Picked up a few Bren Chests

[mmppres]

seams like a thats why they are still around an good shape. guess that is one good thing about military stuff it was made to last.

[Peter Laidler]

I seem to recall that while the earlier Mk1 type flash hiders appeared to be longer, the overall length of the guns remained the same. The overhanging butt plates did affect the chest and as a result there was a miscellaneous instruction to peel back the horsehair felt packing and add a tapered chamfer at the point where the overhand went into the chest. The lead-in chamfer would compress the gun buffer sufficient to allow the gun to be inserted tightly into the chest.

I have the exact wording somewhere............ just a minute............. Here goes

A minor problem presented itself with the introduction of the Mk2 gun in that the gun, being 1” longer due to the additional overhang of the butt plate, would not fit into the chest! The answer was that after May 1941 Bren chests were manufactured with a 1” wide x 1 ½” long (measurements vary somewhat… …) tapered/chamfered recess cut into the inside of the right hand end of the chest, opposite to where the butt is positioned. This chamfer is quite difficult to see as it is usually covered with horsehair matting. The overhang of the butt plate, which is itself chamfered, acts on the chamfer cut into the chest and the action of one on the other forces the butt slide to compress the piston buffer spring. With the gun now slightly compressed, it fits snugly into the chest. There it is, a slight manufacturing modification that will help to date a ‘true’ chest. This slight manufacturing variation was notified in ACI’s and described thus; ‘… …these modified guns should be inserted muzzle first into the left side of the chest. The gun should then be seated into the two crutches in the normal manner and in so doing, the rear butt strap will meet against the chamfer… … This will compress the recoil spring (Authors note: No it won’t, it’ll compress the SPRING, buffer, piston!) to afford the gun its correct seating position within the chest… …’

To date only three UK manufacturers of Bren chests have been identified. These are; Papworth Industries from Cambridgeshire, Bolton and Paul from Essex (the same parent company who manufactured the Defiant fighter) and Elliots of Newbury, bespoke furniture manufacturers who also manufactured Horsa gliders.

[Gil Boyd]

Just goes to show these "Gold mines" do appear from time to time

[stencollector]

I have been mining this gold pit especially hard this year. If I were to list the items I purchased from there this fall along with some of the quantities, it would make a decent paragraph or two. Still a bit more to get yet.

[Kev G]

Nice find SC.
Only ever seen Robertson screws on Canadian chests.
Any pics of anything unusual/interesting would be much appreciated.

I went through a pile of about 60-70 in the UK a couple of years ago and only came away with about 15 that were decent.The big problem I had was drying them out very slowly so they don't split and crack to buggery.

To date only three UK manufacturers of Bren chests have been identified. These are; Papworth Industries from Cambridgeshire, Bolton and Paul from Essex (the same parent company who manufactured the Defiant fighter) and Elliots of Newbury, bespoke furniture manufacturers who also manufactured Horsa gliders.

Make that 4 Peter - Beautility Furniture Ltd,London

ATB Kevin

[stencollector]

.... the insertion of a hinged spacer at the butt end that may be raised or lowered to suit a shorter or normal sized gun. Quite what the ‘shorter’ gun was is a mystery because both the Canadian Mk1 and 2 guns were the same length while the Mk2 with an overhung butt plate was 1” LONGER.

I had a bunch through my shop in the last week or two for stripping, and have two that are marked for the mkII Bren. They both have the little folding plate, but as well the chests are 1" longer than the standard chests, so it would appear the folding plate was folded up for standard length Brens, and folded out of the way for the extra length Brens, which would be those with the overhang on the buttplate.

There were some other minor changes to the interior of the box including the deletion of the oil can holder as Peter mentioned.

[Peter Laidler]

That seems to have solved another mystery S/C! When seen against the chests, the wording of the miscellaneous instruction isn't ambiguous at all. But it shows that what we occasionally think of as some manufacturers or Armourers shop 'odd-balls' are in fact made to suit a current need.

I bet there will be a load of other odd balls among the lot you have.

I had the chance to go through hundreds and hundreds of mostly full Bren magazine boxes. I hoped to find loads of variations. There were plenty of variations-on-a-theme, all very slight manufacturing variations - you know the sort of thing, such as different handles, steel wrapped, folded and punched, webbing, the odd early(?) leather. More Mk1's than I thought still existed of course but in the great scheme of things, very few early magazines. BUT a lot of Enfield 1954/5 wrapped ones.......... All going straight to the crusher as what we call 'classified scrap' and then to the scrap yard!

I hope that you get the opportunity to cut the front out of one and fit a perspex/oroglas front to it. Really does show the gun and contents off especially with the front fittings screwed into the glass and the front facing magazine sectioned to show some inert rounds

[Seaforth72]

I believe I saw this stack of Bren Chests at Westborne (spelling) Surplus in Manitoba about 1970. I am delighted that stencollector has saved them.