Bren magazine manufacturer mark identity

[JIMBO187]

Kev, that is it, brilliant, you are the man, thank you, mystery solved, i have sorted my phone out i think, so i will attemt to Email you the photo's, thanks again. Jim.

[JIMBO187]

Kevin, hopefully the images are with you via Email, fingers crossed,

[Peter Laidler]

Is that an M74? Surely that must be the UK/midlands somewhere or am I missing something?

[JIMBO187]

Peter, if it helps Kevin is talking about two magazines i have, one from the Midlands like you say, the other is from Australia, he has solved them both, excellent forum.

[Peter Laidler]

I oversaw the disposal of thousands of .303" Bren magazines (that were collected in as the Brens were withdrawn from Cadet Forces, replaced with L86 LSW's) and went for classified scrap. I have to say that I never saw a khaki painted one - or any colour except black, the odd yellow one for some reason - probably blank firing (?) and some DP ones with a white line plus a few other odds and sods that I recall were modified to take 10 rounds so that the little sods didn't over fill them on their range days!

I would suspect that those painted in that scamic khaki paint had come from India. That's based on the fact that lots of their No1,4 and 5 rifles are also covered with it! That was an Army order early in the War when re-blacking facilities were hard pushed to deliver and painting was a quick fix.

[JIMBO187]

Peter, thank you for the reply, Mmmm, sounds ominous, i was hoping, possibly, Chindit, but i think i am going to be disappointed, just sent Kevin some close up pics too, o well i appreciate the interest taken by all, its brilliant, and so interesting, thanks again.

[tankhunter]

Pete, Re: 'Or any colour except Black'...........What about left in the grey parkerised state? I have owned/ handled thousands of them!

[Peter Laidler]

Yes.........., thousands of them too Tankie. I just call them the black ones. Wish I'd kept a hundred of the mag boxes though!!!!!!!

[Flying10uk]

Yes that's the marking, Kev, of the half shinning sun, thank-you. I notice on some John Inglis marked mags that the end plates are sometimes marked T.M.S.. Is this mark for a Canadian firm doing sub contract work for J.I., please?

[Peter Laidler]

There has been some discussion about TMS and the general feeling that it indicates Toronto Metal Stampings. But only quote me if it's correct!!!!!

You're getting to be a real Bren fiend Flying 10!

There was a bit of irony when I saw the thousands of Bren mags and boxes awaiting destruction (by crushing and running over) at XXX. The site disposals manager told me that because the mags and boxes were virtually containers for fresh air, light in weight AND each one had to be examined before a certificate issued that they were free of explosives/Ball/Blank rounds AND they had to be destroyed before a local scrap man could collect them, it cost MORE to crush/destroy them that their worth as scrap. And even then the scrap value was zilch because it was mixed scrap! You couldn't imagine a pile so big.......... No wonder he wanted me to take a load!