I got to handle a museum's Bren gun

[Dontkillbill]

Oh boy did I handle it.

I was thinking of my UK buddies. No talk of politics just some old school gun porn to keep your mind off things regardless of your vote.


[video]https://youtu.be/u8ug6dbal2E[/video]

[/url]Snapshot 1 (6-23-2016 12-25 AM) by Don'tkillbill, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[Madriverrob]

Fun to fire not so much fun to carry ......

 

[Dontkillbill]

Fun to fire not so much fun to carry ......

Sounds like a man with some experience.

 

[Janne]

Best Czech design.....
CZ still make superior guns..!

 

[Drain Bamaged]

Strange this post should appear, I actually picked up five obviously unissued/unused pattern 37 bren gun ammo pouches today in a charity shop......neither they nor I knew what they were the only thing I was certain of was I really really needed them....

D.B.

 

[dewi]

Fun to fire not so much fun to carry ......

110% agree... and if you're lumbered with the ammo as well, its a hard slog.

I like the Bren gun... it feels and fires right somehow... hard to explain.

 

[Dontkillbill]

I like the Bren gun... it feels and fires right somehow... hard to explain.

I get it. I've only put 60 rounds down range but I know exactly what you mean. It stays on target and just sits there till you tell it to move. Very controllable and it does what its suppose to do.

 

[Madriverrob]

The ammo boxes used to drap on your arms and smash your knees as you ran along ......

 

[Jackdaw]

I lost the bloody barrel on one that had Bren Mk III crossed out and LMG written in its place. Just completed an ambush and was bugging out as per SOP. Got about 1/2 mile down track and realised that the gun didn't look as long as it did before. Had to halt patrol and back track it for about 300m before I found it. Noted from then on to tie it in place using a length of paracord should it fall off again!

Lovely gun to fire and you could use the old SLR magazines when you'd run out of your own.

 

[TarHeelBrit]

Fun to fire not so much fun to carry ......

Lol you sound just like my dad. During WWII he was #1 on a two man Bren team. He got to carry the gun while his oppo #2 carried the ammo and the rest of the ancillary gear. He said after a long days slog through the fields of France he was glad to dig in for the night. He was beyond ecstatic when his unit was issued with US M3 half tracks he could drive round in. It's because of the half track, a wet cobble road and a VW beetle that he got his nickname of "Timber".

 

[tombear]

Missed my chance to fire one by putting off a offer from a mate in Holland to go over and fire his and then someone offered to buy his whole collection and within a couple of weeks the lot had gone. He'd managed to get a extremely hard to get collectors licence and had a amazing collection. Oh well.

When I got rid of most of our deac's before the law changed earlier this year 2 of the 7 I kept where Brens, a 1945 Mk 3 and a ex Kiwi L4A4. Real bits of history.

ATB

Tom

 

[Madriverrob]

Lol I wasn't in the war but the eighties LMG wasn't dissimilar , don't think being on the gun has ever changed , still see lads in Afghan lugging it's modern day equivalent and all the ammo .....

 

[wingstoo]

I lost the bloody barrel on one that had Bren Mk III crossed out and LMG written in its place. Just completed an ambush and was bugging out as per SOP. Got about 1/2 mile down track and realised that the gun didn't look as long as it did before. Had to halt patrol and back track it for about 300m before I found it. Noted from then on to tie it in place using a length of paracord should it fall off again!

Lovely gun to fire and you could use the old SLR magazines when you'd run out of your own.

Royal navy did it the other way around in the Falklands conflict, using the 30 round LMG Magazines on the SLR.

Not fired the LMG, but managed a few other bang sticks over the years... All good stuff.

 

[woof]

The oldest Bren i've seen, was in a Belgium collection & that was a 1936 made by BSA.

rOB

 

[leaky5]

Royal navy did it the other way around in the Falklands conflict, using the 30 round LMG Magazines on the SLR.

Not fired the LMG, but managed a few other bang sticks over the years... All good stuff.

Back in my TA days we were doing FIBUA against a university TA group who had Brens. When we overran their position we pinched their 30 rounds mags and put them our SLR's

Had to give them back at the end of the day, but they did ask very nicely for them.

My sisters boy friend has a deactivated one, the kids love to play with it.

 

[wingstoo]

The oldest Bren i've seen, was in a Belgium collection & that was a 1936 made by BSA.

rOB

Might that have been RSA rather than BSA, as BSA, from what I can find, didn't make them, Birmingham Small Arms or Royal Small Arms...?

 

[marra33]

was gonna say that looks remarkably like the old LMG, easy peasy bit of kit, nice to maintain too from what I remember,
first day of small arms maint course, and we had LMG, gpmg, slr, smg & 9mm, stripped all the way down to the trigger sear retaining pins, and thrown in abucket of oil, told to re-assemble, then taken down the range to fire them, never has so much sweat leaked from my skin !!!

 

[Bazooka Joe]

The ammo boxes used to drap on your arms and smash your knees as you ran along ......

I agree, the magazine boxes were an an absolute pain (in more ways than one).

 

[mrostov]

No discussion of Bren Guns is complete without the two Bren gun scenes from 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'.

Embedded videos removed due to offensive language.

 

[Andy BB]

Had a number of those in our school armoury for the CCF, along with the old Lee Enfield 303s and some SLRs and some 22s for the indoor range. Loved firing them at Bisley - remarkably accurate from what I can remember,