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    Legacy Member eriksiddons's Avatar
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    Unhappy Bren mk2 wont fire

    Hi sorry if this question has been asked and answered already but my dad has had a historic arms semi auto converted Bren Mkii for a while now but never got the chance to shoot it until the other day. Out at the range we shot about 10 rounds out of it, it ejected the backside of a casing but not the whole thing. After that it felt like the charging handle went limp and almost like it wasn't pushing the round far enough, we couldn't find the rest of the casing. Any ideas? thanks in advance!
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    Advisory Panel Lee Enfield's Avatar
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    you have a broken shell stuck in the chamber.

    Sometimes you can push them out with a tight fitting patch from a cleaning rod.

    more likely you need to find a .303British broken shell extractor.
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    Legacy Member old tanker's Avatar
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    You need a ruptured cartridge extractor, aka clearing plug to remove what's left of the case that is stuck in the chamber.




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    Legacy Member eriksiddons's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by old tanker View Post
    You need a ruptured cartridge extractor, aka clearing plug to remove what's left of the case that is stuck in the chamber.

    https://www.robertrtg.com/store/pc/c...685_detail.jpg

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDYx5-1AZdk[/url]

    Ok sweet thanks so much

    ---------- Post added at 11:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by old tanker View Post
    You need a ruptured cartridge extractor, aka clearing plug to remove what's left of the case that is stuck in the chamber.

    https://www.robertrtg.com/store/pc/c...685_detail.jpg

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDYx5-1AZdk[/url]
    Oh will there be a bren specific extractor or will any .303 one work?

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    Advisory Panel browningautorifle's Avatar
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    Any .303 one will work.
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    Legacy Member eriksiddons's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by browningautorifle View Post
    Any .303 one will work.
    Alrighty thank you!

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    It sounds to me that you tried to use the Bren after the rear of the case was ejected but you didn't check the chamber for the rest of he case ? if you remove the barrel should be easy to remove the separated case.

    Were you using reloaded brass ?

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    Legacy Member eriksiddons's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigduke6 View Post
    It sounds to me that you tried to use the Bren after the rear of the case was ejected but you didn't check the chamber for the rest of he case ? if you remove the barrel should be easy to remove the separated case.

    Were you using reloaded brass ?
    Yup thats exactly what happened and we found the broken case in the barrel. We were using surplus ammo im pretty sure had it since we got the gun definitely wasn't quality ammo haha

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    Legacy Member AmEngRifles's Avatar
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    I have had the same case separations in a Bren of mine. But mine was from PPU brass and Wolff steel cased ammo, so commercial ammo. It improved and ran well when I used MEN .303, but that is not so easy to come by any more. HXP would be a good alternative. Don't bother with POF, unless someone here has a different opinion. It is getting to be old ammo and my understanding is about 50% of the time, the POF (Indian manufactured) won't ignite, so you are constantly dealing with hang fires.

    If you can find someone with .303 head space gauges (No-Go and Field), have them look at your headspace. It is pretty easy to do.

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