me. After reaming the anvil out of primer pocket and drilling a proper size flash hole for the boxer primers the combined flash hole would be huge. Part of the function of the flash hole is to regulate pressure and volume of hot gas into primer cup at time of ignition. Primer cup expands and seals the pocket. To big a hole = to much volume and pressure of hot gases BLOWING the primer rather than expanding the cup to seal.

 

Remember that the first indicator of an overpressure load is a flattened primer.

 

Safety First...........saving money on cases just isn't worth an eye or worse.