Berdan Primed .50 BMG

[Y2K]

If anyone has a few (?) Berdan primed .50 BMG casings, I would like to acquire some for an experiment. I have Boxer primed brass, but want to try something with Berdan. I know there has to be someone shooting some of the surplus .50 that is showing up out there. Thanks

[Linstrum]

Hi, Y2K, I see you haven't had any response yet. Over the last forty years I have never seen any Berdan primed .50 BMG and it could be because a lot of the countries that use the .50 BMG get their ammo from the U.S., so any "foreign" ammo would be U.S.-made and just coming back into the country. You could look up the .50 BMG in Cartridges of the World to see which countries manufacture their own ammo, that might help in locating some Berdan primed brass. You might need to fabricate your own Berdan primer pocket by modifying a Boxer, but that sure would be an awful lot of work to do, especially if the primer diameter is unknown.

Good luck!


rl687

[shotman]

I will go with Linstrum All the brass that is around now is boxer. It was a us cal and doubt that any one loaded it for us.
Although is was used in ww II the oldest stamp I have run across is FA52

[Y2K]

The reason I am asking is because Sportsmans Guide has .50 for sale that is "non-reloadable". Thinking perhaps someone has gotten some and would have shot it by now. >50 shooters must be "fair weather" birds? LOL Fire suit going on right now.

Perhaps I have forgotton how to read, I cannot find the listing on line, and have thrown the catalog away. Am positive it said {not reloadable}, Berdan primed. Do I need to go back to school to learn to read? If anyone has the last 2 or 3 SG catalogs, could you look for me? Thanks

[bohokii]

i bought some of the s guide 50 non reloadable i think it is south african and it is berdan

it is headstamped 12.7mm pm me

[Linstrum]

Hey, thanks, bohokii!

Y2K, try Googling for both 12.7mm ammo and South African ammo in general, that should dredge up something. I have a dim recollection of running across somebody selling foreign surplus .50 BMG ammo and South African sounds right.

The oldest .50 BMG brass I have are two cartridges both head stamped SLC 42. One came from General George S. Patton's World War 2 training exercises in the Chocolate Mountains/Big Horn Mountains out in the Southern California desert between Chiriaco and Mecca east of the Salton Sea and south of Palm Springs. The other cartridge I found back in 1960, it was lying in the dirt under a Ponderosa pine tree in the heavy forest on Mount Pinos in Southern California about 30 miles south of Bakersfield. That one came from a dog fight a fighter plane had with a weather balloon during World War 2, the balloon had been spotted by the fire lookout in the tower on Mount Pinos and the fighter had been scrambled from Edwards Army Air Corp Base at Mojave, California.

I shoot .50 BMG but I have never bought any factory loaded ammo since lately it runs somewhere in the ball park of $4 per cartridge and I can reload my own for a lot less than $4 each. I have been getting my components from Hi-Tech at:

http://hi-techammo.com/

The last time I looked they had IMR5010 and WC860, both powders are specifically for .50 BMG, but the days of cheap surplus powder are gone and I paid $74 plus shipping for eight pounds of pull-down WC860 from 2006-dated Israeli ammo. I bought 40 pounds and it came out to around $9.85 a pound since Dan pays hazmat when you buy 40 pounds. I got my brass five years ago from a buddy who owns a milsurp junk store, he had to buy the brass in order to get something else and I paid $0.25 each for 100 LC 85 head stamped cartridges. Hi-Tech had some pull-down purple tipped tracers for pretty cheap, but I have to be very careful where I use them from both fire hazard and legal reasons.

Almost all of my shooting is close range low power target and plinking, and I cast all my own plinkers. I use the plain base Lee 500 grain 0.515" diameter projectile meant for the old .50-70 Government cartridge. I am getting ready to machine another mould for casting gas check boolits. I size them down to 0.514", which is 0.002" larger than my particular Freshour barrel that slugs at 0.512". I don't use my .50 BMG as a shouldered rifle, I have it mounted on a wheeled carriage as a cannon and when I shoot full house loads I go for accuracy at distance.


rl688

[Y2K]

Thanks guys, this is one of the best things about this site; sooner or later, someone will have the question you have the answer for.

[Linstrum]

10-4! Yup!


rl690

[rockrat]

I will look, I might have a few laying around, but I usually just trashed it when I shot it. Will let you know if I find a couple.

[Y2K]

Thanks,guys. If my "bright" idea fails (not the first time), I will use them to make key fobs. At least these are unloaded.

[Y2K]

OK, experiment run and results are a big fat failure. I thought perhaps this stuff could be "easily" converted to Boxer primers. The pocket diameter is the same, but the pocket is apprx 15 thousands deeper. Use a looong firing pin? Oh well, I wouldn't know what to do if I made a million bucks.

Thanks to all who replied and helped me out.

[bohokii]

maybe you could use some kind of little washer then install the primer

or fill it with solder and redrill the pocket

[Y2K]

I am sure that would be an option if it came down to "no more .50 brass, ever". At this time it probably isn't too smart of a project.

[deltaenterprizes]

How about using a .500" steel rod to put pressure on the head of the case from the inside to reduce the depth of the primer pocket?

[Linstrum]

Hi, Y2K, don't give up hope yet! What deltaenterprizes says could work quite well.

Here's another thing you could try, too, I re-load old World War 2 Berdan type 8X57JS Mauser cartridges made in Nazi Germany that have pockets a few thousandths deeper than the height of Boxer primers by shimming the pockets with loosely woven cotton cloth. Primers have way more than enough energy to blow through even 0.015" of loosely woven cotton cloth as long as the flash hole is open.

Before trashing your project, take some inexpensive cotton cloth like curtains are made from and punch out a divot by machining a rod to the diameter of the primer pocket and squaring the end so it has a very sharp edge and use that to shear out the divot by placing the cloth over the primer pocket and then tap or push hard on the rod to shear off the cloth into the pocket. With the little round piece of cloth in the hole to shim up its bottom and raise the heght of the primer, press in the new primer down on top of the shim and you should be in business.

I have used that method for a few years now and have fired lots of cartridges with a cotton cloth shim in the pocket bottom without a single dud. Remember that the CCI 35 or whatever .50 BMG primer you are using has somewhere around the energy of a .22 long rifle rimfire cartridge and the primer flash won't even see the cloth over the flash hole. One thing about it, I would stay away from polyester cloth since that stuff is way stronger than 100% cotton of the same weave.


rl693

[Y2K]

Deltaenterprisesand linstrum--you guys are just encouraging enough to get my brain churning again. I was just thinking of a plug sized for the primer pocket I want with a punch to press the inside of the case down. The plug would be similiar to a pocket swager, but at least as large as the rim; perhaps even recessed a bit to keep the head and rim on spec. With the "punch" in a good press (12 or even 20 ton), it should form the case with ease.

Just had a (scary thing) thought--what about a flashhole punch/deprimer on the end of the forming punch? Too much of a good thing?

If anyone else has something to add or comment on this, please jump in.