Hey.......where'd all the Tula Berdan primers go????

[3006guns]

I have 2000 Tula Berdan large rifle primers that I bought from Graf's about nine years ago. I fiddled with a few Berdan cases, probably used only 20 or so, but now I have a nice little lot of 6.5 x 55mm Danish brass I want to reload.

Before anything else, I'm aware of the published dangers of the Danish ammo. I pulled all the bullets and junked them, dumped the powder on the lawn and have pulled about 20 primers before I broke the decapping pin on my RCBS Berdan tool. My fault...forgot to check the pin protrusion. I'll either call RCBS for a replacement or grind a new one from a drill bit.

Since I have a decent supply of Berdan ammo in other calibers, I went looking for Tula Berdans on the internet.........zip. I DID find references to them being banned from import by our last president, but not sure if that's fact or not. Does anyone know for sure?

[NoZombies]

Yes, they were banned. Sanctions said something like the fact that they were mainly used for military ammo. Without mentioning that it was mostly obsolete military ammo...

[3006guns]

Hmmm..........this won't do at all. I'll call the Donald on Monday and see if we can't get this straightened out.

Forgot to mention that I did find some on Gunbroker (despite their screwy search function). Seller had a batch of 500 for............$180.00, plus shipping!

[SvenLindquist]

Dig up Larry Gibson's thread on converting Berdan cases to Boxer. Works great and makes reloading far easier.

[BUCKEYE BANDIT]

When you talk to The President please ask him to release the Tula SRM primers as well. I have a 300 AAC load I'm liking.
Hmmm..........this won't do at all. I'll call the Donald on Monday and see if we can't get this straightened out.

Forgot to mention that I did find some on Gunbroker (despite their screwy search function). Seller had a batch of 500 for............$180.00, plus shipping!

[n.h.schmidt]

I have some PMC .217 Berdan LRP primers. I believe they are Russian made. I have more than I can use. I would trade them even up for any brand LR primers. I would do a face to face trade but sending them would not work for me.
n.h.schmidt

[Eddie2002]

Haven't seen any .217 berdan primers since Graf had them about nine years ago. Bought two bricks of them for some 30-06 berdan brass I had picked up and wanted to reload for. It's nice military surplus brass and reloads just fine but I need to be careful seating the berdan primers, a little too much pressure and POW, it always makes me jump. Scored another brick and a half at a local gun show but that's about the last time I've seen any. It's kinda silly restricting them because military brass uses berdan primers when military brass is available as boxer also. I've pretty much stopped reloading my berdan brass because I won't be able to replace my supply when I use them up and boxer brass is so much easier to get.
I use the punch and pry method to pull berdan primers, tried the hydraulic method and just got wet and am too cheap to buy the berdan decapping tool.

[n.h.schmidt]

For seating berdan primers I have found seating them .005 below the base of the case to be perfect. For this I used a Lee ram prime. If you adjust it just right you can get the .005 below the base. I use a hydraulic method That uses a tube and plunger . Always works ,little spray fairly fast and no harm to the case.
n.h.schmidt

[3006guns]

For seating berdan primers I have found seating them .005 below the base of the case to be perfect. For this I used a Lee ram prime. If you adjust it just right you can get the .005 below the base. I use a hydraulic method That uses a tube and plunger . Always works ,little spray fairly fast and no harm to the case.
n.h.schmidt

Can you elaborate on the "tube and plunger method"? So far, I've managed to break the decapping pin on my RCBS (Lachmiller) tool and bulged one case when trying the hydraulic method. I finally quit. This is nice brass and I want to use it at least once or twice. These primers are not crimped, but brother are they tight! I'll order a replacement pin from RCBS on Monday, but if there are other options I'd sure like to see them.

[n.h.schmidt]

Yes I can help with this. You go down four forums down to Special Projects. Get in can you make priming compound?. It's near the top. A picture showing my tube and plunger setup can be found on post #528 . A good drawing at post #530. Some good talk on what to do is there too. This type of setup is sometimes called a universal decapper. This type of decapper will not bulge any cases. If using any type of water decapper you can make them pop easy. What you can do is push the fired primer in a little deeper to break the seal. Better yet is to push them in deeper at a angle.
n.h.schmidt

[garandsrus]

Hmmm..........this won't do at all. I'll call the Donald on Monday and see if we can't get this straightened out.

Forgot to mention that I did find some on Gunbroker (despite their screwy search function). Seller had a batch of 500 for............$180.00, plus shipping!

Gunbroker has them at $180 but it is for 5000, not 500. Probably a good deal. Shipping is $40.

[Thundermaker]

Not sure if these work. https://fedarm.com/product/primers-berdan-lr/

[Gewehr-Guy]

It looks like Fedarm has .217 primers,but for the 7.62x39, might be a bit thinner and weaker than the ones for the heavier calibers. Might work great for lighter cast loads,so I might try to get some, to use with some 8mm and 7.5x55 brass. They also show larger primers, for .303 and 7.62x54R,but I don't have any old brass in those calibers.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Looks like all the cheap boxer Tula and Wolf primers are gone as well. The few in stock run as much as domestic primers.