European brass
- Thread starter Crispy1988
- Start date
I use a lot of different brass from North America and Europe and I haven’t needed a different decapper. All boxer primed. Do you have berdan primed brass. Berdan primers can be bought but aren’t very easy to find especially now. Find brass made for the North American market, boxer primed.
Crispy1988
Member
I bought the Lee loader and I I decapped 2 Winchester brass and on the third it was a ppu brass and it bent the decapper tool so I did some research and found out the 2 different primers so I just assumed it was berdan
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Look down into a fired case - if you see one central flash hole, that is boxer primed case and most North American systems will work - Large Rifle size and Small Rifle size. If you see two or more "offset from centre" holes, that is probably Berdan primed - four or five sizes?? - Also "special" tooling / "special" procedure needed to remove them. Oddly enough, the Boxer system was apparently invented by a British guy and the Berdan system was invented by an American guy. The difference is most obvious in the "anvil" - it is part of the brass case with Berdan systems - it is part of the primer in Boxer systems.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Yes - that decapper tool will let you get the fired primer out of the case - then, it will be up to you to buy the correct size Berdan primer to replace it - I do not know if "normal" priming tools will also re-insert Berdan primers or not - I have never used them. Because the primer pockets are different to each other, you can not (should not try to) use Boxer primers in a Berdan case.
Crispy1988
Member
So I’m guessing I just missed the whole but I did purchase a new set
Crispy1988
Member
Which company’s would use the berdan primers
Known problem with PPU brass or hole was missed. I buy extra decapper pins for all my die sets. Nothing worse than having to stop a reload session because of breaking your only pin. I use a lot of PPU brass and it is good brass.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
I do not know which company's used them commercially - I have some Portuguese (?) "8x57" mil-surp ball ammo that is Berdan Primed - I do not reload it, since I found Boxer primed brass in most cartridges that I reload. Some companies, I believe, used either, maybe in different years production - Hirtenberger (from Austria) I think had 7.62x51 (308 Win) in both Boxer primed (some years) and Berdan primed (other years).
Some ex-military 303 British and some 30-06 is Berdan primed, I think, and some is not.
There are lots of cartridges floating around that are Berdan primed. PPU .303 is one, plus lots of military surplus ammo. I decap all my rifle brass with the LEE decapper. I have yet to bugger one up, but I have been reloading for 50+ years now. I started off with a LEE Loader set in 30/30, then used a Lyman Spar-T for many years. I tried decapping in the press but it was too frustrating, and have used a LEE tool for a long time.
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Some of the nicest 303 military brass I've come across was PPU manufactured 303 Mk8z dated 73 and Berdan primed. I bought several 100 rounds of it from International Firearms 40 or so years ago. I never did attempt to reload this brass as I had no real interest in rigging up for Berdan primers.
One of the last Woodstock gunshows I attended precovid I did buy a bagful of primed 303 brass that turned out to be about half and half FN 50 and PP 73. Someone had reprimed them with proper Berdan primers but I'm not sure where one would find those primers now. Ive saved the brass and with gobs of time on my hands now might dink around with some of it with an eye to converting some for boxer primed cast bullet loads, just for curiosity sake.
One of the last Woodstock gunshows I attended precovid I did buy a bagful of primed 303 brass that turned out to be about half and half FN 50 and PP 73. Someone had reprimed them with proper Berdan primers but I'm not sure where one would find those primers now. Ive saved the brass and with gobs of time on my hands now might dink around with some of it with an eye to converting some for boxer primed cast bullet loads, just for curiosity sake.
The only source for Berdan primers I know of is Dominion which is made by Russia but with current sanctions not available. I still about 900 left which I am keeping for odd ball ammunition that I can’t find boxer brass for.
Are those Dominion primers .199 or the larger size .217-.219? The last Berdan primers I saw listed anywhere was on Epps website in 6.45 mm for stuff like a lot of the various manufacturers of 303 British for instance.
Same as large rifle just berdan.
