.58 Berdan

[reivertom]

Howdy,
Does anyone here know anything about the .58 Berdan cartridge?

[13Echo]

According to "Cartridges of the Worls", the .58 Berdan, also known as the 58 US Musket, is a .58 caliber centerfire cartridge designed by Gen Berdan used for conversion of the .58 cal Springfield rifled musket to breechloader. It is more or less a centerfire version of the 1865 rimfire cartridge used in the 1865 Springfield. It came in a rifle and carbine version and used a 500 gr bullet. It was never adopted, however, the Trapdoor Springfield was based on his conversion system and the US eventually ended up paying royalties. Berdan wasn't particularly well liked by his contemporaries or even his own troops, Berdan's Sharpshooters, which may have had a lot to do with it.

Gen Berdan also designed the Berdan type priming system that was adopted in Europe. We finally used the Boxer system designed by British Gen Boxer. Go figure. Glad we use the Boxer.

Jerry Liles

[reivertom]

Thanks for the info. I did some research and found a few things out and was able to compare statistics with the Snider Enfield round, which I reload . I found that the two rounds are similar, but different enough not to be reloaded from the same dies, etc.