reloading a 30 carbine berdan case

[greyling22]

I was given some brass 30 carbine berdan cases. I resized a couple in my dies and the decapping pin was able to punch out the center of the primer pocket, leaving me one largish and oblong flash hole. Can the case then be loaded like a regular boxer case?

I know it's not the best situation ever, but brass is scrace and it seems like it should be ok.

[trooperdan]

There are several sizes of berdan primers. Have you checked to see what size the primer pocket is?

[NuJudge]

Berdan primers come in various diameters, heights, hardnesses of primer, and strength of explosive. As a practical matter, the only primers you are likely to find are .217" diameter. Some 10 years ago PMC bought some .217" berdan primers from Murom, a company in Russia, and imported them here. These were in PMC boxes, and had the Murom designator KV-7.62N. These were intended for .308 class cartridges, and worked great in 7.5x55, 8x57, and other full power cartridges.

Just recently, TulAmmo brought in more Murom .217" berdan primers, these intended for 7.62x39. They worked great at that, but not worth a hoot in full power cartidges, giving hangfires and duds. These are in TulAmmo boxes, with the Murom designator KV-24N.

[Poygan]

I ran into some LC 52 berdan cases which puzzled me since I had some LC 52 cases with the usual boxer primers. I posted my puzzlement here and some knowledgeable gent told me they were Chinese copies even including the head stamp.

Personally, I wouldn't reload the Chinese cases if that is what you have.

[John Traveler]

The decapping that you described has ruined the case.

Berdan cases have the anvil built into the primer pocket.

Besides the now-missing anvil, the primer pockets are only suitable for the European berdan sizes, not the boxer sizes of 0.210" and 0.170".

[perotter]

You should be able to convert these to boxer primers. This shows large rifle. A berdan small primer maybe smaller than a a small boxer & then the following will need to be changed to suit.

http://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com/topic/25275

http://users.ameritech.net/mchandler/primer.html

I've done it different on berdan large rifle & never done the above. I do have 1000's of berdan .308 & will try this method next time I need to convert some.


FWIW, I've broken pins running berdan cases thru a boxer die.

[spqrzilla]

What Traveler said.

[Trapaddict]

The LC 52 cases you had were not LC 52 as stated in Poygans post. All LC ammo made here for the M1 carbine is boxer. What you have are a cheap Chinese copy and they were extremely erratic and in my opinion, dangerous. I chronod some out of a Ruger blackhawk and the SD was almost 500 FPS!!!! Some of the ammo left the barrel at 1500 FPS which is what I would expect out of this round in a 7 1/2" barrel. Others clocked in at a tic over 2000 and you could hear the difference too.

[gnoahhh]

I have messed around with Berdan primers and they can be fun and they can be frustrating. I fell into a huge pile of various size Berdan primers many years ago, and loaded Swedish military 6.5x55s (back when that was all that was available and the Norma stuff was unobtainable), those aluminum CCI Blazers, .303 British, etc. I used both a Lachmiller (now RCBS) Berdan de-capper and the hydraulic method to get them out. Hydraulics worked the slickest but messy, the Lachmiller tool always buggered the pocket to one degree or another. The biggest problem, believe it or not, was finding/making primer seating tools because of, as mentioned earlier, the differences in diameters and heights from Boxer primers . Frankly I did it as an exercise of curiosity, quantity production would have been a major PITA. I still have a few RWS small rifle Berdan primers that'll probably just rot away on the shelf.

[cast367]

Greyling,

The primer pockets are different. Result , gasleak.
The primer size is others.
My advise , don't do that .
A lot of boxer case are for sale.

[greyling22]

all right. Thanks for the input guys.