SARCO has some L4A3 parts kits now.....

[TactAdv]

Well, well. I'd known about the buy on these, almost two years ago, I guess they finally got them in. NOTE- Cholly says they will have new made barrels available........

Server Error (just click, no matter what error message it says)

(Okay, now my personal bias kicks in.....speaking STRICTLY as a shooter of live Bren MG's here, I have to be completely honest in stating that if you JUST want to shoot .308/7,62mm NATO ammo, it is probably a much easier route to go just to buy one of the short-shank S.A./DENEL 7,62mm barrels out there and combining that with a normal 8mm/7,62mm extractor and std ZB39 mags......you are up and running flawlessly shooting .308 ammo using all other std .303 parts. That isn't saying much about historical accuracy, i.e., you're not getting an L4 there.......but buying one of these L4 kits leaves you NO WHERE NEAR being ready to actually shooting .308. I'm just sayin'....)

-TomH (And on the 8th Day, God created the ZB39 magazine.....and all was well in the MG shooters universe.)

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[scoobsean]

Well, well. I'd known about the buy on these, almost two years ago, I guess they finally got them in. NOTE- Cholly says they will have new made barrels available........

Server Error (just click, no matter what error message it says)

(Okay, now my personal bias kicks in.....speaking STRICTLY as a shooter of live Bren MG's here, I have to be completely honest in stating that if you JUST want to shoot .308/7,62mm NATO ammo, it is probably a much easier route to go just to buy one of the short-shank S.A./DENEL 7,62mm barrels out there and combining that with a normal 8mm/7,62mm extractor and std ZB39 mags......you are up and running flawlessly shooting .308 ammo using all other std .303 parts. That isn't saying much about historical accuracy, i.e., you're not getting an L4 there.......but buying one of these L4 kits leaves you NO WHERE NEAR being ready to actually shooting .308. I'm just sayin'....)

-TomH (And on the 8th Day, God created the ZB39 magazine.....and all was well in the MG shooters universe.)

I just logged in to post about these kits being available too. They also have Mk1 .303 kits

[Peter Laidler]

What's interesting is that the L4 shown has a skeletonised butt slide (see trigger mech), has a standard Mk2 gun butt slide and the Mk2 cocking handle. Both of these were usually modified on the UK/Navy L4A3 and 5 guns. But not necessarily so with the cocking handle as the parts list showed both types of cocking handle and 'as required'. Foreign buyers had a cheap option to just send in their Mk2 body for conversion and they'd get back a modified body, a barrel or 2 barrels for the A3 and new bipod sleeve. They'd assemble up the gun with the old parts they'd kept behind. What a state most of them were!

[Joe H]

(Okay, now my personal bias kicks in.....speaking STRICTLY as a shooter of live Bren MG's here, I have to be completely honest in stating that if you JUST want to shoot .308/7,62mm NATO ammo, it is probably a much easier route to go just to buy one of the short-shank S.A./DENEL 7,62mm barrels out there and combining that with a normal 8mm/7,62mm extractor and std ZB39 mags......you are up and running flawlessly shooting .308 ammo using all other std .303 parts. That isn't saying much about historical accuracy, i.e., you're not getting an L4 there.......but buying one of these L4 kits leaves you NO WHERE NEAR being ready to actually shooting .308. I'm just sayin'....)

-TomH (And on the 8th Day, God created the ZB39 magazine.....and all was well in the MG shooters universe.)

Tom,

Totally agree. Those current de-mills are the same as the MGS kits. They are very difficult to rebuild. The cuts are through the barrel socket and locking shoulder. I've done one and am not planning to do another. You will also have to add the $300 ++ ?? for the new barrel.


Joe

[Vincent]

Sarco is saying they will have .308 barrels for these kits soon.

[Vincent]

And on the 8th Day, God created the ZB39 magazine.....and all was well in the MG shooters universe.

What do ZB39 mags sell for?

[TactAdv]

What do ZB39 mags sell for?

$59.00/ea. Allegheny is the only place that has them retail.....Greg Souchik, he brought them all in.

