Aussie L4 question

[Longshaor]

I had an acquaintence e-mail me some photos of what he says he was told is an Aussie L4 barrel. While I am no expert by any stretch, it sure looks to me like a South African barrel and I was under the impression that Aussie L4s used Brittish barrels. Can anyone confirm this?

Cheers!

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[Kev G]

Yes plain vanilla UK pattern L4A4 type barrel and flash hider.

[peregrinvs]

Some nice South African 7.62mm converted Bren pictures here if anyone hasn't seen one:

Weapons OnLine - South African 7.62mm Bren

[Peter Laidler]

KG is dead right of course - and as per usual with all things Bren. Australia actually made her OWN replacement L4 barrels because there were no I.P.rights on barrels and she already had large stockpiles of 30 round magazines. Australia bought just over 1,000 L4 Brens but took over large stocks of UK Ordnance Mk3's and L4's (and Centurion gun tanks) from the Poms when they left Malaya.

As a matter of interest, can any of you Australians tell us when the last L4's left the Australian Ord system. Any ideas Son? We had straightforward copies of the Pom EMER's as Australian EMEI's

Re the South African 7.62mm converted Brens, from those that I've seen, it's a shame that the quality wasn't as good a quality as peregrines photos

[Longshaor]

OK, now that I know this definately isn't Aussie, can anybody confirm that the letter "P" in a circle is a South African marking?

Thanks guys!

[Kev G]

Yes the 'p' in circle is SA.


KG

[aiae308]

Peter, the Australian Army Shooting Team was probably the last group to use L4's in Australia, seen by me in 1992 or 1993.

Cheers.

[Peter Laidler]

Thanks for that. The trusty old L4 had a good run in Oz then. The last ones in Pommy service lasted until about 2002 with some Cadet Forces who seemed to have them instead of .303's and the smaller rear echelon Territorial forces. We have the last one in service now at Warminster