Hi, new Bren owner

[ActionYobbo]

congrats on getting the BREN
what maker is it from?

[Peter Laidler]

To clean the gas reg on a standard strippable gun, you slide the barrel forwards so that the regulator is free from the gas cylinder locator, teist and push it out. THEN clean it and replace. All you can do now, apart from stripping the gun is to hold the dirty gas plug part of the barrel over a pot of something suitable, such as acaetic acid - or vinegar to you and me and dob it over the carbon stricken parts until it removes the dirt and gunge.

Shame you didn't want to fire one BEFORE you bought one............... You could have fired the one you selected before it was deactivated if you'd read about us here first!

[Jon.himself]

OK you said you wanted photos
Not much of the gun (I bet one Bren is just the same as the other on the outside), just some of the detail. Anyone have a clue on the markings ? I have to deep strip the weapon down at some point to get some of the muck (grease and dirt mix) out.

Attachment 47523Attachment 47529Attachment 47528Attachment 47527Attachment 47526Attachment 47525Attachment 47524Attachment 47521Attachment 47522Attachment 47530

Mr. E - it's an Enfield product

Peter - So changing the gas settings when the barrel is attached is not possible ? In the field, if the weapon started to misbehave due to fouling, would the barrel have had to have been removed to adjust the gas setting in this case ? I'm guessing the #2 would have just changed the barrel and done this with the spare as it was cooling off but never the less, seems a bit long winded, esp since stoppages usually happen when you least want them to !
Yes it's now my life's dream to get behind the trigger with one but I dont see how it can happen in the UK anymore


Oh another question, what on earth is the little tab on the bipod for, it locks the left hand leg to stop it folding. Is this a rudimentary foregrip ?

[Jon.himself]

A few more barrel marks :

Attachment 47532 Attachment 47531 Attachment 47533

Does MA suggest the carry handle originated in Australia, I also cant ID the barrel stamps, they dont look like anything I have in the book.

Some numpty also has put a slit right through the body pin housing at the back, is this also part of the deactivating process. I assume if it fired a shot the recoil would be enough to bend or even sheet off the butt group body locking housing and render the weapon useless ? Just makes it hard to re-assemble sometimes, hate looking at that welding job on the breech too.

[Peter Laidler]

What 'little tab' on the bipod? Yes, MA indicates Australia. The barrel is a Canadian one from the John Inglis stable. The piston extension comes from Gateshead. The saw cut across the body locking pin oval hole at the top, rear end of the butt slide assembly is of no consequence in terms of operational strength. This hole simply allows the body and barrel to recoil against the buffer during PRIMARY or true recoil (as opposed to secondary recoil from the piston, piston extension and breech block reciprocating back and forth. This secondary action isn't actually recoil but we won't elaborate further.....). The puropse of the saw cut is what engineers and technical bods call 'buggerance factor'. I suppose you could just silver solder it up and be done with it on the basis that it is absolutely nothing to do with , well....., anything really! I fired one all day on a demo gun not realising that the butt slide was from a stripped/cannibalised deact/dewat gun.

You don't need to take the barrel OFF the gun to change the gas plug. It's all part of the No2 'gas' stoppage. The number two of the gun crew tells the gunner to stop fiting which he does and puts the change lever to SAFE. Then he just un locks the barrel nut, slides the barrel forwards, rotates the gas plug to the next hole with the nose of a round (oh yes he does..... the combination tool method is the stuff of fairy tales. It's in the wallet and he ain't got all bloody day.....) and slides the barrel back, locks it down, taps the gunner on the right shoulder and off they go again. Shame you just missed two absolutely mint/perfect and original copies of the Bren Infantry Training pamphlets on that auction site.

Just console yourself that you own, probably, the finest light machine gun ever tyo be put into the hands of a fighting soldier and the longest serving bit of kit in the British Army - with the exception of Bedford trucks!

Next question........

[tankhunter]

Peter, I think the little tab he is referring to. Is the swivelling LUG, that when rotated to the opposite plane of it's rest position. Is the Lug that PREVENTS the bipod legs from being folded shut. It also houses one end of the bipod operating spring. Whatever practical use this was for. Im not entirely sure! I have NEVER seen the 'Facility' used in Service!.......

[Peter Laidler]

Ah, yes....., the STOP, leg, bipod! No....,, come to think of it, I never saw one used........ Thanks Tankie

[Jon.himself]

Cool, thanks for the info.
The bipod stop is what I was on about - totally baffled me that one.
Yeah I was bidding on one pamph, but as per normal other things came up and I forget to check on the progress....

[Luis Bren]

I really like the black color of this Bren!
What is the painting process?
There are some forum post that explains?
Thanks in advance!

[Peter Laidler]

I'm sure that the process is somewhere on the forum Luis but in UK Military service, after late '44 or so, the process changeds from the what was in effect 'controlled corrosion' to a simple and far better/durable chemically cleaned degrease, bead or sand blast and then deep phosphate coat. Then the gun was simply painted with a spirit based paint that seemed to be impervious to most things which was baked on in an oven. The key was the sanb blasted finish and the high temp oven bake. It could be easily touched up but the secret was that underneath the paint, the phosphate kept the rust away. Well......, not completely away of course but better that what went before it!