just for the sake of discussion - which would give more uniform ignition. the large single hole in boxer primed ammo or the twin smaller holes in berdan

Don't think it makes a differants. Properly primed they are both very relieable.

Good question. I bought a substial lot of surplus unloaded and as-new Berdan primed NATO 308 brass a while back. I have to reduce loads when using that brass to match my velocities from other boxer primed handloads. But I have no idea if the Berdan system is resonsible or if the NATO primers themselves are hotter than commercial US primers. The cases weigh so close to the same as my other brass that I've ruled out reduced case volume. One of my buddies says there is a benefit to the Berdan system with two holes but I've been unable to find any authoritative back-up for that conclusion.

I've seen, here in Europe, the usual two hole Berdan primer pockets and also three hole.

How did we Europeans ever adopt your stupid American system of priming I don't know!

In theory I suppose that the lack of the anvil insert on a Berdan primer means that the flash goes directly into the cartridge case?

Imagine pouring water into a cup directly and then pouring it into a cup with the back of a spoon in the way?

But I doubt that in makes a difference.

But of course the real reason for the choice of Berdan over Boxer is that with Berdan you never have a anvil insert to loose.

Over the years I would also say that I've probably had less misfires with Berdan system cartridges than with Boxer system cartridges.

quote:

I've seen, here in Europe, the usual two hole Berdan primer pockets and also three hole.

How did we Europeans ever adopt your stupid American system of priming I don't know!

Yeah this is a humorous irony. But you missed the Dutch. They had a Berdan priming system in the 6.5X53R with a single hole in the center of the anvil in the case.
I have a scanned copy of an ancient engineering drawing of the Dutch case that shows the one hole Berdan system. So I have to wonder if the Europeans didn't screw up twice. They didn't adopt the boxer or the one hole berdan...

quote:

How did we Europeans ever adopt your stupid American system of priming I don't know!

Easy the Europeans wanted more controls over hand loading where as the US didn't care about regulating hand loading.

Most people handloaded exept the military 1880.

It appears the Swedes reloaded brass for blanks, wooden blanks and the short range ammo with the light weight cup bullets.
The Dutch also reloaded ammo including wodden bullet blanks and ball ammo.