berdan primers in boxer cases

[kevin.303]

a while back i'd posted the question as to whether berdan primed cases are reloadable with a lee classic reloading kit. they ain't. the ammo i was asking about was dominion/imperial/CIL ammo and was berdan primed. i had a few spent cases and some time to kill and figured i'd try to deprime them with my tool. they poppeed out and it was obvisouly berdan from the 2 flaspoints but the case was had the one claer hole for boxer primers. are these cases still usable and why would they use berdan primers in boxer cases? i know they also made ammo for the miltary so they could just be using surplus primers. also if the color of a berdan primer goes from read to black is it no longer any good?

[John Traveler]

Kevin,

I believe Dominion Industries and CIL only made Boxer-primed ammunition.  Boxer primers are in two stanard sizes: .175" and .210".  Berdan primers come in several sizes, including .217" and .250".

If you were able to deprime the cases using a Lee Loader punch, they were Boxer-primed.  The two points on the primer you were refering to are primer anvil supports, and those can be two, three, or sometimes four points.  A Boxer primer contains it's own anvil.  A Berdan primer does not contain an anvil, and uses the "tit" or anvil in the primer pocket of the cartridge case.

Berdan-primed cases USUALLY (but don't necessarily) have two flash holes to the side.  Boxer-primed cases will always have the large central flashhole.

Hope that helps.

[dakotashooter2]

To add to what John said, even "if" you could seat a berdan primer in a boxer case it would not detonate. As mentioned the berdan case has the anvil incorrporated into it. In the reverse it would be very likely that a boxer primer would detonate while being seated as it crushed against the anvil of a berdan case.