doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Berdan Primers for my Brass Shotgun Shells?

WHERE can I buy Berdan primers for my brass shotshells. They are about .254 diameter.

Try here:

http://tulammousa.com/products/non-corrosive-berdan-primers/non-corrosive-berdan-primers/

edit: I think the primers shown to fit the 7.62X 51 & 7.63x54 cartridges are the ones you want. They should measure .2563" even though their chart says otherwise.

Another good source of generic berdan primer information is:

http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/berdan_supplies_dimensions.html

What brand of hulls do you have. A long time ago I loaded some Alcan/Fiocchi brass shotshell hulls. The primers for them were listed as 6.45P. I never actually mic'd any of them but 6.45mm does calculate to .254" (.25394"). Some of the Brazillian import hulls once sold by Navy Arms & then MagTech before they switched to the L Pistol primer also used a 6.45mm primer. The two would however not interchange, one of them had a taller anvil & the primer disc was thinner, but I don't recall which one was which. There are also some rifle primers of the 6.45mm size which have deeper pockets in the case & the primer cups are likewise deeper. You have to make certain you get the proper one as all of them of the same basic diameter are not necessarily interchangabe.

Mine are mostly Fiocchi cases and they use a 6.45 -.254 primer which is the size that I am looking for.

Stallones;
I have absolutely no idea as to the availability of those primers now. The ones had were obtained around 50 yrs ago & were purchased from the long defunct Alcan Corp along with the hulls.
Old Lyman Handbooks suggested for using these hulls with slower progressive powder to;
drill out the anvil from inside case with a bit smaller than a 209 primer body. C'sink the pocket enough for the flange on a 209 to seat flush with head. Then push in the 209 primer, which while the body is slightly smaller than the pocket it will seal on the bottom portion which was drilled undersize.
I never tried this so can neither report on its results or recommend it, but that was from an old Lyman Realoder's Handbook.

ANyone have a bunch of the old 6.45's to sell or contribute?
Otherwise I could sell them to the brass recycling man which I hate to do.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=247839045

Mike

Those look more like Boxer primers than Berdan. While very unusual in shape compared to our Boxer primers the anvil appears to be part of the outer case with the cup seated in it. I've never seen any like this before.

Berdan primers are just the "cup" with primer compound.

Totally agree, they were listed as Berdan

Are y'all saying the Magtech or CBC Number 56 berdan primer will not work??

Mike

Mike;
A lot of this is from memory, but some years ago I bought some of the CBC shells while Navy Arms was listing them. I still had some of the Fiocchi primers on hand so as shipping was prohibitive on the primers by then thought I would use them. I tried to prime a case & the primer would not seat flush with case head.
I checked the depth of the cup & from that standpoint it should have worked, so figured out the cup was not seating to bottom of pocket. I still had some of the older Alcan/Fiocchi hulls so got out some of them for comparsion. Upon inspection the anvil in the CBC was visually higher than in the Fiocchi. A measurement with a Depth Micrometer proved this appearence to be definitely correct. The priming disc in bottom of cup in the Fiocchi was thicker than that in the CBC. I suspect the CBC primer in a Fiocchi case would result in a lot of misfires & I personally would consider it a dangerous proposition to try to forcefully seat a Fiocchi primer flush in a CBC case.