Berdan Blues - now what?

[RogerDat]

Have saved my 303 brass planning one day to try reloading it. Wife went out of town for a weekend so I washed it in citric acid and with the cases cleaned I looked inside and saw they were all Berdan primed. Read an excellent thread on drilling existing primer and swaging for boxer primers. Then I looked at the cost of a primer swage die and it ran close to $30 maybe a little over with shipping for the one recommended.

Compared that to purchase of new boxer primed brass and with 100 rounds of Prvi Partizan going for around $60 I begin to doubt the wisdom of messing with the Berdan primers to save 70 or so cases.

Which brings me to my question. Is Prvi decent brass for reloading?

Is anyone likely to want these 70 berdan primed cases? I know myself and if I purchase new brass I will let this berdan brass sit there forever thinking someday I'll do something with it.

[gew98]

My rule of thumb...berdan brass goes in the scrap bucket to fund boxer brass and other reload materials. Unless you have a weird hard to find caliber it's not worth the work.

[GhostHawk]

So far every piece of Privi Partisan brass I have fired/found has been good quality brass with boxer primers.

That doesn't mean they ALL will be, but it seems they make good brass.
They have quickly become my ammo of choice for anything 7.62 be it x 54r for Mosin's or x 39 for my Yugo SKS, or even x 25 for my CZ-52 pistol. I have not loaded any of the 7.62x25 yet because I've not yet been able to find 2 cases. I think it throws them as far and fast as it throws the bullets.

Overall, for me, PPU = Good loaded rounds, good brass, good price, good quality.

[Fishman]

I'd offer the Berdan brass for sale here. What do you have to lose? Scrapping them will get you about $4 and I'd bet someone will give you more than that for them.

[gew98]

So far every piece of Privi Partisan brass I have fired/found has been good quality brass with boxer primers.

That doesn't mean they ALL will be, but it seems they make good brass.
They have quickly become my ammo of choice for anything 7.62 be it x 54r for Mosin's or x 39 for my Yugo SKS, or even x 25 for my CZ-52 pistol. I have not loaded any of the 7.62x25 yet because I've not yet been able to find 2 cases. I think it throws them as far and fast as it throws the bullets.

Overall, for me, PPU = Good loaded rounds, good brass, good price, good quality.

I have found several hundred 7,62 tok brass at the little local range I clean up and any of those calibered pistols toss the brass 15 - 20 foot to the right and as mcuh in front. It was all good win & S & B brass...took awhile to swap it off though. I've found a handfull of the privi 8mm and 7,62x54 there and it adds to my stash. Back in the late 80's when Hansen was the big importer of what we know now as privi it was all excellent brass but berdan primed. I tossed alot of that 303 , 8mm and 45acp in the scrap because of the berdan priming.

[Duckiller]

The only berdan brass that I save is Swiss military 7.5x55. It is just too pretty to throw away. I got some berdan primers a few years ago that are the right size for this brass. I deprime with a .30 cal bolt ,a socket that will support the brass and water. Let the brass set for a few days to be sure it is dry. As I said the brass is pretty, but I am not sure it is worth the effort to deprime and reload.

[ukrifleman]

I use Privi boxer brass to load 11 calibres and have always found it to be good quality.

The only .303 brass I found to be better and give longer case life is HXP.

ukrifleman.

[Bjornb]

Goodsteel ground a drill bit so it makes a perfect hole in a Berdan case


for a 209 shotshell primer. I use it for plinking with various old 8x57 Mausers. Works great.

[mikeym1a]

Goodsteel ground a drill bit so it makes a perfect hole in a Berdan case


for a 209 shotshell primer. I use it for plinking with various old 8x57 Mausers. Works great.

Now that's a neat idea!

[NuJudge]

What are the headstamps, and what diameters are the primers? FN and late South African .303 are primed with .217" diameter Berdan primers, which are available. Canadian is primed with Boxer, if I remember correctly, but you say these are Berdan. All the rest are .250" Berdan, which has not been imported in a long time.

[farmallcrew]

Goodsteel ground a drill bit so it makes a perfect hole in a Berdan case


for a 209 shotshell primer. I use it for plinking with various old 8x57 Mausers. Works great.

Would that work for 7x57 stuff to? and for 8x57 how high in powder did you go before noticing case condition going bad?

[Bjornb]

So far I've used the bit on 30-06 and 8x57. It will also work on 7x57 and 7.62 Russian or any other Berdan case with that head diameter. I've shot loads in the 20k pressure range with no issues, Goodsteel's bit makes a perfect tight fit for the 209 primer. I seat them with a large pair of pipe pliers with the jaws ground smooth.

[freebullet]

Only problem is Goodsteel wont make them for sale, I already asked.

[MBTcustom]

Sorry fellers. I'm not in the drill bit making business. I'm in the rifle business, and I "support" the rifles I build with anything necessary to keep the owner shooting. I'm building a rifle for Bjornb in 8X57 Mauser, and he had issues with his brass. Can't deliver a rifle the man can't shoot now can I? LOL!

[RogerDat]

Found a member that has the tools and experience drilling out Berdan to use boxer primers to feed his 303. So off they went to a good home. Glad it worked out this way. I really hate the idea of sending good brass to the scrap yard especially if someone can make them go boom again.

[Eddie2002]

The .217 berdan primers are advailable from Graff's, been using them for some 30-06 brass with no problems. I use the punch and pry method to pull the primers and use a regular boxer primer arm on my press to insert the new primers. With the price of brass these days it's worth it to me. Too bad no one carries the larger berdan primers, they would sell a lot of them.

[DeanWinchester]

209 conversion does work, but you'll need to keep pressures down. The 209 primer won't handle what a boxer will.