Let’s Go Bren Gun!

[mikie]

No way Ican afford a whole Bren, but I did find this demilled Bren Mk1 barrel assembly at a price I could afford. Now I just need the rest of the gun! 

Do any of you have Bren guns or related parts or equipment? 
Has anyone here fired one? 
I’d love to hear or see anything Bren you’d like to share.

Mikie

[Charlie Flick]

Hello Mikie:

 

I don't have a Bren gun either but have always admired them.  They are pretty scarce in the USA.

 

You might like this image from my collection.   It depicts Canadian Army Private H.E. Goddard of the 5th Armored Division near Arnhem on 4/15/45 with his shouldered Bren gun.  The European war had less than a month to run its course.  I hope Goddard made it.

 

Regards,

Charlie

 

 

[mikie]

Nice photo. Thanks! The Brens were interesting guns. My Dad was a BAR gunner during the war and the Bren was the British answer to it. Sadly I don’t have a BAR either. 
mikie

I forgot to mention that I was so excited when I opened the package that I didn’t pay attention that it was covered in grease. Within seconds, so was I😁. 
A few years ago I found a demilled frame for an Enfield #2 revolver. Mostly the hammer and grip section. I had fun seeing how far I could go finding parts to add to it. I’m really tempted to try doing that with the Bren. But the cost would be an order of magnitude higher. With my daughter’s wedding coming up, that’s not much of a possibility any time soon. Though it would be fun. 
Mikie

[Kia kaha]

 I carried one, the gun was cool but carrying 6 fully loaded magazines got a bit tiresome, we where still using the .303 Bren at the training depots, but w where deployed with a small amount of 7.62 guns along with L7A1 GPMG(FN MAG). Had one stoppage during a patrol as I was firing short bursts the barrel flew off !! I had unclipped the barrel nut while carrying it and didn’t realise after each short burst the nut returned but when I fired a long burst off she flew, didn’t go far just fell off. The number two of the gun team had a spare barrel so “no harm no foul”.
I’ve posted this photo before.

[Gunner87]

On 2/25/2024 at 7:13 PM, mikie said:

No way Ican afford a whole Bren, but I did find this demilled Bren Mk1 barrel assembly at a price I could afford. Now I just need the rest of the gun! 

Do any of you have Bren guns or related parts or equipment? 
Has anyone here fired one? 
I’d love to hear or see anything Bren you’d like to share.

Mikie

 

When I joined the British Army the Light Machine Gun (LMG) was still in service. This was the 7.62mm successor to the Bren. It was a great weapon with the advantage over the General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) in that it was magazine fed as opposed to belt.

 

The photograph attached is my crew on exercise in West Germany in 1988. The LMG can be seen mounted on the Commander's hatch.

 

Gunner

 

 

[mikie]

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate hearing about your experiences. They make things like this barrel more than just a hunk of metal. 
mikie

[dcollector]

Hi there,

 

A fellow CA/AZ resident, I own a MKI and MKII semi-Bren.

I had the ZB26 with wafer-ampts too. (See pic of Clown shooting it with blanks in a music video.)

The ZB is now with a re-enactor.

There are several other (semi-auto) Bren and Vickers, Webley, Enfield enthusiasts in CA and AZ that I know.

(One of the movie rental houses has a dealer sample Bren, but, those are expensive and tricky.)

 

*In CA the Brens have to "wear" a Kydex wrap, and or replacement "permanent" attachment magazine pin.

 

There is a book in the first picture below (The Bren Gun Saga) which is worth getting, it really helps with grasping the history.

The one box of mags I found on line, they are new, and don't look like they've been fitted on a weapon - they have now.

Spares, mags, parts are easy to find and fairly cheap, I bought quite few (non-firearm accessories) on Ebay from Australia, at one point they were really cheap.

 

The MKII runs like clockwork - the MKI is finicky with ammo only S&B or PPU.

I found the new MKI wood furniture in the UK. There are half a dozen sites that specialize in Bren and associated weapons parts and gear, importing is a headache, but, it can be done.

 

Good luck, a brilliant weapon - sorry I don't have a full auto one.

[mikie]

I tried as hard as I could but I couldn’t resist seeing if I could put together a dummy Bren using as many original parts as I can. I’ve been slowly buying bits, pieces and parts here and there. I think i will start a new thread when I get ready to put it all together. So staaaaaay tuned!

mikie

 

 

Please let me know if you have any idea what the symbols painted on the butt mean. 
Thanks!

mikie

[Gunner87]

5 hours ago, mikie said:

I tried as hard as I could but I couldn’t resist seeing if I could put together a dummy Bren using as many original parts as I can. I’ve been slowly buying bits, pieces and parts here and there. I think i will start a new thread when I get ready to put it all together. So staaaaaay tuned!

mikie

 

 

Please let me know if you have any idea what the symbols painted on the butt mean. 
Thanks!

mikie

 

Hi mikie.

