Old ammo bedan primers

[abunaitoo]

I have a bunch of 8MM Lebel on strippers.
Hotchkiss MG
I don't have the MG, so I want to make dummies out of them.
These have berdan primers.
The way I deprime bedan cases is with water.
Will this kill the primers?????

[Echo]

Just water? I doubt it - but then I don't know...

[runfiverun]

if they are like the ones I have half of them are duds anyway.

[buckshotshoey]

There were guys reloading berdan primer cases. They hydraulic the primer out. Fill case with water and use a tight fitting dowel rod and hammer. The water pressure will drive them out. I've never seen it done, just read about it years ago.

What I would do is pull the bullet and dump powder. Put the empty shell in the gun and pop the primer. Since you say you don't have the gun, make a wooden fixture to hold casing in a vice. Set primer off with a center punch. Safety first......make sure the bullet and powder is gone! Ok.... That was playing Mr Obvious but had to be said.

[frkelly74]

I have used castor oil for sizing lube sometimes and have had it kill primers when it got into the interior of the cases. Maybe you could use it to kill primers on purpose.

[ukrifleman]

I have a bunch of 8MM Lebel on strippers.
Hotchkiss MG
I don't have the MG, so I want to make dummies out of them.
These have berdan primers.
The way I deprime bedan cases is with water.
Will this kill the primers?????

The short answer is no, once the primers dry out any `good` primers will still function.
You are better off to use a light oil which will contaminate the primer and stay wet.

A safety note!

Avoid using a kinetic puller to pull the bullets.

I pulled some pre-war French 7.5x54 rounds and had the powder charge of a tracer round ignite in my kinetic puller.

The force of the blows was enough to cause the primer to strike the anvil and ignite.

ukrifleman

[mdi]

I wouldn't suggest firing primers with a punch. When I was young and stoopid (13-14), I pulled a bullet out of a rifle cartridge ( cal?) and dumped the powder. Not knowing any better I put the case in a vise and used a small diameter punch on the primer. When I whacked it the primer fired (really loud) and the primer cup traveled up the punch and split the end of my finger. Really hurt and I learned primers were pretty powerful...

[abunaitoo]

The way I deprime Berdan is I use the Lee universal deprimer.
Find a rod that will fit snug in the neck.
Fill the case with water.
Quick short push of the press handle usually pops the primer out.
Little messy, but best way I found to do it.
I have a RCBS Berdan primer puller, but it's made for fired primers only.
Good suggestion on "NOT" using a kenitic puller. Never thought about tracers.
All the heads are the same. No color on the tips.
Going to have to push them in a little, then Fosters puller to pull the head out.
More steps, but safer.
I have a Lebel Rifle.
Don't want to fire corrosive primers in it.

[buckshotshoey]

I wouldn't suggest firing primers with a punch. When I was young and stoopid (13-14), I pulled a bullet out of a rifle cartridge ( cal?) and dumped the powder. Not knowing any better I put the case in a vise and used a small diameter punch on the primer. When I whacked it the primer fired (really loud) and the primer cup traveled up the punch and split the end of my finger. Really hurt and I learned primers were pretty powerful...

I wear safety glasses and gloves. No problem. But yea. They are pretty loud. And use a center punch. Not a flat one.

[EDG]

No do not use any punch!!!
The primer is dangerous. I have set them off with a hammer on a piece of steel. They are way too powerful to be set of in anything short of a metal housing that will trap the primer cup.


I wear safety glasses and gloves. No problem. But yea. They are pretty loud. And use a center punch. Not a flat one.

[ukrifleman]

[QUOTE=buckshotshoey;4134987
Set primer off with a center punch.

NEVER try to fire off a primer except in the chamber of the rifle.

A good shooting buddy of mine got a primed case mixed up with some fired brass when he was annealing cases.

He held the case in a pair pliers over a gas flame, the primer went off and hit him in the knuckle and it travelled 1" under the skin along the bone and he had to have it surgically removed.

It was a CCI 200 L/R

Primers are powerful things and should be handled with caution.

ukrifleman

[abunaitoo]

check the collector boards. the ammo should fetch a decent price, if you have the original packaging, each loaded Hotchkiss strip should get you 80$.

I know sarco? sells the original packed and loaded Hotchkiss strips for 100$

I'm guessing the shipping would be around $80.
Don't know about the packaging. Each stripper is wrapped in green paper.
Friend shot "ONE" round out of his Berthier rifle, after I told him not to.
He now knows why I told him not to.

[cast367]

Abunaitoo,

You have a PM

Cast 367

[reddog81]

Are you trying to kill the primer or keep it intact?

If your going to toss the primers out why does it matter?

[abunaitoo]

I was thinking of saving them for a friend.
He sometimes loads berdan in old cases.
Not sure if these are the size he uses, or if these will even go off.
But he'll take them if offered.
Powder is going to another friend who likes to burn old powder at New Years. His wife, and son, say he's crazy.

[abunaitoo]

No problem pulling the heads.
Powder is tiny little silver squares. For got to measure how much in one case. I'll do it next time.
I might just save the powder to try to reload with.
Primers didn't come out. Tried many times. Just would not come out.
Took them to the range with my Lebel rifle to shoot them off.
Not one fired.
Good hard hits. Nothing.
At least i didn't have to clean the barrel.

[sutherpride59]

Using hydrolic pressure to push the primers out works for sure, I tried to convert some 7.62x39 brass into boxer, converting isn't worth the time or effort but driving the primers out was the easy part, just do it over something with a hole in it like a shell holder so the primer has somewhere to go.

[abunaitoo]

I did it on one of those small Lee presses.
Made a tight fitting sizer for the Lee deprime die.
Tried a few shells a number of times.
Primers didn't budge.
They look to have some kind of sealer on the primer.
The heads did.

[Duckiller]

I have a smal supply of Berdan primers that I use to reload 7.5x55 Swiss brass. It is just too pretty to throw away. I use the hydraulic method to deprime fired primers. Set shell in a socket that fits the base. Fill with water slide a 30 caliber bolt into case and hit with hammer. Let dry for a few days. It is slow but it lets me use the Swiss brass.