Picked up a few Bren Chests

[stencollector]

The title is a little bit misleading. It's not really a few but a few hundred. I had been watching the pile, which had been de-composing for the last 40 years, start to fall into itself, so I made the owner an offer which he hapily accepted. I bought them for the hardware, as it is used on other chests like the snipers, mortars, bren drums etc etc. Turns out many of the ones in the center of the pile were in OK condition. Even found a few surprises inside those that we opened. Many had the twisted wire cleaning rod with a return spring on it located in the holders in the lid. One chest even had a spent case with DA 43 PROOF marked on it.....something you don't see everyday.

Anyway, here are a couple photos of the pile now at home and partially covered.

Information

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[mmppres]

wow cool chest love to have one of those good deal for you

[stencollector]

If the weather stays reasonable for the next little while I'll take some shots of the insides. There were slight differences between the marks in order to accommodate the different lengths of barrel and butts. I know there was discussion on this previously in an earlier thread.

I'll be parting with some of the better ones, but unless i am making a trip to the US for parcels, shipping from Canada to the US would be a killer.

[1812we1]

Well done!!...nice to see they were not all burned for the scrap metal [one of John St.Amour's many appalling tales of the milsurp business]. We could use one for our Mk 2 but it pains me to think what the shipping to PEI would be...would definitely be interested in a couple of cleaning rods and any other useful bits you find however. The box we do have is likely the only one left on the Island...it sat [ with Mk 1 and complete AA rig] in the Charlottetown Hotel for the duration of WW 2 into the 60s when it was obtained by a local collector [ RIP Louie ] Sadly the contents and all the AA bits [drums ,etc.] are long gone. The story goes that it was issued for local AA defence ,stored in the hotel which was the highest flat roof in town at the time ,then forgotten until rescued.

[stencollector]

Postage to PEI would appear to be around the $50 mark.
I still have to sort out the small stuff from the crates. I did get 48 filled Bren wallets in the deal.

[mmppres]

well if you ever make the trip over the boarded please remmeber me would love one for display in my shop. good luck.

[Peter Laidler]

They look really impressive with the front cut out and replaced with perspex/oroglass so that you can see the gun and kit inside especially if the magazine down the front face is sectioned to show it loaded with inert ammo. We had one like that at the Small Arms School.

I hope that you make a killing on them Stencollector

[stencollector]

Not out to make a killing, but got tired of seeing the pile getting worse and worse over the decades.

Interesting to note that of the whole pile, I only spotted one British chest, which was identifiable by the extra wooden trim/guard along the side with the the hasps.

[Peter Laidler]

That guard thing wasn't one of our moidifications. I think it was an Australian thing.

There was a high degree of uniformity during the manufacture of the chest because the internal walls of the front and rear are painted a dull/matt orange colour preservative paint while the lid and base are painted with a mid-grey paint. The screw-in fittings are not painted and this indicates to the layman that the chests were sub-assembled as sides, ends, lids and bases then finally fully assembled probably/possible elsewhere. This is certainly the view of Des Newport, a former wartime Elliots of Newbury (Ends marked EoN) worker who informed the author that the chests were sent elsewhere in ‘knocked down’ form for final assembly. He remarked ‘… …There was no skimping on them. The wood was good quality pine or birch with mitred edges, cut to an exact pattern on a multiple band saw contraption. … … we actually made thousands of them in ‘knocked-down’ form but being a young lad, I didn’t really know what they were until I saw them fully assembled during my National Service. Then I wished that we’d made them a bit lighter! Not all the chests are identical. Some later Canadian chests have several minor differences and those brought to the authors attention are the absence of the squared off section used to accommodate the grease tin, the insertion of a hinged spacer at the butt end that may be raised or lowered to suit a shorter or normal sized gun. Quite what the ‘shorter’ gun was is a mystery because both the Canadian Mk1 and 2 guns were the same length while the Mk2 with an overhung butt plate was 1” LONGER.

[stencollector]

There were also the early and longer mk1 flash hiders. Combine that flash hider with the mk2 hanging butt and I don't think it would fit the chest.

One variation I have noted on these boxes was that one manufacturer seemed to use #2 Robertson drive screws as opposed to the slot drive screws on the vast majority of the chests. These chests also featured an extra set of corner braces near the bottom of the boxes. It would seem like the wood on these may have been a little higher quality than on the others, as they seem to have had a higher rate of survivability.

If I can find that one box with the guard in the pile, I'll have a better look at it and see if there are any signs of it's origin.