8mm Label berdan primer

[abunaitoo]

I have a bunch of 8mm Label machine gun ammo, on strippers.
I'm hoping to turn the brass from berdan to boxer primers.
Never had so much trouble taking out the old primers.
RCBS bedan remover tool.
Mangled a few brass trying.
After looking more closely at one of the primers, I saw that it had two cups.
An outer cup of brass, inner cup of copper, them the priming material.
Don't do many berdan primers, but I've not seen another like it.
Attachment 231733

[Der Gebirgsjager]

You've probably got an RCBS Lachmiller Berdan depriming tool. I've tried mine several times on different military brass with the same results you've had. About 5 years ago on a different website I saw a demonstration by a member who filled his cases about half full of water and then ran them into an M die on a single stage press. The primers popped out the bottom effortlessly due to hydraulic pressure, but of course water leaked out the primer holes and by the time he'd done about a hundred of them he had a pretty good mess to soak and mop up. You would want to do a good job of clean up to prevent your press, die, etc. from rusting. I don't recall the website, but maybe if you Google around you might find it on u-tube, or perhaps an entirely different method that actually works. Myself, I gave up on Berdan primers years ago, as the old military brass they are usually found in hasn't improved with age. You might be able to sell your hoard of Lebel ammo to a collector.

[abunaitoo]

I normally remove them with water.
I use a Lee depriming die, with a tight fitting rod.
They normally come out without to much trouble.
These 8mm Label primers just didn't want to come out.
After getting a primer out, and seeing the two cups, I know why.
I'll start another thread on how I'm modifying it to boxer primer.

[abunaitoo]

I normally remove them with water.
I use a Lee depriming die, with a tight fitting rod.
They normally come out without to much trouble.
These 8mm Label primers just didn't want to come out.
After getting a primer out, and seeing the two cups, I know why.
I'll start another thread on how I'm modifying it to boxer primer.

[btreanor]

I deprimed a bunch of these 8mm Lebel cases and converted the pockets to use with boxer primers. The only way I could get the primer out was to use my metal lathe and drill it out. They worked OK but about one in three cases would split after the first firing.

[GregLaROCHE]

I’ve seen plenty of those primers removed by the water method. Even with plain wooden dowl.

[abunaitoo]

I tried many water ways.
They just wouldn't pop out.
I've removed berdan primers with water before.
Had to pop some of them a few times, but they did come out.
Other berdan primers had only one cup. This one has two cups.
Primer compound was all powdered, not a solid.
Probably why none went off. .

[pakmc]

If you where closer to Houston Tx. I could show you the way I did berdan primers. (ok, I had berdan primers to reload with ) after I got warmed up, I could deprime up to 5 cases a minute. my "system" will deprime any rifle berdam case. I was shooting 8x56R and I deprimed them, but I got to thinking about how old the brass was. so I didn't reload them(I got plenty of PPU brass to reload the 8x56R)and I use lead bullets for shooting pleasure(powder coated.) but i did 7.5x55, 6.5x55, 8mm, even 7.62x39, 7.62x54R(steel or brass) but I was never able to get over 4reloads out of a steel case. the anvils do take a beating with my system. and I don't use water(its a good way to get a straight wall case out of a bottle neck case).(which I did!)