Another possibly useless Bren Accessory

[tankhunter]

Not being an engineer, nor an infanteer, I can tell you that the reason they wanted the barrel tightly fitted was so that the gun did not batter itself into tiny little pieces in short order.

The Brens "reputation" for accuracy and reliability would have in short order become a reputation for unreliability, and parts breakage....

LE: I can understand your approach on logic as to your statement of The Bren having a loose Barrel.
However: The Breech block slams forward & it's momentum is finally halted by two Breech block Stops in the Reciever. Technically, it does NOT touch the Barrel at the breech end. The result of a 'Loose' Barrel in Armourers terms, would be a loss of group accuracy. The Barrels are manufactured from good steel stock but NOT hard. The Barrel locking nuts are VERY Hard indeed! So the worse that could happen is that it is POSSIBLE to slightly batter the set of interupted threads at the breech end of the Barrel. This would be minimal & would not really affect the action of the gun.
BUT, if left for a LONG time in this condition (Would NOT happen in British Military service due to frequent inspection Procedures) then it MIGHT affect cartridge headspace & cause seperated cases to occur.
I have never expirenced a seperated case in either .303" Brens, or 7.62mm LMGs due to pre firing checks being carried out. & also R.E.M.E Armourers inspections as required as laid out in E.M.E.Rs.
If this happend in todays world with the guns set up correctly. I would suspect the Ammo if it were OLD stock. & even then, with the use of VERY old Ammo. I have fired Brens with no dificulty, other than the odd round has misfired due to Primer failure through age/damp conditions.
I doubt very much, that with a 'loose' barrel any further recoil forces or any radial stresses are transfered to any of the guns componants that would raise further concerns as to reliability of functioning in general.
these guns have legendary reliability for functioning under the most adverse of conditions as we all are aware.
But even through 'Normal' usage, nothing lasts forever! I can state just as a simple example.
The Piston Post (The componant that fits inside the pistion assembly & the 'Hook end' that projects through to hit the head of the firing pin)
I have replaced a fair few of these over the years where the cylinder section has fractured off just in front of the square section. (The cylindrical section houses the buffer spring)
This has been through 'Normal' service usage. IE: Firing Ball Ammo, & 'Dry firing' the action after stripping, cleaning & assembling.
It was not a common componant breakage, BUT, I can count on Two hands the amount of them I have encountered in 30 years of working & using them. Both in Service use, & Private ownership usage.
Believe it or not. Even with fractured piston posts, the guns STILL functioned & fired correctly! Testimant indeed, to the legendary reliablity of 'The greatest LMG ever designed & Built'!.................................

[skiprat]

I shot the L4 LMG in compertition in the gun match a few times, against the L7 gpmg (MAG) and the L86A1 (5.56mm LSW) the Gpmg's always came out on top... probabaly due to the infantry doing alot more training ( the L4 was only used by us remf's by the time I joined up).
I could hit more at the longer distances with the L1A1 SLR.
the L4 was a gun you had to spend alot of time learning to shoot well (for compertition) Very good shots would score in the 100's the average, of the average shots would be in the 20's and many would fail to score...

but on a good note it was always better than the LWS (rose tinted glasses???)

[Peter Laidler]

Not only a gun that took ages to learn to shoot properly but one that took ages to learn thoroughly the mechanics of too........ I'd forgotted all about the breech block stops that Tankie mentioned too. They did take a battering when 'live' guns were used as DP guns without drill rounds.

I was never fortunate enougn to see the Bren/L4 used on the same range as the L7/GPMG and the LSW/L86. 3 generations of squad machine guns. A bit like being on a range with No4's, L1A1's and L85/SA80's

[MKV111Z]

Hi Peter

in answer to your question re mag filling (Ok I've been off line for a bit) the tests at the end of training required that 28 rounds be loaded into the bren mag in

32 seconds 10 marks
35 seconds 8 marks
40 seconds 6 marks
45 seconds 4 marks
over 45 seconds fail

two attempts allowed. This is taken from Infantry Training Vol1 pamphlet 6 1955 The Light Machine Gun and Section Handling. I hope this helps

Regards

H