LGS Hornady Ammo Surprise

[georgerkahn]

Yesterday I ventured to range with my .25acp pocket pistol, stopping at a LGS en route. He had some Hornady ammo in both .25acp and .32acp on counter and -- it's only money ;) -- I purchased a box. I was recently gifted some Ranch Dog cast bullets by a wonderful fellow on this site which I had sized and loaded -- so I reckoned to have some "factory", if nothing more than a measure to compare my loads -- seemed like not the dumbest thing to do.
Anyhoos -- I got to range, and as always, had a delightful experience. But, when I got home I then noted this current Hornady ammo is BERDAN primed! (And, after the fact, I noted this was noted on the box -- picture attached)263106263107
Well, the ammo cost sky-rocketed as -- to me -- the brass is not reloadable :( -- and I thought I'd share. I was (wrongly!) of impression that NO U.S. ammunition makers use Berdan primers...
geo

[EMC45]

Similar to what Wolf/Tula puts on the boxes of their steel cased ammo - "Boxer Primed". That shocked me the first time I saw it.There would be only one reason why the Russians would notate boxer primed on their steel cased ammo.....They wanted me to reload it.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I don't know about Hornady, but CCIs aluminum hulled Blazers were originally Berdan primed.

[BK7saum]

I just saw 2 boxes of that 25 xtp ammo on the shelf at the LGS and it didn't say Brendan primed.
Interesting. If I buy factory ammo (rarely) it is to check the rifle/pistol out before buying dies and molds, etc and as a source for brass. Yeah I'd be hot about not being able to use the brass. Lesson learned.

[onelight]

I would not have expected those berdan primers in Hornady ammo. Why ?

[Green Frog]

I would not have expected those berdan primers in Hornady ammo. Why ?

Maybe originally intended for import to Europe??

[Jniedbalski]

I haven’t seen any around Missouri. But I really wasent looking for it ether. Thanks for letting us know

[Wayne Smith]

Maybe imported from Europe and packaged here?

[Buzz Krumhunger]

Maybe imported from Europe and packaged here?

My money is on this explanation.

[JMax]

Remember it’s custom loaded:bigsmyl2:

[MT Chambers]

Prolly expensive like gas checks, they want to sell you jacketed bullets and/or factory loaded rounds, they prolly feel that they are shooting themselves in the foot otherwise. Haven't you seen recently how accurate all the rags are reporting factory ammo? I don't believe it much, they are trying to sell factory ammo and don't really want folks to reload.

[Winger Ed.]

I would not have expected those berdan primers in Hornady ammo. Why ?


Surprised me too.

When CCI Blazers came out, they were made to be produced as cheap as possible.
It was to hold down the price for people that weren't going to reload any way.

Just a wild guess, but if you're in the ammo shell case making business,
Berdan primed ones are slightly cheaper to produce than Boxer primed.

And:
If you're in the loaded ammo making business- you'll want to sell as much of it as possible,
to as many different groups of customers as possible.
One way to do that is make a quality product that is cheap to buy for non-reloaders too.

For all the cases that don't get reloaded, but end up at the scrap yard,
either type of primed ones fetch the same price going over the scale.

[Green Frog]

I’ll have to be convinced that it costs more to essentially drill a stepped hole in the base than to form in the anvil and produce two or three flash holes... “that dog won’t hunt.” :brokenima

Froggie

[robg]

old stock?

[kevin c]

I'd heard that the aluminum cased Blazers were Berdan primed to make them effectively unreloadable (that people don't try)?

[Winger Ed.]

I'd heard that the aluminum cased Blazers were Berdan primed to make them effectively unreloadable (that people don't try)?


Blazers were Alum. & Berdan primed so they could produce a quality round as cheaply as possible.
The main market was to shooters who weren't going to reload anyway.
Not being able to easily reload Blazers was just a side effect.

For people that want to buy brass case, Boxer primed factory ammo and re load it---
they have plenty of offerings under their Speer label.

Re-loaders don't buy enough new factory ammo to come up on their radar anyway.
The way CCI/Speer caters to re-loaders is by selling them components..... especially lots of Boxer primers.


The idea that they sell blazers as cheap as they are---
but have a Berdan primer that is supposedly more expensive to produce: There's is a dog that won't hunt.

[Chev. William]

Berdan primed cases CAN be reloaded, it just takes a little more empty prep work to remove the Berdan spent primer then drill a centered flash hole , which also removes the Berdan anvil bump.


I use a long 'center drill' sleeved to guide it to center inside the empty case and start the new hole, followed by a 5/64" drill bit to complete the new flash hole.
I then deburr the hole form both sides and run a pocket uniformer into the pocket to finish up.

So far my work has made small pistol primers fit the small ones and large pistol primers fit the large ones.

I even did this to some Aluminum cases to experiment with reloading them.
They did reload repeatedly without any problems until about the 7th time, when some mouths cracked.

Chev. William