Mystery British Oiler

[browningautorifle]

In ours the oil bottle was inserted down into the top part of the grip plate, through the wooden grip and down, into the bottom part of the grip plate. That's how we were able to replace the wood grips that the gunners damaged with monotonous regularity when they dumped the gun breech end down.

See, that was what I thought as the .50 grips were just a tube held in place by a bolt. I haven't got a real Vickers here to examine, nor a live Lewis though. I expected the assembly on the Vickers would be the same. Thing is, it doesn't look EXACTLY like the Lewis. And of course the brush bristles are missing.