Need some advice on how to loosen sealer on Berdan primed cases so the primers can be removed. Your help is greatly needed and appreciated.

Gripmaker

They can be removed with an apparatus such as this

Water and piston method is easier, but messier. The sealer is not holding the primers in; that is just for waterproofing.

I made up a hydraulic deprimer for Berdan primers, not because I needed one but just because someone did an article on one with diagrams etc in a Handloader Digest, if I remember correctly, and I thought I would try in out for myself. It did work but pretty messy and convoluted method.

I have not tried the decapper that Ted shows but have read that this tool can damage the primer anvil in the case head if not used carefully.

I made myself a better system based on the standard boxer primer decapper but just used a slimmer pin in one of the twin flash holes in the case.

Found a piece of tough spring steel that would fit straight into the collet in a standard RCBS decapping rod and turned down the exposed pin to fit the Berdan case flash hole. Used the decapping rod from a 222Rem F/L sizing die so the button that clamps the pin in the collet will fit any case above 22 neck size.

It easily knocks out the Berdan primers from my 404 cases including the factory primers which have purple sealant around them. just takes a bit of feeling around to start the pin into a flash hole. I decap my cases using this method then remove the boxer pin from my RCBS F/L die and size cases as normal.

Simple, clean and no risk of damaging the anvil and don't have to dry out cases before carrying on with the loading process.

Berdan primer decapper and spare pin steel.

Gripmaker: How many cases do you need to deprime? If just a few, IMHO the hydraulic method is the ticket. If you have lots of cases, the method of our Kiwi poster seems the way to go. But I have to ask: why are you fooling around with decapping Berdan primers to begin with? I noticed you don't live in Europe.

Good point. There is another method I forgot; it uses a large rifle primer, fired into the berdan case, to force out the berdan primer. So you spend a primer to remove a primer. Of course, you need the die and firing mech for that method. I quit decapping berdans many years ago since we have a great supply of boxer brass now. Boxer primers were invented in England and Berdans were invented in the US. Just fyi.

I just hate to waste good brass. I have already deprimed a number of 6.5X55 brass and the hydraulic method works wonderfully. However, my 8X57 brass has sealed primers and are EXTREMELY difficult to de-prime this way. When you can get Berdan primed brass soooo much cheaper and of proper dimensions, why buy over priced boxer brass? Besides, it is challenging and fun to shoot the old cartridges as they were meant to be.

Lacquer thinner should cut it. But that might not be the issue. Sealer is just around the rim for waterproofing and should not offer any resistance to removing it. I think.

I wish that were true. So far, I have soaked the cases in acetone to remove the sealer but to no avail. Also, the ones I have been able to de-prime have had a ring of sealer around the rim of the primer all the way to the bottom of the pocket. These are Bosnian made military surplus cases (NNY aka PPU) and are great stuff if they can be de-primed. It is fast becoming a quest. Hopefully I don't turn into the
Don Quixote of reloading. The original loads could be put on an 8.5X11 paper at 600 yds with my BYF/44 K98k so I really want to duplicate them.

Looks like you are on your own with this one.

If it's military brass the primers may have some sort of crimp.

Gripmaker if the primers you are trying to remove are not budging with the hydraulic method then I doubt my method above would work as the pin I use in one of the small twin flash holes is quite fine and would likely bend or even just punch a hole through a tight spent Berdan primer.

In other threads about removing Berdan primers some reloaders drill out the twin flash holes to the standard boxer primer size flash hole and then make up a tool with twin boxer decapping pins to fit or you could just use a single pin. Boxer primer decapping pins are much more robust.

To drill out the twin flash holes with a spent primer in place one would have to make up an extension (for longer cases) for the correct sized drill bit to reach in from the case mouth and carefully open up the flash holes without drilling on through the primer. I have not tried Berdan primers with opened up flash holes but those that have say there are no negative effects when firing the so altered cartridges.

As you have discovered, without a central flash hole large enough for an inline and sturdy decapping pin, Berdan primed brass is not so simple to work with and personally I only bother with Berdan brass because I happen to have some Berdan primed Kynoch 404 cartridges, the cases for which are not cheap.

Craigster, I am beginning to think you are correct about some sort of crimp. I looked at some that I did de-prime and the primer pocket has what appears to be a reverse chamfer. However, I can't figure how they are seated if this is true. Also, I have 6.5 Swede ammo that has a noticeable crimp and they just pop right out with the hydraulic method.

It would be nice to know what method is used in European munitions factories to deprime cases. Anybody out there know or know who would?

Why would a munitions factory want or need to de-prime a case? They would make a new one.

quote:

Originally posted by Gripmaker:
Craigster, I am beginning to think you are correct about some sort of crimp. I looked at some that I did de-prime and the primer pocket has what appears to be a reverse chamfer. However, I can't figure how they are seated if this is true. Also, I have 6.5 Swede ammo that has a noticeable crimp and they just pop right out with the hydraulic method.

It would be nice to know what method is used in European munitions factories to deprime cases. Anybody out there know or know who would?

You Americans invented cartridge case reloading, the World over uses your reloading gear, if you haven't invented simple easy de-cappers for Berdan primers then no body has.

All cartridges are on a one way trip from munitions factories and Berdan brass in particular.

I imagine the manufacturing process for Berdan primed cases is easier and cheaper, likewise for Berdan primers themselves, a simple cup with a priming compound, no tiny special shaped anvil to insert and crimp in the cup.

Hence the reason why large production runs of military ammo and now today cheaply made sporting ammo from less developed countries have used or still use Berdan primers.

They are a throw away, but many of us persist and make it our mission to reload Berdan brass, we are tigers for punishment

You are exactly right about Berdan primers, which were invented by an American. (And
Boxer primers were invented in England; at some point we exchanged them) And the reasons they are used by everyone else in the world is that they are cheaper to make, as you said; the primers need no anvil, which increases the cost. And you said it; they are a throw away, not to be reloaded.