Wartime No5 Cleaning kit brush?

[mrclark303]

The only jamming incident I have seen, that led to a catastrophic failure was a chap in my rifle club many years ago, who had accidentally jammed a Jag and cloth in the barrel of his .22 bolt target rifle and forgotten about it, (can't remember the make), first round stopped behind it, second round sheared the bolt and made one almighty bang, he escaped serious injury, but it wrecked the rifle.

I remember running out to the firing points of our underground range after the 'boom', the poor chap was wondering about in shock, rifle still in hand, with blast marks on his face and the smell of burnt hair hanging in the air.

Respect for the humble .22lr round firmly imprinted on my young mind.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[browningautorifle]

I wonder how the C1 headspaced after

Don't know, it would have gone through normal inspection after the course or at least during annual...(ATI)...I later broke the ejector as I recall so there's a chance at course end to sort it. It was right at the course end too...

[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!

[browningautorifle]

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

That was my first exposure to a stuck pullthrough...we had lots of reservists to give lots of bad info to recruits when I started. So when I got my pal's pullthrough stuck in the barrel, I immediately took it to my section commander. Since we were in the field, he managed to hammer a blank in after it and fired it out...towards the front of the defensive position. He was a full Sargent... Rifle survived...

[Mk VII]

Here is a drawing of the brush which I came across in my files, dated 1944 but revised several times.

[Mk VII]

As a late extra on this question, I have come across this 1944 List of Changes announcement for the brush, which notes that several alternative patterns were authorised, even then.

[Flying10uk]

What other alternatives were there?

[Mk VII]

The drawing makes reference to hardwood or acetate, bristle or nylon for the 'bristles' - I would guess that they were contractor's alternatives even at this early date.

[Flying10uk]

The obvious alternative to a handle made of wood or plastic is one made of rolled tin plate but has anyone actually seen one? I've seen small brushes with rolled steel handles before but not for this application.