tried to use the ball bearing method to close up the primer pockets and had mixed results, so I brain stormed one day and came up with a method that I thought would work. at first I tried to drill a flashhole thru the primer indent with a drill press, but lost a lot due to off center flash holes. did some more thinking and had a better idea. I needed something to hold the bit from wandering.
tools and materials needed
piece of 1/2" thick flat stock at least 1 1/4" wide
3/32" drill bit
3/16" drill bit
7/16" drill bit
9/16" drill bit
RCBS primer pocket tool
chunk of 2x4
cordless drill
took a piece of 1 1/4"wide and 1/2" thick bar stock, drilled 2 9/16" holes ( x54 brass rim fits snug in it) side by side. drilled till it had 1/8" deep shoulder, then used center drill bits to start hole and finish drilled them with the proper size. I drilled one with a 3/32" hole (bit fit in 30-06 cases I had) and a 3/16" hole.
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I took a chunk of 2x4 and drilled a 1/2" hole thru it to put the case in, with my method the offset primer hit doesn't matter anymore. put the case in the hole. this is a 1989 NNY case
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I used a cordless drill to see if it would work without using a drill press, it worked great. the index tool kept the bits from wandering
hold the hole index tool over the base of the case and drill the 3/32" flash hole. then move the tool to the bigger hole and drill out the primer with the 3/16" bit. you will feel it drill the berdan hump and hit the bottom of the primer pocket. it should look like this now
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put the case in the RCBS primer pocket swager tool to size the "berdan primer ring" to fit a larger rifle boxer primer
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I did 36 different cases last night both brass and steel to see if it would work. I dug thru my buckets to get a varied assortment to see if it would work with all cases.
I had brass cases from 53,54,55 Bulgarian, nny 1989, 321 Chinese 3-53, the steel cases I had were arsenal stamps 17-46 188-77, 21-75, 188-75 and MFS zinc coated cases. I resized them all with a RCBS full length die . then loaded them up with 43.0 grains of varget and 147g fmj and CCI primers , so its a full power load to test with. I used a lee factory crimp die to make sure neck tension was uniform
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took them to the range today and shot them thru my monster mosin so if I had a primer back out, I would be up behind a scope instead of down behind the open sights to catch all the powder blast
all 36 fired and the primers held with no blow by, I had 4 that I wasn't confident in and marked with red marker. all 4 held fine. only problem I had was one of the 53 Bulgarian cases split above the base rim. when it happened, I thought one of the primers blew by, when I extracted it, I didn't see any black marks on base, then turned it sideways and saw the split , so it was a success ( all primers held)
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I started depriming them tonight to see if the primer ring would stay in, I did 16 (used all the steel ones again mainly to see if they could stand another loading and the couple brass that I marked in red) and all of them stayed put and the new CCI primers seated fine too, and didn't feel like they went in too easy . I loaded those 16 up again and will shoot them again tomorrow to see if they hold thru another cycle.
after that, I have half a 5 gal bucket of brass x54 and a bucket and half of steel ones to convert. then I can move on to the 303 brit ones and brass x39 and 2 buckets full of x39 steel cases
tools and materials needed
piece of 1/2" thick flat stock at least 1 1/4" wide
3/32" drill bit
3/16" drill bit
7/16" drill bit
9/16" drill bit
RCBS primer pocket tool
chunk of 2x4
cordless drill
took a piece of 1 1/4"wide and 1/2" thick bar stock, drilled 2 9/16" holes ( x54 brass rim fits snug in it) side by side. drilled till it had 1/8" deep shoulder, then used center drill bits to start hole and finish drilled them with the proper size. I drilled one with a 3/32" hole (bit fit in 30-06 cases I had) and a 3/16" hole.
I took a chunk of 2x4 and drilled a 1/2" hole thru it to put the case in, with my method the offset primer hit doesn't matter anymore. put the case in the hole. this is a 1989 NNY case
I used a cordless drill to see if it would work without using a drill press, it worked great. the index tool kept the bits from wandering
hold the hole index tool over the base of the case and drill the 3/32" flash hole. then move the tool to the bigger hole and drill out the primer with the 3/16" bit. you will feel it drill the berdan hump and hit the bottom of the primer pocket. it should look like this now
put the case in the RCBS primer pocket swager tool to size the "berdan primer ring" to fit a larger rifle boxer primer
I did 36 different cases last night both brass and steel to see if it would work. I dug thru my buckets to get a varied assortment to see if it would work with all cases.
I had brass cases from 53,54,55 Bulgarian, nny 1989, 321 Chinese 3-53, the steel cases I had were arsenal stamps 17-46 188-77, 21-75, 188-75 and MFS zinc coated cases. I resized them all with a RCBS full length die . then loaded them up with 43.0 grains of varget and 147g fmj and CCI primers , so its a full power load to test with. I used a lee factory crimp die to make sure neck tension was uniform
took them to the range today and shot them thru my monster mosin so if I had a primer back out, I would be up behind a scope instead of down behind the open sights to catch all the powder blast
all 36 fired and the primers held with no blow by, I had 4 that I wasn't confident in and marked with red marker. all 4 held fine. only problem I had was one of the 53 Bulgarian cases split above the base rim. when it happened, I thought one of the primers blew by, when I extracted it, I didn't see any black marks on base, then turned it sideways and saw the split , so it was a success ( all primers held)
I started depriming them tonight to see if the primer ring would stay in, I did 16 (used all the steel ones again mainly to see if they could stand another loading and the couple brass that I marked in red) and all of them stayed put and the new CCI primers seated fine too, and didn't feel like they went in too easy . I loaded those 16 up again and will shoot them again tomorrow to see if they hold thru another cycle.
after that, I have half a 5 gal bucket of brass x54 and a bucket and half of steel ones to convert. then I can move on to the 303 brit ones and brass x39 and 2 buckets full of x39 steel cases
). I should be able to rework the brass for a whole lot less than buying those Berdans.
