advice on brens

[Pattern14]

Brian,
Do you get to any of the large Gun Shows at the Harrisburg PA Farm Show Complex? Had I known that you were in York I would have driven down and talked to you. I talked to Ian Skennerton a few years ago at a Harrisburg show- very nice guy.

George

[Peter Jones]

The Bren LMG is a full / semi automatic weapon. It would require a very good gunsmith to remove the auto function. It is gas and spring operated and as far as I know cannot be fired on single shot without the use of the piston group which upon recoil knocks the sear from the bent. If you are going for full auto I suggest that you obtain a second extractor stay and spring and, if possible a further extractor. The other item you may need is a clearing plug as it is possible to get case separation, although very rare.
Regards
Peter Jones

[Peter Laidler]

Peter, it's not recoil that knocks the sear from the bent (of the piston post) but the rear end of the piston post that touches the tip of the raised tripping lever, depresses it slightly which disengages the tripping lever from the sear. The SEAR is then free to rise and engage the sear bent again for single shot fire.

Ruptured cartridges weren't a real problem with the Bren because as the breech block drops from engagement with the locking shoulder, the front bottom surfaces rotates on the breech block stops in the body. The extractor tightens up via another action and then, as the breech block tips (rotates slightly) downwards, the extractor claw levers the cartridge case out of its tapered engagement with the chamber. It's called primary extraction. Something similar happens with the No4 but in the Bren, it's a bit more complicated.

The conversion to semi automatic/self loading sufficient to satisfy the feared US BATF has already been successfully marketed there

[infidel]

I have obtained a semi-auto bren. I believe that all that was done was to replace the selector & weld in place. moving the selector to safe or auto has the same result-nothing happens.

[Brit plumber]

One of my Brens is I think possibly a Ex British civilian semi auto conversion (before the ban). It had the part of the sear removed so that if the ARS lever was moved to auto, it still wouldn't function that way. The sear pin was also pinned inplace so the mechanism couldn't be easily removed. Its quite a tidy and simple conversion but I'm surprised it was OK for use in the UK. I may of course be wrong and it may be from another country.

[infidel]

I was surprised as well at how little was done. Less than on my FN-FAL back in the 90's.

[Peter Laidler]

In the old days of plenty in the UK, you COULD have a Bren with the barrel bored out to .410" shot cartridge and the trigger mechanism modified so that it wouldn't fire in the automatic mode. This was perfectly acceptable because it was now a self loading, non automatic shotgun. This was in the days when the authorities punished those that actually committed the crime/offence, instead of just punishing everyone. I think that call it blanket or communal punishment.

Things changed and such shotgun Brens became unlawful unless they were deactivated. Many people had them deactivated and in the early days, for about 12/18 months, the barrels weren't pinned in. Even the second barrel was deactivated by slotting, submitted for deactivation inspection and passed.

It's mind boggling!

[Brian Dick]

George, The only show I work in PA is the SAR East show in York. You would have enjoyed it. The owner and most of the staff from GE Fulton and Son gunshop in Bisley were in attendance and a great time was had by all. We migrated down to a friend's place in Virginia and had a great weapons demo for them and booze fest thereafter from which we're all now fully recovered! Brian

[csmarcher]

I have obtained a semi-auto bren. I believe that all that was done was to replace the selector & weld in place. moving the selector to safe or auto has the same result-nothing happens.

I have two of them here in the US and the entire FCS is different.

1) Is striker fired from a closed bolt.

2) The entire sear from the piston is ground flat and the piston is non-removable due to the cross pin being welded in place

3) There is a striker with a new sear machined into it that is operated by an auxilliary spring that is housed around the original recoil spring.

4) The "A" position on the buttslide is blocked by a solid area of machined weld.

5) The right side rail on the bolt carrier has been machined away as, the internal rail in the reciever has been filled in.

6) The firing pin now has a long tail on it, so that when hit by the striker , will fire the round. The piston post has a U shaped groove cut in it to accomodate the long firing pin.

I can take some pictures if anyone would like to see further questions.

Gary