Need help with 7.62x45 berdan brass cases

[waltham41]

I recently bought a CZ52 rifle in 7.62x45 and it came with about 150 rds of brass cased milsurp berdan primed ammo... it has a small primer in it. Want to know if someone here has the experience and tools to convert this brass to small boxer rifle primers.

The brass only has one flash hole in the case but it is not centered like boxer primed is.

If you can convert this brass for me, what would you charge per case? Will be glad to send a couple of cases to anyone that is interested in this project so they can see what they could do.

Please post here and send a pm
Thanks!

[dtknowles]

Need to know the diameter of the berdan primer, is it the same as small boxer primer, if so the conversion is a piece of cake. Otherwise the conversion requires the cutting of a new primer pocket.

Tim

[waltham41]

Im not sure what the primer diameter is, that is why Im willing to send a few to someone so they can check and see what would have to be done.... Either I get this brass converted or I have to get some 6.5x54 mannlicher brass and convert it.

[Duckiller]

Is it GOOD brass? Swiss 7.5 x 55 is too pretty to throw away. Anything else is thrown away. Deprime with the case full of water, insert a close fitting bolt in the neck, place on a socket that will support the head and let primer come out, Hit bolt head with a heavy hammer sharpely. Allow case to dry. Now you can measure the size of the primer pocket. If you know the size of primer you need you may be able to find them from one of the many dealers. Easy to reprime berdan brass if you have primers, hard part is depriming.

[waltham41]

The brass appears to be in very good condition, they annealed it as part of the loading process... it looks every bit as nice as say lake city 308 brass.

I will see if I can get a primer out and will post the results back here....

thanks!

[Larry Gibson]

You should be able to convert them to take a Boxer SR primer. It's not hard; http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?143958-Converting-Berdan-primer-pockets-to-Boxer

Any questions just ask.

Larry Gibson

[Dschuttig]

Doesn't the 7,62x45 czech use the .199 "roth" type berdan primer?

[arjacobson]

If you are going to convert brass start with 220 swift. I full length form-then I turn the extractor groove-cut to length and trim. If you start with other brass you may have to turn the base of the brass. I ground up a tool and machine the rim to the o.d.-then I move the tool and cut the groove. I have converted 4-5 hundred pcs of brass this way. Most of it is new 220 swift brass. I might have some that haven't been loaded but would need $1.00 ea for the finished unfired ones. It seems like a lot of money for brass but the last time I ordered 220 swift it was around .60 ea . Btw I have shot my vz52 bunches and have had great luck with lees 155-312 cast bullet-22grains of 4198 and it cycles just fine and the brass doesn't go too far. The vc52 is worth all the trouble to get the old girl running!

[WILCO]

You should be able to convert them to take a Boxer SR primer. It's not hard; http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?143958-Converting-Berdan-primer-pockets-to-Boxer

Any questions just ask.

Larry Gibson

Great thread/link Larry!

Berdan brass isn't worth paying someone else to convert. Too many liabilities on their part and easy enough for you to do it.

Plus, there's boxer brass available:

http://www.gunstop.com/Store/Rifle%20Brass/Prvi-Partizan/PPU-762X54R

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/773893/prvi-partizan-ammunition-762x54mm-rimmed-russian-762x53mm-rimmed-150-grain-soft-point-box-of-20

[Freightman]

He is not talking about 7.62x55r he is talking about 7.62x45 brass and I have looked but haven't found any.

[Larry Gibson]

If the Berdan primers in the 7.62x45s are standard size there is no reason it can't be converted to take a SR boxer primer using the method outlined. I've converted numerous different Berdan primed cartridges now quite successfully to either LR or SR boxer primers. Which depends on the size of Berdan primer the cases are primed with.

Larry Gibson

[WILCO]

He is not talking about 7.62x55r he is talking about 7.62x45 brass and I have looked but haven't found any.

Thanks for the correction Frank. Don't know how I missed that one. :)

[uscra112]

My small experience with that brass-case Czech 7.62x45 ammo was that the brass was brittle as heck, not worth messing with. But I only had about 50 rounds of it. Maybe there's other lots that have aged better.

The .303 Savage base is the right size, all you have to do is machine off the rim and cut the extractor groove, form and trim to length. Captech International (formerly Jamison) has new .303 brass for sale, very good stuff in my experience.

That's how I'd do it.

[historicfirearms]

Uscra112 is right about the brass being brittle. About 70 percent of the stuff I had split at the neck upon the first firing. The ones I tried to deprime were very difficult to do so. The primers were badly corroded in place. Maybe I just had a bad batch, but I gave up on trying to reload for the vz52. The rifle got traded off soon after that.

[Freightman]

Jim bought a VZ52 and has the same problem but I think you can convert them with not a lot of work. The rifles are very good shooters just the brass thing :-D

[Dschuttig]

I make mine from 35 remington. Full length size, then trim. You will end up with a bulge near he head that must be turned down. Works well for me.

[yeahbub]

A fellow I knew bought a vz-52 and some commercially loaded ammo came with it. The headstamps said 6.5mm Mannlicher Shoenauer and there was no evidence turning was necessary to convert them. The rims were within a few thousandths of being the right size and they fed and extracted fine. It looked like they had been sized, trimmed to length and loaded. I'm not sure whether the new neck would include any of the original shoulder. Boxer Carcano case head dimensions are also correct for this conversion.

[18Z4X]

I've had them on backorder from Buffalo Arms for over a year now. I had obtained about 50 rounds that I loaded a couple of times (lost 1 piece of brass, so was down to 49). I picked up some new 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schonauer brass and used Darin Pfaff's method to size it to 7.62x45. Rather than to plagiarize his work, you can find it here:

http://milpas.cc/rifles/ZFiles/Semi-automatic%20Rifles/Czech%20VZ%2052%20Carbine/VZ%2052.htm#brass

My experience was that I had to also take about .002 from the head area, then bump the shoulder back one more time. So far, I have a couple of reloadings out of this "home-made" brass.

[30calflash]

I looked into it for a friend as the surplus ammo he had was not an option. From raw numbers 30 Remington brass would be the closest. Finding it would be the bigger problem than forming it.
The case head is .003 larger which shouldn't be an issue. Length is good.

The 6.8 SPC round would have been an option but short by about 1/10th of an inch. Could possibly be an option if no others work out.

[18Z4X]

Buffalo Arms is now getting in brass to make 7.62x45 Czech (they said that they were tired of waiting for their supplying brass manufacturer, so they found another source). I was on back-order for 2 years, and they gave me a call. Price is about $2.00 each, or about $104.00 per hundred. I paid about $10.00 shipping on 100 rounds of brass.

As of today, their web site shows them to be out of stock. Maybe, they are filling waiting back-orders prior to listing brass in stock.

[EDG]

Grafs has PPU brass in 7.35 Carcano that should be easy to form to 7.62X45. It is $63/hundred.
Let me know if you need help forming brass. I have a number of intermediate dies for pushing the shoulder back without scrapping cases.

[kywoodwrkr]

Grafs has PPU brass in 7.35 Carcano that should be easy to form to 7.62X45. It is $63/hundred.
Let me know if you need help forming brass. I have a number of intermediate dies for pushing the shoulder back without scrapping cases.
Take above advice!
Had two of those BF(before fire) and bought a bunch of 6,5x52Carcano for conversion.
That was before the 7,35 became available.
Actually only lost stocks in fire, but they were too mean without the wood!;-)

[18Z4X]

Well rats!

I've been using 6.5 Mannlicher Brass. Taking about .004 off of the base & rim with a drill press and sandpaper block has been giving me fits.