Bren MK1 & MK2 Butt Group, are they intercheangable parts?

[Flying10uk]

Is the Butt group (lower body) interchangeable between the MK1 and MK2 Bren after swapping over the Butts, please? I've noticed that the Butt group on my Mk2 extends slightly beyond the front tripod mounting pin but the MK1 doesn't. Thanks for any information.

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[Peter Laidler]

Yes. The additional length of the Mk1 butt slide and the slight left 'overhang' you will see serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever following a change in the gun drills (in 1939?) which also eliminated the equally useless barrel nut stop.

A designation followed by ....Mk1 or Mk3 etc does not indicate that the part is for a Mk1 or 2 gun. It simply means an advance/modification or simplification etc of the part from the original. I know others are going to argue the point but if that were the case, why do we have a Mk5 butt plate Mk4 barrels?

Added a bit later, after a bit of thought: Now we come up against what might at first appear to be a paradox......... If YOU change the butt slides between your guns, to keep them 'right' you've got to change the numbers on the rear surface to match the registered number on the new gun body to which the butt slide now relates. Isn't this exactly the same sort of practice that the dealers and traders are doing that some call mal-practice or dishonest dealing?

Armourers do it, the trade do it and now........

[Flying10uk]

The numbers are already wrong on the butt slide and have both been changed. The Englis Mk2 has a Enfiend butt slide which I now know from what you say above to be MK1 but my MK1 by Enfield has what I believe to be a Canadian butt slide and to be a MK2. So I wondered about swapping the parts over but not for financial gain purposes.

[Flying10uk]

The MK2 slide also has ABJ 5556 stamped onto it; am I correct in thinking this is a sub- contractor for John Inglis and could any-one confirm this please? Thanks for the help

[Peter Laidler]

If the the number you refer to above is stamped in at the front end of the butt slide I think it might be a manufacturing number of some sort because they all seem to have a number or some other sort of identifying mark there. Inglis slides were all made at Inglis and a very small, almost indistinguishable JI is stamped on the rear serial number surface. (thanks to KG for this little Gem).