Some 50 years ago when I was much younger and nieve, I had a British Military Snider Rifle in .577" Calibre. With it came a small canvas bag containing nearly 100 rounds of original coiled brass cases. Not being aware of the value of the ammunition I fired them all off over a weekend. Because the suply of modern drawn brass cases was very intermittant I looked to reloading the fired cases. These coiled brass cases were of the same construction as the later british military 577/450 Martini-Henry and many sporting rounds of that period, in that the primer played an importent part in holding all the bits of the case together. It took the form of a hollow copper tube especially shaped as a rivet. Inside was a rough metal stamping, arrow shaped that formed the anvil and the primer cap was of a Berdan cup design readily available at that time in Britain for pistol cartridges. A long decapping rod was used the tap out the primer cap and anvil. The anvil was brushed to remove any fouling and the hollow primer pocket was also scraped gently also to remove any fouling. The anvil was then replaced and a new berdan primer was inserted.
Generally speaking you could get about five or six reloads before the case either cracked or came apart. Fiddly, yes, but it worked. No loading dies were available and the ammo was simply hand assembled. Accuracy was poor but at least the bullets went in the general direction the barrel was pointed.
Details of the primer design can be found by Googling the Boxer coiled brass ammunition patent, it shows a cross sectional drawing of the cartridge and the shape of the primer tube and how it held the cartridge together. Century old ammo can still fire as long as it has been stored in dry conditions. Rimfire ammo that old say need turning in the chamber slightly as the priming compound was not always evenly distributed around the rim. Misfires? Yes, you may get a few, that can tell you if you have recoil twitch. lol.
Harry
