r/canadaguns • u/Pelcat • Jun 18 '26

Milsurps / Prohib Antique Russian Berdan II

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Got this very nice Russian Berdan II at auction last weekend. I'd been looking for a nice complete example for years, most of the ones in Canada have had the chambers drilled and plugged for some reason. This one still had the original blueing around the chamber area so I knew it was unmolested.

This parts-complete example was made at Izhevsk in 1883, it still shows a lot of the original blueing with handling marks but the bore looks brand new and it has the correct post russo-turkish war front and rear volley sights. Other than the bolt, which is also Izhevsk made, it is all matching. I found it pretty cool that the stock channel has the matching serial handwritten in graphite.

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u/Pelcat Jun 19 '26

No, they don't sell that ammo, I'm going to make the rounds.

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u/Natural_Comparison21 Jun 19 '26

How you going to make it?

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u/Pelcat Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

I'll start by resizing 45-90 brass through a 43 Spanish die to neck them down, then I'll run just the neck through a 44 pistol die to size that down a little more. The bullet I'll use will be a 340gr 44 mag bullet and I'll load the case with around 70 grains of black powder.

I don't expect my cases to eject due to the much thinner rims compared to original 42 Berdan rounds but they should at least extract and allow me to fire the rifle.

Edit: Forgot to mention I also have to trim them to the proper lenght once they're sized.

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u/Natural_Comparison21 Jun 20 '26

That is a impressive feat of reloading.