Berdan to Boxer

[abunaitoo]

Friend gave me some 8mm Lebel shells that someone converted from Berdan to Boxer.
Haven't tried them yet.
Strange thing about these, is they didn't close off the two Berdan flash holes.
Just drilled a Boxer hole. So now there are three holes.
I shoot light loads, so I don't think it would be a problem.
Any comments????.

[Wayne Smith]

Should not be a problem, especially for light loads. For truly light loads we open up the flash hole anyway in dedicated cases.

[Hossfly]

How would you close off the other two if you wanted to? Seems like it wouldn’t be worth it to do that.

[richhodg66]

As stated, opening up primer holes for very light loads is common practice. That round is rimmed, correct? If so, no need to worry about shoulder set back with very light loads either. Sounds like you lucked into a good deal.

Do standard large rifle primers fit in the primer pocket? Seems I read somewhere Berdans are different sized.

[Larry Gibson]

Sounds like they may have been converted using this method.


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Classics & Stickies
Converting Berdan primer pockets to Boxer

[abunaitoo]

Brass shell only.
To close the berdan holes.
Need a flat mandrel to fit onto the case.
With it held upright, slid the case on to it.
With a flat punch, that fits the primer hole, tap until the berdan anvil is flat.
Drill a hole the correct size for the boxer primer.
That's the easy part.
Reforming the primer pocket is the hard part.

[abunaitoo]

Loaded 8 and shot them yesterday.
One had the primer crack. Two had black around the primer.
The rest were good.
I have lots of 8mm Lebel on strippers for the Hotchkiss MG just waiting to be converted.
Does anyone know if the pocket will fit large rifle primers without modification????

[Wayne Smith]

No, the sizes are too different. Google the od of the various primers and you will see the difference. I don't have the numbers at hand.