Reloading Rifle Ammo

[Walleye Hunter]

Two more questions for now...1) In regards to berdan primers...I have seen some say that they convert them to boxer primed. What do you do, just drill a hole in the center of the primer pocket the same size as the ones in the boxer primed brass? And 2) Now that I have a cleaner, I'm cleaning up the brass I've been saving for years, what do you store your brass in? I'm thinking about just getting some plastic buckets. Oh, and OK, a third question...When trimming brass...the .338 WINMAG calls for max OAL of 2.500. If you're trimming first shot brass and it's at 2.500, would you knock it back a bit? OK, now I have a fourth question...I have what looks like new, unfired Hornady brass that I picked up somewhere. They are all 2.500 or greater, is that normal for new brass?

[rkrcpa]

Two more questions for now...1) In regards to berdan primers...I have seen some say that they convert them to boxer primed. What do you do, just drill a hole in the center of the primer pocket the same size as the ones in the boxer primed brass? And 2) Now that I have a cleaner, I'm cleaning up the brass I've been saving for years, what do you store your brass in? I'm thinking about just getting some plastic buckets. Oh, and OK, a third question...When trimming brass...the .338 WINMAG calls for max OAL of 2.500. If you're trimming first shot brass and it's at 2.500, would you knock it back a bit? OK, now I have a fourth question...I have what looks like new, unfired Hornady brass that I picked up somewhere. They are all 2.500 or greater, is that normal for new brass?

I can not imagine the level of desperation that would cause me to convert Berdan to Boxer. But maybe that's just me.

I store my brass in coffee cans, I have plenty of them and they stack well.

Your loading manual should have a trim to length, I would trim all brass to the same length.

[wanneroo]

Would not waste time converting berdan to boxer.

You'll need to use the correct berdan primers, which used to be found at gun shows on the secondary market as they have only been imported erratically over the years.

I load berdan 7.62 NATO and 7.5 Swiss.

[85MikeTPI]

Two more questions for now...1) In regards to berdan primers...I have seen some say that they convert them to boxer primed. What do you do, just drill a hole in the center of the primer pocket the same size as the ones in the boxer primed brass? And 2) Now that I have a cleaner, I'm cleaning up the brass I've been saving for years, what do you store your brass in? I'm thinking about just getting some plastic buckets. Oh, and OK, a third question...When trimming brass...the .338 WINMAG calls for max OAL of 2.500. If you're trimming first shot brass and it's at 2.500, would you knock it back a bit? OK, now I have a fourth question...I have what looks like new, unfired Hornady brass that I picked up somewhere. They are all 2.500 or greater, is that normal for new brass?

I attempted the conversion on some brass 54R that is sometimes difficult to find in boxer, the more major issue I ran into is that berdan primer diameters are
different than boxer. You have to create spacers that fit into the drilled berdan pockets and press them in, not an easy task.. As others said, either reprime
with berdan primers or toss..

I store processed brass in baggies in tucker totes. unprocesed just gets stored in 5gal buckets. some partial processed get stored in the totes sans baggies.

It's not uncommon to find new brass longer than max, they assume you'll trim and want to allow for the length of your choice. I rarely ever trim brass and
rarely ever find brass growth, but I tend to have a large pool that I cycle through so rarely have double-digit reload times on brass.

[Brick]

Two more questions for now...1) In regards to berdan primers...I have seen some say that they convert them to boxer primed. What do you do, just drill a hole in the center of the primer pocket the same size as the ones in the boxer primed brass? And 2) Now that I have a cleaner, I'm cleaning up the brass I've been saving for years, what do you store your brass in? I'm thinking about just getting some plastic buckets. Oh, and OK, a third question...When trimming brass...the .338 WINMAG calls for max OAL of 2.500. If you're trimming first shot brass and it's at 2.500, would you knock it back a bit? OK, now I have a fourth question...I have what looks like new, unfired Hornady brass that I picked up somewhere. They are all 2.500 or greater, is that normal for new brass?

1. Berdan to Boxer. I wouldn't bother with it.

2. Storing of cleaned brass. I've been saving emptied plastic coffee cans for years to keep brass in cleaned and uncleaned. Reloaded ammo (pistol in lots of 300) or rifle in lots of 100) go in the same type of container or the "square" large plastic peanut/cashew jugs.

3. Trimming any brass....ONLY AFTER RESIZING If you have once fired brass and it measures just 2.500" before resiziing it will be longer after resizing though the amount of stretch I cannot foretell. If your brass (any caliber) is anywhere between trim to length and maximum length it does NOT need to be trimmed! If you get lucky and your brass is at trim length after resizing, lucky you, nothing more needs to be done except reload it.

4. New unfired brass should be ready to go, but it wouldn't hurt to run some through the resizing die to make sure, though inside and outside case mouth chamfering might be needed and possibly truing up the primer pockets.

[Gunsnwater]

Rifle doesn't typically get a bell flare, just the deprime/resize.
Rifle doesn't typically get a crimp, unless the application requires

My precision rifle brass is typically tumbled clean, lubed/deprime/resized, tumbled clean.
You can then store as is, prime and store, or just continue on.
Then powder trickle each shell into a loading try, and seat the bullet.

So basically just two steps on the press, easily enough to do in batches on a single stage.

Auto loading rifle needs a crimp. Tube mags need a crimp.

[Walleye Hunter]

Auto loading rifle needs a crimp. Tube mags need a crimp.

Yep, .308 has three die set, .338 WINMAG has two.

[wanneroo]

I attempted the conversion on some brass 54R that is sometimes difficult to find in boxer, the more major issue I ran into is that berdan primer diameters are
different than boxer. You have to create spacers that fit into the drilled berdan pockets and press them in, not an easy task.. As others said, either reprime
with berdan primers or toss..

I store processed brass in baggies in tucker totes. unprocesed just gets stored in 5gal buckets. some partial processed get stored in the totes sans baggies.

It's not uncommon to find new brass longer than max, they assume you'll trim and want to allow for the length of your choice. I rarely ever trim brass and
rarely ever find brass growth, but I tend to have a large pool that I cycle through so rarely have double-digit reload times on brass.

Yes there are at least 3 different large rifle berdan primers in use. Fort Smith Munitions actually imported the primers that would work for 54R a few years ago from Murom in Russia. They were available until the ammo crunch hit last year. Some folks bought them thinking they would work for 7.62 NATO or 7.5 Swiss but no. I'd imagine some will turn up on gun show tables at some point.

[DukeConnor]

I uave used various containers for brass storage. I finally settled on these

https://www.dillonprecision.com/berr..._10_26822.html

I'm done with the coffee cans and pretzel jars.

These create a lot of room on the sgelf and hold quite a bit of brass.

I have 2 for every calibre. one for dirty and one for clean.

They aren't cheap. I bought a couple a month until I had enough.

[Yoder]

I uave used various containers for brass storage. I finally settled on these

https://www.dillonprecision.com/berr..._10_26822.html

I'm done with the coffee cans and pretzel jars.

These create a lot of room on the sgelf and hold quite a bit of brass.

I have 2 for every calibre. one for dirty and one for clean.

They aren't cheap. I bought a couple a month until I had enough.

I use the plastic buckets from cat litter.