Pattern 37 Gear

[browningautorifle]

I must have misunderstood, does your mag not look like this?

[Aragorn243]

Yes but it stops sliding at the two indentations. I’m going to try flipping it when I get home.

[browningautorifle]

it stops sliding at the two indentations

Try keeping your punch stuck in a bit longer, push the distance plate away until you're clear.

[jond41403]

Yes I would keep the punch pushed in a little longer, even angled following the base plate as it slides off. Doing that it should come off fairly easily and not hang up as bad. I could be wrong but I imagine that's what those two little indentations are designed to do, stop the base plate from walking off by catching the distance plate in case that detent gets stuck on the pressed in position.hth

[Aragorn243]

OK, kind of funny but not funny. I had what I call a stroke moment with these magazines. I call it that because I watched my Dad do these things after he had a stroke and I have one every once in a while after mine.

I looked at the base and figured the logical seeming way to get it off and slid it that way. It was very tight and wouldn't come off. So I look at it closer and yes, this is the only way it can come off

It wasn't. I figured it out today. Push it the other way.

The parts all seemed to match the exteriors so they weren't mixed up. There are basically the same but the fourth seems more cheaply made The lifter is in two parts and appears cast. I'll get some photos up maybe tomorrow once I get them organized. Three are marked MA which I saw somewhere means Lithgow Austrailia, One is marked MA '42 the other two MA with a smaller font and it's one of these that has the weird lifter. The fourth is A in a circle.

[browningautorifle]

Push it the other way.

I wondered about that too...

The fourth is A in a circle.

Austin Motor Company... Bren Gun magazine markings - question | Gunboards Forums

[Aragorn243]

So I am the proud owner of an Austin now. Cool. Not quite what I expected.

They are clean now and I put them in the pouches. Probably incorrectly. For display purposes do they go in with bullet side up or down and "C" facing towards the center of chest or away from center of chest. I stuck them in with bullet side up which would probably allow more dirt to get in them so probably wrong although it shows them as full so maybe not, and "C" open side facing towards center of chest.

[Daan Kemp]

I doubt it matters as the magazines would have been taken out and piled with the Bren. Pouches would have been closed to keep dirt out and Bren gunner would have remarked in no uncertain terms if the magazines weren't good. Your life depended on good supporting fire, ergo clean loaded Bren magazines.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

"I also have to figure out how to get them apart to clean the grease out of the insides."


Kerosine, Coleman lamp fuel or oven cleaner are your friends for that chore.

[Aragorn243]

Don't try pushing the thin end off the fat end like I did and you should be fine. I wiped them out with paper towels and then used dawn dish soap. It actually worked fairly well. It didn't desolve everything in the creases of the springs but took care of pretty much everything else.

I was tired, it was very hot and I was not in any mood for anything caustic last night. I had cosmoline all over my hands, went to the kitchen sink, saw that sitting there and thought of how they use it to clean up oil spills and washed my hands with it and it worked. Old toothbrush. Rinsed them off, let them dry in the sun and then sprayed them with Rem oil. Probably slower than the caustic stuff but I wasn't in a rush.