|
A friend bought a .450 BPE that came with some Kynoch Berdan primed ammo and brass. We loaded that until he could round up some Bell cases for Boxer primers.
I concluded that if you are shooting a scarce caliber that kicks hard enough that it doesn't take many rounds to have your fun, it is just barely practical.
The procedure we developed was to screw the seating die into the press upside down, drop the fired case in, and drive an awl into the primer indent at an angle flat enough to penetrate the cup without cutting into the anvil. Then pry out the primer. Resize brass with the decapping pin out of the die. Seat a fresh primer by putting it on a flat plate and tapping the case down over it with a rod and mallet. Charge powder and seat bullet normally.
I don't recall popping a primer that way. If you are going to do a lot, you can get primer punches of the right diameter and there was once one made with a stop system to seat the Berdan just to the right depth.
Berdan primers are even less common now than then. If I had an odd caliber normally made with Berdan primers, I would call Buffalo Arms and see if they had any reformed Boxer cases for it. I sure wouldn't fool with something common on the market.
|