Has anyone here ever tried re-priming corrosive surplus 7.62x39 with modern berdan primers?
I would re-use the powder charge and projectile, but with a new primer, and accept that the casing is one-time-use.
Also, how hard are the Dominion berdan primers compared to the original ones?
Yes, it's a pain in the butt but doable. I replaced the original primers with Dominion primers from Canada Ammo, checked the weight on fifty powder loads and dumped it all into a jar. The cases I loaded were copper coated steel. I also reused the pulled bullets.
I wanted to see how good the components were in my M85 Yugo Mini Mauser. The powder was averaged and reloaded so the charges were consistent. The bullets were surprisingly consistent in weight.
I made up a tool with one offset pin to punch out the primers, after soaking the cases overnight in Varsol. It likely wouldn't have been a problem but it didn't hurt anything either other than to add an extra cleaning step. I also resized the necks.
There is a special tool made by RCBS and likely others for pulling Berdan primers. I wouldn't suggest using it on unfired primers. Not only that, milspec primers are HARD.
I wanted to see what carefully put together reloads would do with the same components as the original Chinese loads. In all honesty, there wasn't enough difference at 50 and 100 yards to make it worth the effort. That little Mini Mauser is a good shooter if I do my part. It is almost as good as the CZ.
If you like playing, go for it. If you're afraid of corrosive loads, don't be and learn how to clean it properly as mentioned.
By the way, I also reloaded those same cases at least six times before they started to get to hard to form. I suspect the steel used in them is extremely mild and almost as malleable as soft iron.
