Looking for the canvas bag for spent shells on the Bren Gun

[tr63]

I have the canvas bag with the zipper that is used on the Bren Gun to catch the spent .303 shells , What I need is the attaching metal bracket that mounts the canvas bag on the Bren slide on the bottom of the gun . Anyone have any leads as to finding one ?

[Lee Enfield]

I've always found it amusing that the Bren bag is 3 times larger than the MG42 bag...

[TactAdv]

I have the canvas bag with the zipper that is used on the Bren Gun to catch the spent .303 shells , What I need is the attaching metal bracket that mounts the canvas bag on the Bren slide on the bottom of the gun . Anyone have any leads as to finding one ?

IMA is probably going to be your best bet at this point. They had a large quantity of the complete catcher bags from a bulk depot purchase, and many, many of them were damaged/bent in one or more ways that they never marketed. You’ll have to call personally and specifically ask them if they can look for those for you. They were there last time I was there. They did take a few of them, that were easy to restore and put them on the market after all their good condition ones were sold, interestingly enough at a higher price than the original good ones. Currently there is a guy on eBay who lives in Canada who has imported reproduction bags with the sewn in metal lower frame that is a clip in replacement for original damage bags; I presume this is in response to the market that IMA created when they brought over all the ones they had and sold them in the US. It might not hurt to contact him and ask if he has any contacts overseas, the complete brass catcher set ups were pretty rare to begin with as they were really never used except on the AA defense mounts with 100 round drums. And most of those were pretty much put away and out of service early in the war. Neither part of the complete bag assembly would be very hard to repair even if it was pretty mangled, they’re made from a very soft steel and are easily heat deformable back into any original shape or form you wanted. I’ve straightened a couple of them out just for fun and while it takes a little bit of time and hand labor it isn’t difficult. Interestingly enough, and while I’ve never seen any original documentation as to what they were supposedly contracted to be made out of, some of the lower frames that are sewn into the canvas bag I’ve seen made out of both brass and soft steel. Also in a couple of the upper attaching assemblies I’ve noted what appears to be silver solder joining a lot of the parts together. These are probably made in all kinds of local shops and they’re probably wasn’t a really strict adherence to any kind of highly technical materials or manufacturing methods requirements. I can take any photos you want, both of original stuff, and of the brand new reproduced reproduction bag assemblies that I have here. Just let me know.

-TomH

[tr63]

Thanks for your reply . I have called IMA and spoke to the women who answered the the phone about any left overs and she said that if it is not listed on the web site they do not have any . I asked if she could check with the guys in the warehouse to be sure that did not go over big with her . I was temped to have her forward my call to Christian but I thought better of if . Yes I would like to see pictures of the metal frame that the bag's metal frame attaches to on the Bren . Thanks .

[Peter Laidler]

My only experience of this bag was in use on the Bren in the Saracen APC turret. Alas, I never saw it actually USED because it only took approx 1 1/2 mags of empties or 40 spent cases and it was full - or at least blocking up the ejection port. The long nosed blanks were even worse A better idea was put a 10 man compo ration box on the floor and all the cases fell into that. Not just 40, but hundreds!! A bit like my mickey mouse watch really. Nice to look at but not much good for tellijng the time