Zb-39 25 Round Magazine | Allegheny Arsenal

He'a got a lot more ZB39 parts, but you have to ask. (BTW, now that Privi/PPU ammo is coming in cheaply, you can get the Austrian 8x56R FMJ ammo for the same price as normal PPU .303 Brit FMJ ftom them......if you get a std ZB39 barrel from Allegheny and some ZB mags, you can have another shootable Bren caliber conversion. Modifying a .303 bolt face is the same as for 54R.)

There are still some of the S.A./Lyttleton short-shank 7.62mm/.308 barrels available too. I mention this fact as the new barrels that SARCO will have will be the original L4 spec, which is different in this context of using one for a SIMPLE conversion, for shooting, as we are discussing here......The new SARCO tubes, IIRC, these are coming from either GM or DC, plain steel, unlined, and with SAAMI-spec chambers reamed to ".308 Win", NOT 7.62mm NATO.....I can go back and ask, but I believe that was the original discussion.

[Vincent]

That's great info Tom. Thank you.

Who has S.A./Lyttleton short-shank 7.62mm/.308 barrels?

[Joe H]

He'a got a lot more ZB39 parts, but you have to ask. (BTW, now that Privi/PPU ammo is coming in cheaply, you can get the Austrian 8x56R FMJ ammo for the same price as normal PPU .303 Brit FMJ ftom them......if you get a std ZB39 barrel from Allegheny and some ZB mags, you can have another shootable Bren caliber conversion. Modifying a .303 bolt face is the same as for 54R.)

Tom,

Awhile back I got ZB39 mags (they used to be $25) , the ZB 39 barrel and flash hider (NOS) from Allegheny Arsenal. Used the barrel & mags with the 54R modified bolt. As you noted everthing works with the 8x56r ammo from Privi.

Vincent,
I got the SA 7.62 barrel from DSA. They must have sold out as they are no longer listed. May be worth a call. They were $300.

There is a guy over on the Weapons Guild who has 1000 ZB39 mags and is looking for a single buyer for the whole lot. We may be seeing them soon.

Login

Joe

[TactAdv]

Joe,
I just got a few more direct from Dave Selveggio/DSA- he was acting on a personal request from a mutual friend of ours to let me into his private stash. He doesn't want to advertise them, he has plans for them, but I was given the go-ahead to tell a few people if I wanted "a few more". I can give you the direct contact info for whom you need to talk to @DSA. Don't bother calling phone droids, they will tell you no.....officially, DSA isn't selling them.

He still clipped me for $300 ea, so that's the going rate. Mine were "fresh dipped" in parkerizing......the exteriors were a bit finish-worn, but in every single one I got to date the actual bores, chambers, muzzles, and chamber threads were all as-new condition.....and these are all chrome lined, too. Looks they were just passed around a bunch but not shot much, if at all. Mixture of wooden and black plastic carry handles.....carry handle sleeves a mix of all styles, too. Same with front sight arrangements- both the Bren style blades or the DENEL Uzi-style adjustable post.

Interesting on the guy over at WG with the 1K ZB mags.......I had heard of a small lot of ZB guns going to auction last summer, with some accessories and extra mags, but everyone I knew assumed they were ZB26's from where they were located. Now I am curious how a bunch of ZB39 mags turned up, so far as anyone I know of has heard the ZB39's never left Bulgaria, except perhaps as a handful here and there, certainly not a lot of them, and they were pretty much where they started out when the first batch of them got brought in. I'd love to get this guys story..........for posterity and research data, mind you. ;-))

-TomH

PS- As a lot, an offering price of $6-8,000 would be GENEROUS in the extreme. I thoroughly suspect that he got them for, essentially, the price of the freight bill. Not much demand for them, outside of the hidden market of the Bren conversion, which, in terms of allocating scare capital to a large lot buy in an already expensive overseas foreign auction.......isn't smart. Moreover, I suspect somebody here or there, got a big surprise when they opened the crate(s) once they already paid the bill.