7.62×51 Berdan Primed Brass

[Hueyville]

Have a boatload of tall Berdan primers and decapping all the Berdan brass have saved over the years. Any recommendations on which common surplus NATO brass loads well, especially at moderate velocities with polymer coated cast gas check bullets. What is a fair price to pay for Berdan brass? Have not purchased any but what have seen for sale can still find once fired Lake City and commercial for little more. Not willing to pay premium price to fight with decapping crimped Berdan primers but will if price translates to extra effort. What is a fair price today compared to last year people giving it away?

[Jack Stanley]

I've never tried this idea but perhaps the cost of the brass per pound plus shipping . Someone who has bought or sold a box of empty rimfire brass would have more insight .

Jack

[NuJudge]

There are certain types of brass that I would encourage you to stay away from. The South African I have dealt with has primer sealant that must be epoxy glue, and most primers will not come out. My recollection is that Australian primers are super crimped in. Get a few of what ever you want to use and test them before you buy a lot. A friend of mine made hydraulic deprimers for me for 8x57 and 7.5x55, which work great on everything I have tried. He showed me pictures of some 7.62x51 he tried similar hydraulic deprimers on, and the brass was considerably inflated, without removing the primer.

[LAGS]

I have taken my Berdan primed cases and converted them to Boxer primers.
That way you only have to mess with the Berdan primer once and then can be reloaded again and again easily.
Last year I sent another member a bunch of 7.62x54 R Brass cases that I mostly convert.
I have not heard if he ever got around to doing the conversion.
But 40 years ago I did reload the cases with Berdan primers that I had bought somewhere.
But they took lots of time to reload each time.
Converting the cases you have may be a good option.
Especially if you intend to use them with cast Boolits like I do.

[samari46]

Some lots of Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik HP or Austrian made 7.62x51 are boxer primed. Mine are from the mid 80's and the brass is excellent. A lot of the 60's-70's-and partial 80's lots from MEN made in Germany are all berdan but non corrosive.Lotta Chinese 7.62x51 but may be berdan or boxer primed but may be in copper washed cases so mostly junk as far as most of us is concerned. And you're right about the South African as I have yet to remove a berdan primer from one case. Their 303 is the same way. Save your self the aggrivation and if you can latch on a big lot of Lake City brass to last you a good long while. In my mind not worth the effort for berdan. That is if you aren't loading the excellent Swiss 7.5x55 with berdan primers. Frank

[higgins]

Not too long ago I sold good quality Berdan .303 Brit and 8x57mm for .10 apiece plus postage. It's either sell cheap or take to the scrap yard as I have never set up for Berdan primers. In years past I have sold for scrap FNM Portugese 7.62x51 that had the appearance of quality brass and the ammo was accurate by most accounts, but I never fired any of it. Some of the Berdan .303 brass I sold was FNM, and I can speak from experience that it is excellent ammo. If you get into 8x57 probably some of the best Berdan ammo around several years ago was headstamped nny (i.e., PPU) 70s or 80s. It was corrosive, but again excellent ammo-I couldn't beat it in my rifle with handloads. You might post a WTB ad that incluldes specific descriptions of what headstamps you are interested in and see what turns up. Even now I wouldn't think there's that much demand for Berdan brass.

[jrayborn]

I save Portuguese 7.62 x 51 (.308) cases and have reloaded many of them with Berdan primers. I agree about what was said about South African and Aussy primers being HARD to get out. I no longer bother.

[n.h.schmidt]

I have found a way to greatly ease the problem of stuck berdan primers. This works with SA 303 and Turk 8mm. push the fired primers in first. It breaks the seal and they come right out in a water setup. If you want to do even better make a seating post that will push the primer at a angle. Then they come out like it was the fifth repriming. I do admit I don't have a good way to do cases with a heavy ring crimp.
n.h.schmidt

[ukrifleman]

I reload MEN Berdan brass and have no problem punching out spent primers using a coach bolt with a 1mm pin inserted offset to line up with one of the flash holes.

I remove the primer crimp with a Lee de-burring tool that has a hole in the centre to accommodate the anvil.

Much less messy than the hydraulic method!

[uscra112]

That Seffrican brass would be perfect for the technique I use for converting to Small Rifle primers, since the wall of the Berdan primer stays in place; (the top gets drilled away as you remove the Berdan anvil).

[Eddie2002]

I've been reloading berdan brass for years and use the punch and pry method to pull the spent primers, neverhad any luck with the hydraulic method which gets messy. I mainly resize 30-06 to 7.7x58 Jap and 7.62x51 to 243 Winchester. I lucked out a few years ago and picked up 3 bricks of berdan primers at a show about a year after I bough two bricks from Graff's so I'm set for life. Once the military primer is pulled reloading them is pretty easy, I keep a separate set of 7.7 dies with the decapping pin removed just for berdan brass. The biggest hassle is setting them off while pushing the primer back in the pocket, it wakes me up better than a cup of coffee in the morning. LOL
As to what common berdan brass is worth maybe a little above scrap prices. Diamond K brass sells used berdan brass so check out their site for an idea of prices. I just checked their site and all the berdan brass is sold out, go figure. My last order was for 30-06 berdan brass and costs $15.00 per 100 but that was before the drought.
I would think any boxer primed load would work well for berdan brass, been loading full powered condom loads for my 30-06 and 7.7 Jap using berdan brass with no problems and can't tell the difference with my cast loads.