Yes, it was a firearm designed, tested and R&D'd successfully to shoot from the open bolt in primarily full auto.
That has been converted to a closed-bolt operation, firing "semi-auto only" via a striker/impact system, that has never been used by any military or even successfully commercially produced in any real numbers, with a re-welded receiver, often made of multiple guns parts - usually by an engineer who does the work in his spare time.
After talking to a lot of owners, there is no real uniformity to these rewelds, some of these run perfectly, these appear to in the minority.
The Historic Arms ones seem to be the most consistently reliable and nicer looking re-welds, but even those have some kits that just never work perfectly amongst them.
I have learned:
Most SA only Brens require a certain amount of tuning, and will prefer some ammo over others, there will be issues, you should always bring a selection of mags, and cleaning tools; split case remover, chamber cleaner, gas-pipe/piston cleaner, lube/oil with you.
The chamber shouldn't run dry, and some .303 ammo fouls more than others, some is made with thinner brass, some are loaded hotter and some propellant is just unreliable and inconsistent due to age or manufacturing.
But, the Bren is a lot of fun to shoot, and it will be going out to the range again - it's ugly (receiver welding) and I've now spent years waiting, and paid three different gun-smiths to tune it, so it will never sell for what I've spent thus far, so I have decided I will shoot the tar out of it, lol!
The MKI will be back soon, and I'll do a range analysis of both guns together.
*I am seeing there is a separate posting area are for the "Semi-Bren" - I sincerely apologize for not seeing that and posting here. It also appears this research has been found and similar conclusions drawn and arrived at.