Has anyone tried Berdan Brass for gas checks?

[docone31]

I am busy melting my Berdan Cases, I have 15lbs so far. My wife collected it without prejudice in the beginning.
Has anyone cut of the bases, split the cases, and made gas checks, or half jackets with it?
Seems about the right thickness.
I do have some ingots if anyone has a need for clean brass. Will work out a trade for wheel weight ingots.

[AZ-Stew]

The only problem is that the material is not a consistent thickness. The brass starts thin at the neck and grows gradually thicker toward the case web. This will result in gas checks that don't have consistent thickness from one side to the other.

Regards,
Stew

[docone31]

I had almost figuired on the case walls.
I have several rolling mills, so rolling them out would not be an issue.
I spent the evening, casting 5lbs of ingots. Since I paper patch anyway, it was more academic rather than a practical question.
With my Kerr Electromelt furnace, I do not get the fuming brass usually gives off. Instead, the zinc oxide forms a white layer on top of the crucible. I scrape it out.
I have gotten quite a few high temp melts out of the single crucible.
Not a bad unit for small casting.

[Frank46]

Not to get off topic, but I have heard about using old pistol cases as the basis for making jacketed rifle condoms. Won't use the "j" word. Think it was 9mm and 45acp.
Cases were filled with lead and then swaged to the proper diameter. Has anyone have any data on this?. Frank

[BorderBrewer]

That's how Vernon Speer started out. He converted fired 22 rimfire cases into .224 bullet jackets. He couldn,t get gilding metal for his bullets with the war (WWII) going on.

BorderBrewer

[kawalekm]

Not to get off topic, but I have heard about using old pistol cases as the basis for making jacketed rifle condoms. Won't use the "j" word. Think it was 9mm and 45acp.
Cases were filled with lead and then swaged to the proper diameter. Has anyone have any data on this?. Frank


I've made jacketed bullets out of both .22 rimfire cases and also .40 S&W cases. I tried dipping jackets into molten lead to fill them up, but final weights tend to be inconsistent because of the variation in the meniscus of lead right at the mouth. For the .22 I get the most reproducible results by cutting and swaging lead wire cores, and for .44 bullets using a .40 caliber cast core. I used SportFlite dies for .22s and CH dies for .44 bullets, both on a standard RockChucker press.
Michael

[JSnover]

I don't have any technical data but John Buhmiller did this in Africa a long time ago. Used 45 auto cases as bullet jackets. The artical was called "In the footsteps of Selous" (Frank Selous)

[Frank46]

Thanks for the replies. Frank

[trooperdan]

I've been interested in melting brass but it requires a high temp.. what is this Kerr unit you mentioned?

[bigdog454]

What temp does brass melt? I have an electric heat treat furnace that goes to 2350F.

[docone31]

Brass melts at 1950*F.