Hey reloading Wizards....Got ahold of a big bunch (200rnds) of 470NE NEW never fired Kynoch brass from the early 70's Primers are Berdan and still good (having tested 10 at random ..all fired LOUD) They were kept in sealed ammo cans the last 35 years.Question is...are they much hotter than F215 and would they be best used in full or reduced loads?

I have heard they are hotter. The old Berdan primers were bigger and I don't think they are avaliable aney more. I think I would sell them to some one perhaps a colector and by new brass. The reason being you know you have loade data with modern componets. The origanal Kynoch brass was verrey thin and not ment to be reloded. This would mean to me it won't handel the preshure as well as modern brass.
Bill

I reloaded Berdan primed Kynoch brass for years, but never with Kynoch caps. I used RWS caps which were nowhere near as hot as Fed 215s. The only thing that you can do is work up, shooting over a chronograph.

The old Kynoch brass is fine to reload, as long as you anneal.
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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

Bill:
I would respectfully disagree that Kynoch brass isn't to be reloaded. I have original sealed boxes of Kynoch unprimed brass in 450-400 3 1/4 and original boxes of bullets 50 to a pack. Obviously Kynoch intended one to reload if one desired. I have original Kynoch caps that I load with and just take necessary precautions when cleaning. Don't appear to be any pressure related problems.


Dutch

400 Nitro Express,
I would like to know where you can get Berdan primers of the proper size in the US. The last ones I knew about were the RWS 6507 I can’t find any in stock.

Dutch44,
What you have is the components to load not nessacariley re load ammo. I have reloaded hard to get cases when I could get berdan primers.
I still say the best coarse in my opinion is to sell the Berdan cases and get boxer primed cases for the listed reasons.
I have heard of a couple of ways to modify Berdan cases to use either shotgun primers or bushed down to boxer primers. I don’t think I would mess with either one unless it was for a case that couldn’t be found or made from something else.
Bill

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Cooley:
400 Nitro Express,
I would like to know where you can get Berdan primers of the proper size in the US. The last ones I knew about were the RWS 6507 I can’t find any in stock.

Don't need any. I have plenty - for me , but that wasn't the question asked (re-read Chris' question), nor is it what you posted.

You posted:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Cooley:
The origanal Kynoch brass was verrey thin and not ment to be reloded. This would mean to me it won't handel the preshure as well as modern brass.

as well as...

quote:

Dutch44,
What you have is the components to load not nessacariley re load ammo.

...both of which are quite ignorant of the matter. Kynoch sold primers, cases, and bullets - specifically for reloading - for many, many years, and they work quite well indeed. Reloading the Kynoch cases was done regularly back before Boxer primed cases were available in these calibers, and many of us continued to do so after BELL sold and safe, good quality Boxer cases became hard to get.

Chris has the cases and primers and there is no good reason not to put them to good use, hocus-pocus fairy tales about the cases not being reloadable notwithstanding.
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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

400 Nitro,
Until you can show me a source of fresh berdan primers I will stick to what I said about selling the brass and buying boxer primed brass. The brass has value now. Why waste the time to work up loads with this brass as he only has 190 left if he can’t get primers the time and effort is wasted as the data won’t transfer to boxer brass. Just because you can reload it doesn’t mean it was designed to be reloaded. You apparently missed the part in the mist of your gleeful beratment about my lack of knowledge, where I told about reloading berdan primed cases for hard to get rounds.
What I was trying to point out to Dutch44, perhaps badly, was that one of the main uses besides re loading was to load to improve regulation for a specific rifle that didn’t do well with the original regulation load. How many people have posted about how they had to tweak there loads to get there rifle to shoot to regulation.
Chris asked for opinions and after reading the responses should make up his own mind.
Bill

quote:

Originally posted by Chris E Nelson:
Hey reloading Wizards....Got ahold of a big bunch (200rnds) of 470NE NEW never fired Kynoch brass from the early 70's Primers are Berdan and still good (having tested 10 at random ..all fired LOUD) They were kept in sealed ammo cans the last 35 years.Question is...are they much hotter than F215 and would they be best used in full or reduced loads?

Bill - I think you missed the fact that the brass already has the berdan primers. It is primed brass. I have some of the same berdan primed brass in 470.

I have not gotten around to it yet, but I was going to e-mail Norma and VV and ask them if their published loads were still good for berdan primed cartridges. They are both based in Eurpoe, where Berdan primers are still used a lot.