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Berdan primed brass...

MUP-
Give me some time and I will hunt down the exact procedures.

The answer is yes you can salvage the brass but whether or not the effort is worth the reward depends upon what caliber you are trying to salvage.

I'll have it sometime today
 
Thanks for the trouble Dave! I'd say that, just piddling to get it done would make it worth it for me. That is, if the only procedure is just drilling the center flash hole. If the primer bore needs resizing, might think different about it. ;)
 
It's a time consuming process, you need a primer swaging die and some copper tubing that will use to reline the pocket with. Trouble is you risk primer leaks, I would not even try on higher pressure bottle neck cases.
 
Yep, the primer pocket is the wrong size. You have to stick something in the pocket that has the correct inside and outside diameter because the primer still has to fit it. As 7MMinaTree said, you could have primer leaks and in my book that is never allowed.

I think, don't quote me, the key to this is casting your own or buying cast boolits and shooting them at lower velocities, hence lower pressure, hence no primer leaks. And when you consider that some of the more esoteric euro calibers are berdan primed, the steel they use may not support all that much pressure anyway. So casting your own and doing the primer thing makes sense.

Now, all that being said, it sounds ridiculously difficult but it is not the case. I just gotta look it up.
 
The funny thing is Berdan primers are mostly used in Europe and was invented by a American Hiram Berdan. Boxer primer witch is used mostly in the US was invented by a English Colonel Edward Boxer. Go figure.
 
I've never run into anybody who actually tried reloading Berdan primers before but know that it has been done. I've seen that tool in catalogs too but it's use isn't obvious, is it? :)

One thought that is going to make this difficult is the fact that Berdan primed cases have the anvil made into the case rather than being part of the primer as with Boxer primer systems. That would have to be machined away to use boxer primers.

Sounds like an interesting notion to try though. I had forgotten about the diameter being different for Berdan's vs. Boxers. That is going to be time consuming to machine and press in sleeves but since you are a machinist by trade and enjoy fooling with reloading, the time spent doesn't matter. As the others said, some lower pressure loads with cast (lead) bullets will give you some more flexibility if you have trouble with primer pocket gas leaks.
 
Considering what you have to pay for 06 brass, if you can find it, you may want to hold on to them. Wait for winter and dark at 4:00 PM, give you something to do. The two threads can be helpful.

I just had cause to search for some very common caliber brass. I know a lot of places to look. Nothing. Anywhere. Not even on Gunbroker. You can buy the ultra premium stuff at $2.00+ per piece if you are so inclined, but not me.
 

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