Commercially ,Berdan cases were reloaded in machines that deprimed with soapy water which served the purpose of washing the cases out....In this country Berdan reloads were very common ,as the military used both 303 and 7.62 with berdan primers ,and so the fired cases could be reformed to 303/25,303/270 ,7.7x54,and the 7.62s were reformed to 243 W. ....Incidentally ,7.7x54 had nothing to do with the Rusky guns,which were quite rare in those days anyway.
"Surplus", read "confiscated and sold-off by the winning side", Steyr-Mannlicher Model of 1895 "straight pull" ex Austro-Hungarian War One
(and "garrison-duty", War Two?) use were not rare ENOUGH, my teen years. ISTR Dad had mail-ordered the pair of mine for ten bucks each?
Berdan's mercurous primed ammo, military-issue - was common and cheap as well. From the very good condition of it, our stash was more likely to have been War Two production than War One or inter-war. Thankfully.
"Someone" had published an article wherein a specific IC engine exhaust valve stem happened to be a near-as-dammit perfect fit to the case mouth. One of my best bud's Dad owned an auto-wrecking yard which also donated the re-purposed hydraulic brake manifold. Stripped of fittings, a hole positioned under the base of the cartridge casing provided a neat place for the spent primer to escape into. Dishwashing detergent laced water, a smart rap on the head of the exhaust valve with a plastic-faced deadish-blow hammer, and I was "in business".
For the dozen or so cases - all I had fired out of two hundred bought?
Plan "A" was to twist the insanely loooooong military ball projectile out with vise grips with the intent of salvaging the case - primer UNFIRED - dumping the aged Austrian arsenal powder charge, replacing with a published charge of IMR, and the same neat boat-tails Dad was hand-loading to such good effect for his Mauser 98 collection.
Never got there, Dad being a tad paranoid after the home-made Tri-nitro-Phenol incident. We owned
books, not colour TV. Shit like that was a regular occurence.
Anywhoo.. his disposal of the Mannlichers I was converting to ambidextrous by a mere bolt-swap, cut in the opposite sidewall for a safety to engage, bolt handle welded to the opposite side, safety swapped for a hand-made mirror-image.. not much more to it.. worried him as to welding onto a dodgy bolt of uncertain characteristics, etc.. but ... had a grandly better outcome.
Orren Bellows handing me, summer of 1961 - the .300 Savage he had mounted the Balvar 8 to, but had flat-out-REFUSED to re-chamber to .308 as asked. His test firing revealed an "accidental" 1/4 MOA shooter off a fifty-dollar 1940's Savage 99DL, bought used out of a pawn shop!
And there ended any interest in Berdan's primers. All else I ever owned as used them at all being even more readily supplied, "stateside" with Boxer primed. Also not worth the bother of reloading anyway. German-origin goods, but dirt-common, either primer, and in any of many loadings and projectiles.
"Too many women, too little time" was just getting started for me, back in my 16 year-old 1961.
But the same applies to firearms, still yet, today!
Loooong after yer "little head" brain has forgotten what all
that outragous "wetware"
expense was even about, yah can still enjoy messing with hard metal! So long as yah don't get overly hung-up on rear-view mirrors and cease sniffing for NEW challenges anyway!
Essayons!