Berdan to Boxer in One Punch

This little trick saves enormous time for recovery of Berdan primed brass.

It's necessary to make a punch from 1/8" landing gear wire by grinding one end to approximately 5/64" parallel and smooth. Landing gear wire is a hobby supply item. After some use, it may be necessary to regrind the tool especially if it bends. The ideal length is about 4.5". The tip should be slightly balled. Some rejects may result during this process, but will be kept to a minimum by carefully centering the punch. There is a slight indentation inside the center of the case head that was not shown in the video. That's the "sweet spot." A small punch centering tool would be helpful to maintain dead center too. That wasn't in the video obviously, but using 7mm stainless steel will work even better. No need to fuss to much with centering. With a little practice cases may be punched out very uniformly. The punch won't bend either.

308 NATO brass was used as the example transformation. After a number of operations and one resharpening, the quality of the product improved markedly. The flash hole should be about 5/64" diameter and centered so that the a reloading die's pin will have enough clearance when resizing is done. Since this technique required hitting the head of the brass, swaging will likely be the best restoration treatment of the pocket.

The other methods for dealing with Berdan conversion are much more complex and also produce rejects like splits to the case necks. This method is the cheapest, easiest and cleanest one anywhere.

Use of eye and hand protection is recommended.