I found this neat little article and had to display it. I have not acted on purchasing anything yet. I wanted to probe this forum to possibly find 'those few' who have done it and can tell me about it.
http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2005/berdanreloading/index.asp
Ax
Axe,
If you have the proper sized Berdan primers,
and your Berdan brass does not have crimped-in primers,
the hydraulic approach is very feasible, and will eject the primers reliably.
Crimped in primers can still be ejected, but you have to apply considerable hydraulic pressure and also support (like inside a resizing die) the walls of the casing to prevent a ballooning- effect on that brass.
Basic 30 cal hydraulic setup consists of a piece of 5/16 dia steel rod or a 5/16 dia bolt shank, without threads. Any steel rod will do provided it's a close slip fit with the brass neck ID.
For 30 cal, find a Lee decapping base, or anything that'll support the case head but not the primer, and use a 5/16 dia rod or smooth bolt shank, without threads, as your punch. The smooth portion should be a bit longer than the casing depth to prevent damage to the case neck. Get the bolt in Stainless steel from your local hardware store, and hacksaw off the un-needed threads. A rawhide mallet or small steel hammer are sufficient to smack the punch and eject the primer. You're going to get a little bit wet, this is definitely the water polo of reloading. Steel 7.62x39 primers pop right out, so do steel & brass 7.62x54, 7.63x51, 30-06. Most are not crimped. 8mm Lebel, however, is deeply, barbarously crimped in, I have had to eject those primers with the resizing-die shoring approach plus some custom machined punch/die components, along with a large steel clamp, in order to apply enough pressure to budge 'em. Very tedious, but then again some weird calibers are otherwise unobtainable, so what else can you do.
Old Western Scrounger no longer sells Berdans, and has not for years; I don't know where you can get them today.
Berdan cases, if you want to/need to decap them, are almost always easy to do hydraulically. Cost of that 5/16 bolt is $2, pretty cheap.
And needless to say, you dry the cases out really well after decapping in an oven or let sit for days in a sunny window. After decappingl, shake the steels to rid them of water, use a low temp oven 150°F to 250°F with steel cases to minimize rusting.
One use for Berdans that I can think of, for reloading, is when you plan to do some shooting where you don't intend/can't pick up the brass, and thus don't mind losing it. I hate to lose any boxer brass if I can help it, not so with Berdans. I pick up all rifle brass I come across that's for the taking, Berdans included- I just drop that stuff into its own coffee can. There is no bad brass, just different brass.
Don't bother with that RCBS piercing-decapper, your $2 bolt plus H2O does the job just fine.
I tried reloading berdan brass with the hydraulic method...once. NEVER again. Way too time consuming, messy, and expensive compared to reloading boxer. Dillon is my god! ;D
Axe, Talk to Nickle. From what I've read he and his family have probably try it at least once. He can give you the pros and cons. There is another thread on the forum that also discussed berden primers. Its in the reloading forum.
smle
Yep, Nickle did comment on another thread with an answer that it
really wasn't worth it. I think years ago when I did it one time and
decided there were better things to do, the Berdan primers were a
German RWS brand. I had to modify the primer punch on a Lyman
310 hand nutcracker tool to fit the larger primer. Always pondered
whether the seating depth over the top of a post was correct and
consistant. The reloaded Brittish 303 all went bang at the squeeze
of the trigger. A lot of work, tough to find primers, and aways a little
shaky when seating the primers that one would detinate. Now any found
get saved for scrap metal value. ;D
I'll cut to the chase, then I'm locking this thread as a duplicate.
Reloading Berdan primed brass isn't worth the trouble. Trust me, I've done it, and it's a headache. Primers are much more expensive, and reliablity is far less.
If you wish to continue the discussion, do it on the other thread.