I found a gun broker guy selling military surplus pull downs. They're berdan primed brass, probably corrosive but cheap. 20 to 25 cents a shell. Back around 2000 filled up an ammo can or 2 back when it was 15 cents per live round. But it's never enough and it's all FMJ surplus ammo. Still plenty of relatively cheap 8mm surplus ammo. The guns have skyrocketed in price. I'm looking to expand my pile of 8mm hunting ammo. With pointy high BC projectiles. As the hunting ammo I have is all round nose flat base "30-30 style", which is fine for blasting deer and black bear at 50yd on the east coast. There's still plenty of hunting bullets available as 8mm never really caught on in merica and they are a little more expensive than 30 cal. Assuming you can find the 30 cal bullets you load with and they don't already cost as much as 8mm bullets.
I have been finding batches of .30 U.S.1906 popping up a lot lately, seems certain areas might be finally cleaning out their armories of something, it's all decent stuff, and sometimes you can get it linked! Had one batch of linked that had delayed tracer in it, and while I have no serious use for that stuff, I still grabbed it up for future need! Also found a bunch of .30/40 a few weeks back, should have bought it to trade with folks I know that shoot that one a lot, would have been the smart thing to do, but some times I get the blinders on and forget to think big picture! I did manage to scoop up a case worth of 7X57 Mauser, so I should be sitting pretty the rest of my days on that one! Now, if only I could find quantities of 7.62X51 in surplus!
so..does the black tip on 8mm means its spoiled? Last I bought any fro my son,l it was $0.10 / rd - in a 400 rd spam can. I suppose that was pretty good...
Last time I bought some it was $4 for 200 rounds...gave it to the BIL since he had something to feed it to.
I'm looking at 100 rounds of PPU Rifle line. 196gr FMJ BT. Got this at Cabelas a while back. Box has a price tag of $18.00! I know that I have some SP hunting ammo around here somewhere in 8mm mauser.
I was looking for 8mm brass today and midway had some, $2+ per shell!!! They were nozler custom brass. At that price I'll form 30-06 shells into 8mm mausers, I did it back in 1999 and I can do it again. I'll probably figure out a way to reload berdan shells. I'm pretty sure I can get so cheap unwanted berdan primers and figure out how to reload with them. I think reloading berdan will be easier than forming 30-06 into 8x57.
7.92x57 can be formed from 30-06 and related calibers - 270 WIn etc. But ya, the cost for brass makes you think its all gold plated!..
You're making me feel old. Last time I bought 8mm surplus it was six cents a round. Last I checked, and that might've been 15 years ago, there wasn't a single video on Berdan primer decapping that wasn't laughable. Reloading steel case... and it sizes just like brass in carbide dies... any wet method Berdan primer removal is going to be an issue. So keeping everything dry you can dig primers out with an ice pick and risk stabbing yourself, or you can get an RCBS Berdan decapping tool and bust out 15 cases a minute easily.... If you planned ahead and stocked up on Berdan primers in the right size. (only two available regularly in the U.S. One that fits 7.62x39 and the other that fits most everything else in large primer size except .303 brass, which is a larger diameter.) There is a steep initial learning curve, but once the tool is set up for your specific caliber it's a breeze. Read the instructions and ignore these YouTube clowns. 8mm Mauser was the first cartridge I reloaded, with a neck die that my Dad (a tool maker) made. The trouble with 8mm Mauser has always been the availability of early rifles that have a .319" groove diameter instead of the later (April 3 1903) S bore with .323" groove diameter. Commercial 8mm ammo when I was a kid was all very anemic due to pressure concerns in the older rifles. And 8mm can run HOT in some of the surplus ammo. Standard steel jacketed surplus will breeze through 1/2" of mild steel plate at 100 yards. .30-06 and .270 conversion to 8mm is easy enough. One requires more case trimming, but if you have a trim die that's not going to matter.
I have seen some of the videos and it looks rather tedious. Ripping out the berdan primer every single time takes way too long. Need a way to streamline the process, something that involves power tools, ect. I made 30-06 cases into 8mm by hand back in the day. Now I have a powered case trimmer.
That's what I mean about the videos. I saw one last night where the guy was pecking away at the primer using the RCBS tool and getting nowhere. If the primer isn't out on the first try I usually put that case in a separate pan and get back to it later. There should be no "ripping out" once the tool is set right. It's one stroke and done. The spent primer is simply levered out. I can de-cap Berdan cases with the RCBS tool every bit as fast as Boxer primed cases in a single stage press. Perhaps our European Monkeys could chime in on how they reload at home.
No, I don't do videos. I did find this guy. He'd be quicker if he'd just skip the stuck ones after the first or maybe second try. This is easier on the tool bit too. His technique isn't too bad, although he could smooth out some steps. (I pick up cases on the holding pin, so I never set the tools down.) Could also benefit from reading the instructions if I heard him correctly. The tool is set to catch the edge of the dent left by the firing pin, not the edge of the primer. It must clear the striker inside the Berdan case as it pierces/squashes the primer. Too deep and you damage cases and tool bits. Instructions for RCBS Decapping Tool for Removing Spent Berdan Primers
I want to get the berdan deprime time down to about 0 seconds on the second reload. I'm also going to try to switch from full length sizing and 748 to neck sizing and IMR4350. I tried 52 and 53gr of IMR4350 because 53 is all that would fit and accuracy was just ok. My gun likes them hot.
Man,That looks like using a nut cracker and darn fast too. Recently I had picked up some berdan primer 308 stuff off the range, I ended up throwing it away...
Here is my experiment. Drill out the berdan primer, drill through the anvil, rip out the primer, grind down what's left of the anvil with a dremal end mill bit, then replace the primer with a berdan primer with a boxer anvil that I picked up off the floor. I drilled out and ground down the anvils on 5 shells and bought some berdan primers so when the primers get here I'll see what happens.
If you're going to do that much work on the cases why not drill out the center of the Berdan primer leaving the outer rim, mill down the Berdan anvil and drill a Boxer flash hole. Then machine the remnant of the Berdan primer to the correct diameter to install a Boxer primer. I applaud your determination. I know a guy that found cases of that plastic case training ammo cheap. He cut each case off, recovered the powder, pulled each primer and put them in empty primer trays. He eventually worked up load data using the recovered components. Entirely too much work for me, but it's good to know what can be done. Any way you modify the case you may need to adjust the firing pin length, since it may be a bit long for a Boxer primed case and result in pierced primers.
It's best to figure this stuff out while the power is still on, hospitals are open and antibiotics available. Main reason drilled out the berdan anvil so the case may be deprimed with a standard reloading sizer die once it's been fired.
