7.62 Bren mag or FAL?

Having a sort through my storeroom I came across what I thought was an FAL magazine amongst a few 30rd 7.62 Bren mags that I picked up in an auction some years ago. It has the small "nib" that FAL 20rd magazines have but on closer inspection it has what looks like Enfield and broad arrow markings. The other mags have the normal large front locating tab that you see on L1A1 20 rounders so if it is made at Enfield any ideas why this one would be different? Pics attached.

Cheers, Kevin

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We had a discussion about these a while back one one was trotted out for show...

Ah, yes..... but in your case there's a very little known exception that BAR and others might not be aware of. The very first trials type 762 Brens, the X10E1's(?) and L4A1's were made to be compatible with the FN rifle magazines. So your magazine is one from the lateish 50's, made for the first 762 Brens. There were several versions including one that you could fit up side down. Such a magazine had one distinct drawback - that it wouldn't feed!!!!!! So it was hurriedly changed.

Thanks for the explanation Peter.

So I presume then that has something to do with the "X3E2" marking, that it's a trials type magazine. Would the "56" be the date of manufacture? or is that too early for the 7.62 trials Brens?

56 is very probably the first year of conversion. The L4A1's were a bit of a hurried conversion and not very successful. The magazines had a nasty habit of popping out/lifting at the front. The in-built holding open device was a total shambles basically in that it couldn't cope with the forward force of the heavy breech block and piston assembly coming to an abrupt stop behind it. Loads of those L4A1's were trialled in Malaya alongside the FN's and there were still hundreds of them still doing the rounds in the late 60's, left behind when the poms withdrew

There was a little sequel to the L4A1 saga. Due to the high attrition rate of the A1 type holding open device (the HOD) there were a sizeable amount of A1's in Ordnance, fully serviceable EXCEPT for HOD assemblies. So a quantity of late order A1 type HoD's were ordered and used to rebuild the A1 guns. A single barrel was installed and the guns were issued to rear echelon units as fully FTR'd L4A6's

There are a number of trials magazines made by Enfield for the X10E1 / L4A1 7.62mm Bren Guns. The X3E1 has a standard FAL type bottom plate, The X3E2 had the L1A1 type bottom plate.

If your interested in disposing of the magazine, I'm interested in it

You're right KtK. One of these was the magazine where the base pl;ate was held inside the outer contour of the magazine as I mentioned. The idea was that they could be stacked flat. But it also meant that they could be inserted upside down. There was another with a follower that buckled as soon as the sun rose in the morning. But the later ones seemed to work OK without too much trouble - providing that the small knib was in good condition. If not, as soon as the breech block hit the top round (or the bottom round in the case of the Bren........ We had to be VERY careful and explicit how we wrote technical reports regarding this seemingly trivial matter......) the front of the mag would pop out of engagement and the nose of the round would stub into the recess just vacated by the knib of the magazine. The Malay Army and SGRegt had a LOT of these L4A1/6 guns mounted on their old Dingoes and later Ferrets that were used as convoy escorts

How do I remember all this guff.........