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I've used the hydraulic method with 7.5 Swiss, works great because the crimp is only three spots. Never gotten it to work with full crimped primers in the 7.62 NATO I've tried.
Never found any primers, so now I have a couple hundred deprimed cases sitting around
(didn't look too hard for 'em, still got a case and a half of GP-11)
GregT wrote:I have loaded Berdan empties for many years and loaded up on 'a lot' of those primers as well as Boxer.
Tell us more about that...!
I've always tossed Berdan cases out as unreloadable.
Can you only reload the 'brass' ones, or also the steel ones?
What equipment do you have to have?
Years ago I paid for my shooting hobby by trading one cartridge for six empties. At one time I had well over 50 different headstamps in 38 special. A lot of berdan primers showed up, I'd take a tiny drill bit and drill from the inside of the case to make a central flash hole then run the case into the sizer/deprimer and knock out the primer. They were then reloaded with a standard Boxer small pistol primer. Note - this was 38 special only and the reloads were always LIGHT target loads. You ended up with three flash holes instead of one or two so you also had a lot more pressure being directed across the inside of the primer cup. Using LIGHT target loads (a 22 LR case of Bullseye equivalent under a 150 gr SWC) there were no flattened primers and later loadings proceeded as normal. Never lost any cases except those that were brittle due to mercuric priming having been used originally.
Some of the larger berdan primers can be easily flipped out of the cup by simply running the tip of a knife into the side of the cup towards the center and then prying it out. Repriming can be as simple as using the flat of a knife blade to tap the new primer into place. I loaded a LOT of shotgun shells this way when I first was learning how to load back in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere I've got an old berdan depriming/repriming tool for 24 gauge full brass shells, it is a bit more complex than the method described - and does essentially the same thing. You've really got to watch the center post in the berdan case as it is easy to damage it if care is not taken.
Paul - in Pereira
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