Berdan prime type FYI has nothing to do with being corrosive or not, its the type of design the primer is made. Berdan Primed cartridges still very popular in europe.


What makes a primer corrosive is the type of primer used in terms of its make. Ie corrosive primer salts used.

WOLF is good to go.

You can see the design difference between boxer and berdan here:

Boxer vs. Berdan Primers - What's the Difference?

What's the difference between berdan and boxer primers in ammo? In this post with photos, we lay out the benefits of each and the differences between them.

www.ammunitiontogo.com

 

Thank You, Brother Spax. 👍

 

Just to add to the discussion, you can also encounter boxer primed ammo that is corrosive. Both boxer and berdan can be either corrosive or non corrosive. The type of primer has nothing to do with whether it is corrosive or not.

 

I reload Swiss Berdan-primed GP11 with Tula KV762N primers that were available 10+ years ago. While these primers are supposedly noncorrosive, I follow the "trust but verify" protocol and always pull Ballistol patches at the range while the barrel is still warm.

 

Glad you mentioned ballistol. Do you clean after possible corrosive ammonia with straight ballistol or a mixture of ballistol with water? What is your follow up cleaning method after the ballistol patch at the range?

I am pretty sure the Tula berdan primers are non corrosive. I’ve gone many days after using them before cleaning with no adverse results.

 

I reload the exact cases with the same primers as well. Believe me. they are definitely non corrosive. Congratulations and welcome to the club of people who reload with berdan primers. It is a different animal.

 

Indeed. I just finished depriming 100 rds each of FN '69 .30-06 and Swedish '87 6.5x55. I tried all of the methods and settled on the punch method(dry) and can do about 5 rds per minute. The key is getting the shape and length of the tip right. I too bought around 10K of the Tula Berdan primers around 15 years ago (2.5 cents each). They are sure fire. Glad I saved all of that brass!

 

Also they do make berdan primed ammo in the USA too. The aluminum and steel case ammo is all Berdan primed. They do that to prevent people from reloading the single use cases.

 

Berdan vs Boxer is always a hot topic. The "Boxer primer" is nothing like what we us in metallic cases today....except for maybe the shotgun shell.

In 1873, cartridge cases were divided into 4 classes by Frankford Arsenal for tests by Major TJ Treadwell.

Cartridge Case Classification
Class 1 - Folded-Head, hopefully self-explanatory
Class 2 - Re-enforced folded-head, referred to as "Berdan-Primed"
Class 3 - Continuous metal or several parts (attached head), to make a solid-head, referred to as "Boxer-Primed"
Class 4 - Solid head of metal made out of one piece, often referred to as "Ferrington-Primed"...also would includes later dated cartridges like the solid-head Berdan primed cartridges.

So basically today all we have is Class 4 "Solid-Head" cases...i.e. Berdan and Winchester, not Boxer.

Somehow over the years, the Solid-Head Berdan primed cartridge cases are called Berdan Primed, and the two-piece case-head Boxer primed cases seem to overthrow the already established "Ferrington primed solid-head cases......or even the solid-head Hotchkiss cases....or the 1874 primer patent Winchester primer, which is basically what we use today.

"Boxer" never used a horizontal anvil primer of which is what we all use today.

Here is a Class 3 case-head and literally a Boxer Primer (vertical anvil)

 

My Czech VZ-58 (7.62x39) was bought nib in spring 2019. A piece of each used ammo box is kept. These pieces are taped together in clusters of 10, and counted + stored in a large baggy.

4,200 rds. have been used in this VZ with not a hint of internal corrosion - and it has Never been scrubbed internally (--anywhere--) with water or any water-based substance.
There have been periodic internal cleanings with the CLP known as Ballistol.

The ammo has consisted Only of Tula, Wolf, Monarch, with all of the ammo dating from about 2010 through about 2021.

Several AKMs which preceded the VZ never had any cleaning with water-based substances. The ammo was recent Tula, Wolf, Monarch.
They never exhibited any corrosion after thousands of rounds used.

Does this help?

 

The aluminum cases by CCI are no longer exclusively Berdan primed. Lots of Boxer primed spent aluminum cases at the range / desert. Steel cases too anymore.

 

Wolf made steel cased 223 and 45ACP ammo that was boxer primed. And you can reload it, did it to see how well it would work if times got really tough. Woked fine, all went bang and ejected and I didn't care where they ended up like my brass cases which was actually a nice treat

 

Ive considered reloading steel cased in the past. I just can’t get past the idea it might cause damage to interior of sizing dies. Is that really a concern or is it a non issue?

 

Steel-jacketed bullets have been in use for over 100 years. It's the hardness of the jacket steel, or lack thereof, that does not wear out the barrel.* Ditto for cases; they have to be maleable enough to be drawn and formed.

Given the rising expense of copper and the ongoing political economics - trade and tariff war - I expect to see more use of steel in the making of ammunition.

*Artillery cannon barrels do wear out from steel on steel abrasion. That's because artillery projectiles are made of hardened steel at the bourrelet, the widest diameter of the artillery projectile below the ogive that is in direct contact with the bore.

 

I wonder how often artillery cannons have to be rebarreled? 🤔.

 

Depends. In my day, in the US Army field artillery, the various artillery we had - 105 mm howitzer, 155 mm howitzer, 8" howitzer, 175 mm gun - had barrel life rated at something like 1500-2500 EFC rounds. Artillery powder charges were in increments, and the increment used determined whether the round fired was 1/4. 1/2 or 1 EFC - "Effective Full Charge" round. So in theory a 105 mm howitzer could fire up to 10.000 rounds if only charge increments equal to 1/4 EFC were used. BTW one gun crew member logged each shot fired based on projectile, fuse, and powder charge. Artillery tubes were bore scoped periodically and premature wear would necessitate a barrel change.

The 175 mm gun was the longest ranging gun we had at that time, and since it typically fired to its maximum range of 32,000 meters with a full charge, had the shortest barrel life.
Nowadays, onboard chronographs measure muzzle velocity with each shot, and when MV drops below certain values for powder charge and projectile combinations, the barrel is condemned and replaced.