Attachment,blank firing,bren .303

[Brit plumber]

Please do mate, it would be good to see.

[Peter Laidler]

Most of our 60's onwards DP Brens seemed to be Mk1's but were fitted with Mk3 gun butts and barrels so that they'd fit better into the training role. I have such a gun

[ZGB]

I would appreciate a photo of your MK2 barrel blank firing
thanks csmarcher.

[Brit plumber]

Most of our 60's onwards DP Brens seemed to be Mk1's but were fitted with Mk3 gun butts and barrels so that they'd fit better into the training role. I have such a gun

I've got one of these to Peter, a '44 Mk1 with the Mk3s Mk4 butt, Mk3 bipod and a Mk4 barrel. Theres also one mentioned in the BGS and is referd to as a transitional model. I assumed it was meant to be a interim model to be used untill the Mk3 was fully introduced but thats a bit misleading.

[ZGB]

Most of our 60's onwards DP Brens seemed to be Mk1's but were fitted with Mk3 gun butts and barrels so that they'd fit better into the training role. I have such a gun

Did a lot of these MK1 upgraded guns then later be reworked to L54 spec.I have a L54 but is still in its original MK1 configuration with crown enfield 1939.I currently don't have a transitional/upgraded MK1gun so thought it would be a good project to do one with the relevent MK3 bits with the blank firing attachment.With the L4/L55 version coming on stream were there many L54s done or were they sent back to places like donnington to be scrapped.

[Kev G]

Picture dated Sept 53 showing a MK2 barrel with BF bulleted blank barrel and attachment.No foresight block as per the latter MK4 barrel 'upgrades'



Would very much like to know what a MKI BF barrel looked like and was done.
Also when did they start to paint them yellow ?

ATB Kevin

[csmarcher]

Here's one of the barrel's with the BFA attachment.

[Peter Laidler]

I don't remember the BFA''s beinbg painted yellow in my school CCF in the early 60's but they certainly were by the mid to late 60's as we had them for training and definately for our L4 guns.

The old original masher barrels had a tapered insert welded into the flash hider muzzle. As I said, they weren't either secure or safe. The one in the picture looks like the current one without the foresight block.

CSM, what's the origins of yours as I have never seen one like it. It's certainly nothing like ours. But on the basis that it traps a wooden bullet and breaks it up should suffice. But that wooden bullet certainly imparts some energy into the BFA.

As I said, in the Battalions, we hgad about 6 per Company and they were kept in an oil bath and meticulously inspected for cracks prior to being issued. I have just been to the Armourers shop and they are busy spraying the GPMG BFA's with hard wearing road marking yellow paint. Doesn't last as long as the bake paint but when done after every exercise, they are always clear yellow and not black

[csmarcher]

Peter

They appear to be made from Mk II barrels that have been threaded in front of the foresight block to take the restrictor.

I have 3 of this type of barrel. When I first acquired two of them, they were painted red all over. I stripped them and have used them for reenacting ever since. To date we must have put close to 20,000 rounds through them, with not a hiccup. I have had them since the late 90's and apart from a thorough boiling out and cleaning every time they are used, they keep functioning reliably.

Judging by the stampings on the barrel, they look like they were converted from old spare barrels , probably from ones that were shot out or otherwise unserviceable.

I'll get some more pictures in the next week or so, but if you take a look in the forum here, you'll find a video of it being used in a History Channel shoot with the wooden blanks and the screw on restrictor.

Gary

[Kev G]

How strange that looks identical to a picture of one of my BFA barrel pictures I posted on another forum LOL


I thought this was the MK2 Barrel, blank firing (unbulleted blank) C1/MG 29GA without flash hider ?


ATB Kevin