depriming berdan brass

KotKotofeich said:
I whipped up a little video of how I deprime berdan brass... If this helps someone - awesome :)
Click to expand...

That's good video.
Now in this video are you doing depriming on steel BXN marked cases? Or are they actually brass cases?
If steel case, how do you resize them?
You use berdan case with boxer primer?
How do you deal with difference in diameter?
Isn't the diameter a bit different?
 
Thanks!
Most are brass some are steel. Most are bxn headstamp, but some are aym and some are the typical Soviet block dual numbers. Steel ones resize fine, just need a little more lubrication. I _do_ find that I have to be very careful expanding them though - they don't spring back as well as brass does so overexpanding can be a problem... Steel also doesn't seem to survive as many reloadings - mouth splits either during expansion or seating by 2nd-3rd reload, so I mostly have brass because it stays around longer.
I remove the anvil from the boxer primer (gloves and eye protection are worn, but I haven't had any trouble) - that makes it a berdan primer. I measured and there is no difference in the pocket diameter (at least for this pistol brass) so it works out. If it were possible to buy small size berdan primers I would do it to save myself the effort.
There's a diameter difference for large primers - i.e. large rifle primers vs large berdan primers, so I buy berdan primers for 8mm and other rifles. At least there're those nice Russian Dominion primers for that ;)
 
The handle of this particular punch is narrow enough to fit in the throat of a 7.62x54R and 8mm - largest diameter is 6.75 mm, though finding the flash hole is a bit more trouble... PM me if you want a link to the same punches - I'll give you an ebay link.

Oh, and I might as well take this opportunity to mention it - NEVER use this method to deprime FTF primers without eye and ear protection...
 
I've been doing this for a long time. I drilled a bunch of holes ina block of hardwood with a forstner bit about 1.5" deep and then drilled all the way through the block in the center divot left by the forstner bit with a smaller drill bit. Just large enough for the primers to fall through. I can line them up 6 in a row. For a punch I use cheap precision screwdrivers I bought from the dollar store. I cut the shank back so there is only about 1/2" so they don't bend when hammering on them. They are long enough to do 7.62x54r if I want. I've gotten pretty good at finding a flash hole by feel. Makes using 7.62x39 brerdan primed brass cases picked up on the range worth while. I tumble the deprimed cases in stainless steel pins, resize with a trimmed off .303br expander/decapper ball that I broke and got warrantied a long time ago installed in my Lee 7.62x39 sizing die. Works great. Then I load cast boolits in them. The block of wood allows me to save quite a bit of time over installing the case into a shell holder. I can stack up about 10 primers per hole before I need to lift the block and poke them out of the holes if they stick. Works far better than the hydraulic method and is much less messy. Plus I can do it anywhere. I take it all to work and do it on my coffe breaks and lunch break when I have a bunch of brass to deprime. I do that with casting as well. My coworkers all think I'm nuts.
 
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