Wartime No5 Cleaning kit brush?

[Strangely Brown]

The crooks-and-nannies brush was overwhelmingly nylon by the 1980s but you still found the odd wooden one - I've got one here which somebody dropped on the range 30 years ago (gear adrift, must be a gift ...)

Ironically the LERA club secretary handed me a follower, spring and base plate of an SA80 magazine picked up in the Sandhurst area last week!

[Peter Laidler]

I'm a bit puzzled as to why a .303 pullthrough won't work in a 762! Or am I missing something?

[Mk VII]

Because the weight is too large to pass through the little hole at the back of the gas cylinder. Just as well, because if it does (because somebody put an SLR pullthrough weight on it) once you have pulled your bit-of-rag-on-the-lower-loop in, the free end is now too short to pull it back out again.



Don't ask how I know this.

[Flying10uk]

I have measured 4 weights in total, 2 weights with the angled end, on SLR pull-throughs and 2 weights from .303 pull-throughs, one brass and the other steel with a micrometer. Of the 4 samples measured, I have found that the 2X .303 weights are between .018" and .020" larger diameter than the 2X SLR weights.

[Peter Laidler]

Nope......., still a bit perplexed. So for the L1 barrel, the 303 pullthrough is OK - as we all know. That's because...... anyway. But for the gas cylinder the .303 pullthrough is a no-no. That's strange because the original kits were simply 303 kits with the addition of the comb tool and brush and we would STILL find old brass and steel weights in the L1 tins. NO gauze was to be used on the L1 as I recall. The only instructions I recall, issued later, relating to using the old 303 pullthrough on the L1 gas cylinder was in the military training syllabus and that was to ensure that the knotted end of the pullthrough should be FULLY enclosed within the weight (no loose pieces of knot or string exposed) that would restrict its passage through the gas cylinder. And the pullthrough could only be passed down from the gas block to the body end and not the other way.

Mind you, crunchies being crunchies, if you could put insert the pullthrough the body end of the gas cylinder and try to pull a piece of flannelette through from the body to gas cylinder end, then they would try.

[browningautorifle]

if you could put insert the pullthrough the body end of the gas cylinder and try to pull a piece of flannelette through from the body to gas cylinder end, then they would try.

To be fair Peter, they taught us that very thing in basic. Tie a flannel in the center of the pullthrough and draw it back and forth to clean to an end. You were supposed to use a rod with .45 cal Parker Hale brush but that was the section LAR kit. Yes, some guys got things stuck. That's another chapter.

[Peter Laidler]

I could write a book about things stuck in barrels. But an even BETTER book about the antics of the blokes attempts to get the even greater amount of stuck stuff out again before they just HAD to come down to the QM's department and into the Armourers, hoping that the QM or the CQMS/RQMS didn't ask why. Nails, bits of straightened wire coat hanger, filling the open end of the barrel with petrol from the MT sheds and setting fire to the barrel............. And attempts to shoot it out with blank and ball. If it all came good that was fine by me. Just a few beers later or the usual tea/coffee/sugar and milk stolen from the fitters and turners

[mrclark303]

"And attempts to shoot it out with blank and ball"

I would imagine you couldn't turn a blind eye to that one Peter!

There's stupid and then there's stupid bordering on insane!

[Strangely Brown]

I could write a book about things stuck in barrels. But an even BETTER book about the antics of the blokes attempts to get the even greater amount of stuck stuff out again before they just HAD to come down to the QM's department and into the Armourers, hoping that the QM or the CQMS/RQMS didn't ask why. Nails, bits of straightened wire coat hanger, filling the open end of the barrel with petrol from the MT sheds and setting fire to the barrel............. And attempts to shoot it out with blank and ball. If it all came good that was fine by me. Just a few beers later or the usual tea/coffee/sugar and milk stolen from the fitters and turners

Some 50 years have elapsed since I and three others were guilty of this offence, I should add though that it wasn't a rifle we had something stuck in the barrel of but a 105mm Abbott SP!

We had been part of the yearly Warminster fire demonstration complete with Phantom jets firing rockets directly over our heads and Chieftain tanks in support of ground troops. The reason why we ended up with one up the spout alludes me after all this time but we were told to unload.
Unloading a rifle holds no mysteries but to unload a gun howitzer which had the shell rammed by hydraulics is a little bit more difficult, however the solution is fairly straight forward, you use an item of equipment called, an ejectors projectile. This piece of kit attaches onto the muzzle brake and allows you to screw and put pressure onto the shell to push it out.
Very straight forward to use and the scale of issue from memory was one per troop (3 guns) the problem being even though we had a full compliment of 6 guns on the position nobody knew where they were.

We decided that with the aid of some cardboard ring packing from the ammunition we could knock it out with the cleaning rods and brush attached to the end, the gun No.1 (sergeant) was concerned about damaging the shell so more cardboard rings were place on the end of the barrel brush and shoved down.
After the best part of an hour and being the last vehicle on the demonstration ground we finally gave up. The Battery commander who had returned when hearing our plight but not witnessing out attempts to get the shell out managed to get the range opened so we could fire the round.
All three of us in the gun compartment looked white as the order to engage a lone Saracen on the crest of the hill was given.
I can remember crossing myself and I'm not even of the catholic faith but thought it might do some good, was it possible for the round to premature on this occasion?
We were bricking ourselves in case there was a problem but everybody from the No.1 down to the gun loader (me) didn't have the balls to say what we had done with the packing that was now compressed onto the HE shell.

The command fire was given and the gun layer whose sense of humour was always present turned and said, nice knowing you all.
The gun fired and the relief could be seen in our faces, shortly afterwards the hatch at the back opened and the BC poked his head in and said, Sgt Buckingham I don't know what happened there but that round fell 300 metres short of the target!

No CO's charges, no courts martial and we lived to fight another day, after that we made sure we were the gun that had the ejectors projectile in the side cage of the gun.

[Flying10uk]

shoved down

I like the use of technical language.