Bren Mk1m: Finally Reassembled

[Meerkoos]

The return spring should NOT have been that difficult to replace. It's not even a knack. Press butt slide onto the floor muzzle end downwards, steady the butt, drop return spring rod attached to outer spring(s) in, press down with thumb and half turn cap. Done about 1/3rd of a zillion of them. I think that you have the wrong springs there. Both springs should be 13.4" max length. But generally speaking SKN guns had reduced spring weights for obvious reasons

Haha! I wasn't talking about the two recoil springs. I was describing the procedure for the buttplate buffer spring retained by the screw for the sling mount, as it was also disassembled.

[Peter Laidler]

Are you sure that you put the rearmost bolt through the loop of the buffer? Or did you try to feed the front screw through? Have you got the butt buffer spring mixed up with the body buffer spring? That is a tight one but even so, press the return spring down using your underarm on a piece of wood and start the thread. 2x turns and its away!

[Meerkoos]

Are you sure that you put the rearmost bolt through the loop of the buffer? Or did you try to feed the front screw through? Have you got the butt buffer spring mixed up with the body buffer spring? That is a tight one but even so, press the return spring down using your underarm on a piece of wood and start the thread. 2x turns and its away!

Of course! Otherwise the cap and spring cannot be retained. I just assumed that the tougher spring will be the buttcap spring, am I wrong?

[Peter Laidler]

The recoil buffer spring under the return spring tube is 8 complete turns with a free length of between 2.67" and 2.83" and wide dia of .086". the butt buffer will be something else. But as anyone else here will confirm, assembling a Bren, even in a wet and dirty slit trench in bleakest coldest Northern Germany is not difficult.

One of the good features about the Bren was that while it was spring assisted it wasn't full of springs that would go whizzzzzing off in all directions. Even the return springs had a rod attached so that while that could (and did) spring out of the gun if not controlled by cold wet hands, they wouldn't go far. Extractor stay and striker springs didn't have much poke left in them after they were removed so wouldn't fly off far. I never understood why these two springs weren't made interchangeable

[Meerkoos]

The recoil buffer spring under the return spring tube is 8 complete turns with a free length of between 2.67" and 2.83" and wide dia of .086". the butt buffer will be something else. But as anyone else here will confirm, assembling a Bren, even in a wet and dirty slit trench in bleakest coldest Northern Germany is not difficult.

One of the good features about the Bren was that while it was spring assisted it wasn't full of springs that would go whizzzzzing off in all directions. Even the return springs had a rod attached so that while that could (and did) spring out of the gun if not controlled by cold wet hands, they wouldn't go far. Extractor stay and striker springs didn't have much poke left in them after they were removed so wouldn't fly off far. I never understood why these two springs weren't made interchangeable

Thanks for the info. I do agree that there are not many dangerous springs involved here. Pretty convenient.

I did notice a hairline crack around the magazine catch. I expect it is going to break sooner or later.

Another issue, the charging binds whenever I rest the gun (i.e the butt touching the ground). Any fixes?

[Brit plumber]

Thanks for the info. I do agree that there are not many dangerous springs involved here. Pretty convenient.

I did notice a hairline crack around the magazine catch. I expect it is going to break sooner or later.

Another issue, the charging binds whenever I rest the gun (i.e the butt touching the ground). Any fixes?

Lots of spare catches so just replace it, the binding is possibly due to the butt not being tight, how did you tighten the nut and did it appear tight?

[Meerkoos]

Lots of spare catches so just replace it, the binding is possibly due to the butt not being tight, how did you tighten the nut and did it appear tight?

I would buy a spare catch just to make sure.

The binding problem was much more complex than I thought, and the sources are threefold:

-The sheet metal cover was bent and dented

-The charging handle slide was bent

-The stock's two alignment protrusions were worn. This resulted in very slight rotation of the stock, which disturbed the relationship between cover and slide. This explains why the handle binds depending on the actual state of the gun.

Of course, the dents were flattened out using a mandril, the slide was rebent straight using a vice, and the stock was stabilised with electrical tape and tightened EXTREMELY hard. This more or less solved the problem.

[Peter Laidler]

The twp 'protrusions' you refer to are in fact anti-rotation lugs and if I remember rightly, there were about 4 different variations. From symmetrical to narrow and wide and.... Equally, the butt slides had similar variations for the accompanying recesses too. You just fitted the butt using your wood working skills (or lack of skills in my case...) to the butt slide you were fitting up. But if the butt rotated about the return spring tube it would affect the cocking handle slide AND the buffering because the gun body will dig into the front left side of the butt. If the anti rotation lugs or pegs were short (width as opposed to depth) we had to drill into the edge and insert a dowel. Then make good adjusting the fit until it was perfect in the butt slide and absolutely NO rotation or sloppiness. It had to be rigid.

They were quite old fashioned about saving what could be saved by patching, glueing etc etc. It always seemed a bit of a chore until you got to some of these out-of-the-way places where there were no spares. So you fixed what you had. Always nice to see the same kit coming through again a couple of years later with your/your mates repairs still intact. Like SLR handguards........ We all thought '....what the xxx are we patching this fragile cxxx for....' Until there were no replacements! That's why. I don't remember electrical tape being used though

[Meerkoos]

The twp 'protrusions' you refer to are in fact anti-rotation lugs and if I remember rightly, there were about 4 different variations. From symmetrical to narrow and wide and.... Equally, the butt slides had similar variations for the accompanying recesses too. You just fitted the butt using your wood working skills (or lack of skills in my case...) to the butt slide you were fitting up. But if the butt rotated about the return spring tube it would affect the cocking handle slide AND the buffering because the gun body will dig into the front left side of the butt. If the anti rotation lugs or pegs were short (width as opposed to depth) we had to drill into the edge and insert a dowel. Then make good adjusting the fit until it was perfect in the butt slide and absolutely NO rotation or sloppiness. It had to be rigid.

They were quite old fashioned about saving what could be saved by patching, glueing etc etc. It always seemed a bit of a chore until you got to some of these out-of-the-way places where there were no spares. So you fixed what you had. Always nice to see the same kit coming through again a couple of years later with your/your mates repairs still intact. Like SLR handguards........ We all thought '....what the xxx are we patching this fragile cxxx for....' Until there were no replacements! That's why. I don't remember electrical tape being used though

Thanks for your story. The electrical tape is just a temporary, reversible fix. I do not trust my woodworking skills enough to add material to the anti-rotation lugs . I did notice at least 2 patches on my stock. The armorer's manual states that stocks with 4 patches should be discarded. Is that the case in your experience? What was done to recycle these rejects?

[tankhunter]

RE: 'Recycling these rejects'......

They, along with other various Weapon Wooden furniture. Were thrown in a large box, to be cut into pieces. To be utilised in further patching, on any type of small arm, that needed the process executing. No wood was wasted.......Well I say that. But if the box was over flowing, which did happen in some units.
Then the U/S Furniture was burned!....I know, it seems CRIMINAL to day! But you HAVE to remember, this was back in the day. When furniture was easily available & in good supply! Only out in the 'Uloo' was it REALLY nessacary to patch up extra & above the required limit. Due to the difficulty of obtaining spares per say. A note would be taking of the Weapons Serial Number. & when the unit/ section/ Etc returned to base camp. The weap in question, would be called in a couple of days later. To have the Furniture replaced to 'Standard'.......