Bremmer SAR15 Carbine

[John H Turner]

Hi, I have not seen any info about the Bremmer .22lr rifles made in Birmingham, England at the old Parker Hale plant. I have attached pictures of my SAR15 Carbine. It uses the US M261 22lr bolt (minus barrel extension) and 10 round magazine inserts. It has a dedicated 22lr barrel and a blanked off buffer tube. All other parts appear to be AR15A2. Hope this is of interest to some of you.

Regards,

John.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Neat, kind of the same idea as one I built for myself using a current .22 cal CMMG insert and mags. I made the barrel from a Remington 341 barrel and a basic extension to accomplish the distance required. I drilled a chamber outline and then chambered it with a 5.56 reamer to accommodate the CMMG insert. It functions about perfectly...

[John H Turner]

Hi Jim, you have made a lovely job of that carbine. There are quite a few dedicated 22 AR type rifles and carbines appearing in the UK these days from the likes of CMMG and Spikes but I think the Bremmer dates back to the 1990's. They also made a full length AR15A2 version. Unfortunately they were expensive at the time so did not sell very well. Mine shoots very well with CCI Mini Mags and uses Black Dog M261 / Olympic magazines.

Regards,

John.

[browningautorifle]

I wish I could get the USGI stuff though, the insert and the mag inserts would be great. My mags, whether they're Black Dog or what I forget, are starting to suffer from use. I have a couple left from Gen1 and the rest are Gen4 with the replaceable sintered stainless steel lips. Problem is the bodies are formed plastic, the early ones were solid but polymer lips. The new ones have a hold open that I can employ in mine... And a sold skeleton body. I just can't keep replacing all my mags @ $45 CDN per... The US insert and a metal body would be nice. Still it's better than the single mag kit I had back in the '80's.

[John H Turner]

Hi Jim,

Have you considered the "Better - Mag" adapter metal insert for the mag well? This conversion allows use of the S&W M&P 15-22 magazines. There doesn't appear to be any adaptations for the Bremmer / M261 other than Black Dog magazines. But these only have a very basic bolt hold open function (the follower jams the bolt open after the last round). I am looking at adapting the Catch22 bolt release catch to see if I can get that to work with the Black Dog magazines.

Regards,

John.

[browningautorifle]

I'd love to get some of the new gen mags, once mine need refurb. The follower jamming the bolt rearward is unsuitable because you have a spring loaded metal part smashing the plastic parts of the mag. When you remove the mag the bolt returns. With the actual hold open the bolt stays open to ease loading and you carry out standard drills of the bolt catch to close up and load first round.

If I could find the mag inserts here in Canada that go into metal mags, I'd take a few...maybe ten...

[John H Turner]

Hi Jim,
That's exactly how they work on my Bremmer. The original M261 mag inserts only hold 10 rounds and the follower does not stick up far enough to jam the bolt back. The Catch22 operates in the same was as the original 223 version but is longer so that it is operated by the follower on the 22lr magazine. The Better Mag conversion using the S&W M&P 15-22 mags is fully functional too. I have not seen any other options available here in the UK but I am no expert.
Wish I could help more.

Regards,

John.

[browningautorifle]

I'll have to have a look around, I'm going to need a few mags sooner rather than later. Mine are starting to crack and break...

[mrclark303]

Hi, I have not seen any info about the Bremmer .22lr rifles made in Birmingham, England at the old Parker Hale plant. I have attached pictures of my SAR15 Carbine. It uses the US M261 22lr bolt (minus barrel extension) and 10 round magazine inserts. It has a dedicated 22lr barrel and a blanked off buffer tube. All other parts appear to be AR15A2. Hope this is of interest to some of you.

Regards,

John.

Very nice John, a mate of mine has the full length A2 version, really rather nice and reliable too.

Love the Colt scope too..

[mrclark303]

I'll have to have a look around, I'm going to need a few mags sooner rather than later. Mine are starting to crack and break...

Hi Jim, great looking carbine, I had a Spikes Tactical M4 build about 7 year's back, I modified her with with an aluminium quad rail forend, drop in Timney trigger unit (back when they packed them with the inevitable Bible quote, bless em) and the CMMG bolt hold open.

The hold open rarely worked automatically, no matter how hard I tried to adjust it, but it it provide a mag free hold open, something both my home ranges insist on (quite right too).

The weak point was the Gen1 black dog and CMMG mags, poor build that just fell apart.

Also ammo fussy, she only liked CCI Mini Mag.