New Addition: 1957 Mk3 Bren Gun

[Flying10uk]

Peter, generally speaking, with a Bren on full auto how many mags could you get through before it was desirable to swap the barrels over? I have heard wide variations suggested over the years. I have also heard of the barrel being dunked into a try of water as soon as it was removed from the gun.

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[Peter Laidler]

It all depended on the rate of fire!!!!!!! If it was short bursts over a long period of time or looooooong bursts over a short period. The gunners just got to know when to change barrels as you could start to see the tracers going wild!. But it was only ever a good estimate through experience but there's a rough guide in the Mil Trg booklet.

You could quite safely dunk the barrel in a stream etc etc but the engineer in me cringes at the idea. This subject was aired on this forum and the metallurgists chimed in for and against. Good thread too if someone wo' nows abo' comu'ers can find it. Fortunately - or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, with the relative non-availability of full auto Brens here and cost of .303" ball, you'll just have to read the handbook

[Flying10uk]

What about the claim that others have made of seeing the Bren barrel glowing red with heat? I have heard this claim a few times and have always been a bit sceptical about it. Is it just an urban myth?

[Peter Laidler]

You could just slog it to death like that over a short period of time but to achieve what? In the normal course of events in peacetime, if you set about loading mag after mag after mag on the firing point................ Well....... you wouldn't be allowed because when it all went pear shaped, as it eventually would, there'd be questions asked. We call it '.......long reports on short bits of paper' Been there BAR? Been there Muffer?.

I have seen barrels glowing white hot and eventually split but that was during a couple of trials under trials conditions just to identify the point at which a GPMG and a Minigun would catastrophically fail. And they did!

[browningautorifle]

I've seen barrels glowing red hot and watched tracers detonate in the barrel because of heat. You could see the dark shape of bullets passing through the pipe as they went. It's a sure way to destroy a barrel though. We would do it at the end of a machine gun course to get all our barrels replaced. If they weren't completely sewerpiped, they wouldn't be replaced during peacetime.

[Vincent]

I’ve not seen a Minigun barrel fail. Any idea how many rounds it took?

[Flying10uk]

Although, I have never fired a Bren, I have had practical experience of cooling red hot steel rapidly as part of the hardening process. Something like a Bren barrel quenched from red in a try of water in a horizontal plain ie parallel to the surface of the water would almost certainly result in significant distortion of the barrel amongst other potential problems such as cracking and hardening of the metal. However if the barrel was quench at tangents to the surface of the water i.e the barrel bore at 90 degrees to the surface of the water then distortion would be kept to a minimal amount. Even a slight deviation from 90 degrees will have a disproportional effect.

[browningautorifle]

Something like a Bren barrel quenched from red in a try of water in a horizontal plain ie parallel to the surface of the water would almost certainly result in significant distortion of the barrel amongst other potential problems such as cracking

Well, I can tell you for a fact it doesn't. Neither will it do a MAG barrel. We also had that in the books for our GPMG (C6).

[tankhunter]

Well, I can tell you for a fact it doesn't. Neither will it do a MAG barrel. We also had that in the books for our GPMG (C6).

Mmmmmmmm. Well. I have to chip in here im afraid. I HAVE seen GPMG barrels 'Bend' when cooled too quickly! It happended on Winter shoots, with plenty of Snow on the ground. On Ranges in Germany.
The Gunner fired his requiste amount before changing barrels. He removed the barrel & threw it on the ground, & fitted a 'new' one & Carried on firing.

The Barrel 'Bannan-erd' & immediately curved itself. The reason: Because it hit snow, it cooled on one side, quicker than the other!
result; 1 x U/S Barrel, & the Gunner charged for an NMD! (Neglect,Misuse,Damage) & had to pay for a replacement!.....EXPENSIVE!

I think a new barrel was £1,500 at the time!..............

[browningautorifle]

I HAVE seen GPMG barrels

Interesting...mine didn't...wonder why?

it cooled on one side

That would be it then. As opposed to being submerged...