Berdan brass has two flash holes, while boxer brass has one in the center. In the real world it is better to have two flames from two directions to ignite the mixture. Automotive engineers did lots of testing ans some engines were designed for a reason to have either two spark plugs or two or more spark electrodes to reliably ignite what ever is in the cylinder. Regarding ammo, berdan primed ammo should be more reliable ignition wise. For our purposes of reloading we get easier reloadable boxer brass, while we may lose a bit in reliability department. Military berdan brass is made to be once fired and thrown away. That's it.
Further more from this stand point, berdan primed ammo is more stable in ignition, therfore may be more accurate.
However it all depends on conditions of storage and use. Boxer is just easier for roading, no other advantages in my opinion
Some of this is correct but when push comes to shove most cartridges including commercial are made to be fired once and discarded.
Handloading was something that came about because of lack of cases and expense of loaded ammo. Even some militaries in the world reload their spent cases for practice sessions to save money. It's also one reason why many nations opt for steel cases instead of brass. Both types of ammo can be easily reloaded if you have the proper tools.
It's an absolute shame to discard some of the best brass cartridge cases made because they are Berdan primed.
Hirtenberger 7.62x51 and Ruag 7.62x55 as well as some brass cased 7.62x54R, 8x57, 7x57, 6.5x55, 6.5x53 and 6.5x51 etc. Some obsolete ammo like the 6.5 Jap etc used to be almost impossible to find with boxer primed brass. The only alternative was to form cases from other cases which may or may not be acceptable or only viable for one use.
Berdan primers are available from Canada Ammo, a banner sponsor. There are other suppliers in Canada as well. Do a Google search.
It's easy to make up a hand punch for Berdan primer removal. I don't know of a cleaner way to do it. I find a drill stem that will fit into one of the flash holes and make up a rod that will fit into the casemouth. Then move the stem around until it goes into one of the holes. Put the case head onto a holder and with a light hammer punch out the primer.
One other thing, some Berdan primed cases have crimped primer pockets. The crimp needs to be removed before another primer can be inserted. Some Boxer cases are done in a similar manner.
I did some tests on 6.5x55, 303Brit, 7.62x51 with both primers, with identical loads at identical ranges, under identical conditions. Velocities were very close as could be expected from different batches of brass. Accuracy was pretty much identical.
One other thing to consider. If two flash holes were that much better the BENCH REST shooters would use it exclusively. That's one of the reasons I did the comparison experiments. In the case of the 6.5x55 and the 7.62x51 the tests were conducted on Hunter Bench Rest match rifles with 6X AO high quality scopes.
If you have a quantity of excellent brass with Berdan primers and are willing to spend a bit more time prepping it's well worth the effort, especially at the cost of brass today.
My only issue with Berdan primers is that it only comes in one flame temp. That's all I can find anyway.