 

Small arms held in British Army armouries have numbers to identify which unit, Platoon, Squadron or Battery the weapon is assigned to. Yours looks like 105A which may mean weapon 105 A Company.

 

Not 100% on what those numerals are but the system is universal throughout the British Army.

 

Gunner

[mikie]

Here is an update on my insane Bren project. 
I have zero mechanical skills or abilities and no tools, facilities or financial/legal  resources to rebuild a Bren into any kind of functional model. That said, I’ve spent much of this year slowly hunting down parts to build a dummy display gun. 

[mikie]

I borrowed the small grinder at work to clean up the chunks of receiver. The channels to slide the slide were filled with melted metal from demilling so I really made sparks fly! This was fun! 
mikie

[Richie B]

You wanted something Bren related ... I was a Bren Gunner at school – no it wasn’t in a rough area, I was in the Army Cadets. As a rather large “small” boy I was the only one who could carry it (just). Never got to fire it just carry it around looking cool! and yes, sadly I did occasionally make machine gun noises.

 

Good luck with your project.

[mikie]

5 hours ago, Richie B said:

You wanted something Bren related ... I was a Bren Gunner at school – no it wasn’t in a rough area, I was in the Army Cadets. As a rather large “small” boy I was the only one who could carry it (just). Never got to fire it just carry it around looking cool! and yes, sadly I did occasionally make machine gun noises.

 

Good luck with your project.

Ha! Make machine gun noises! Great post! 
The darned thing is heavy and I don’t even have any of the internal parts in it. I’m old and falling apart as it is, so trying to carry it like in this picture, I’d break half the bones in my body. 

[Hermann]

As a young Lieutenant in the reserves I was a platoon commander in a territorial batalion in the Netherlands. A year before the batalions were disbanded we had a three week exercise. I received 4 Brens in my platoon as Squad weapon. Two were from 1943 and two from 1944. The day at the shooting ranges was unforgettable. They were shooting straight as a knife. We even had tripods for them so that we could hit more distant targets at the shootingrange.

 

Great weapon, even after 50 years.

 

regards

Herman

[mikie]

More fun putting the Bren together…

I decided on something easy, installing the pistol grip. It was about the last easy thing on the project. 

The barrel came with a Mk 2 type wooden handle installed. But the Mk1 handle looks a lot cooler. So I bought a Mk1.  I figured it would be easy to just swap out the wood. But nope. See my comment above about nothing else being easy. The mounting assemblies are different and the Mk1 handle doesn’t fit. I played around for a while but concluded that it’s too much trouble so Mk 2 handle it is. 

[mikie]

Oh yeah, installing the gas regulator was pretty easy too. But that was absolutely the last easy thing. 

[12thengr]

 It is fun, ain't it.😁 In 2018-2019 I started on an Enfield P-17 project in honor of my G-uncle. I started with the butt end of the U.S. model and worked from there. Parts from both the P-17 and P-14. The most difficult part was manufacturing a fore end for my sporterized stock. The rest was just tracking down parts,(and coming up with the funds!). It turned out alright, a non-functioning wall hanger that passes the three foot test.

[mikie]

Yes, it is fun, challenging, and educational all at once. Thanks for sharing your project. I’m glad I’m not as big a lunatic I feared I was. Or at least I have some company. 
mikie

[mikie]

The next thing I decided to work on was the  rear sight. I eventually gathered up the parts but they just were not going together correctly. It took me minute to figure out that the sight base was made “backwards”. A little research showed it wasn’t a Bren sight base at all.  it was for one of the Czech guns like the ZB26 that the Bren was modeled on. Apex gun parts made a mistake. But I decided to keep it as a souvenir and ordered the correct one elsewhere. After that it all went well. More or less. 

With the correct parts, the rear sight went together relatively easily. 

[mikie]

The big problem was how to get the cut up and cleaned up parts of the receiver together. I wanted it to be as simple, easy and effective as my nonexistent skills and resources allowed. The sections that slid on the slide wasn’t too difficult to mount, but how to keep them together? After trying and failing at a number of methods, I finally hit on hammering in a tight fitting block of wood. 

The front receiver section with the gas cylinder was another matter. This part isn’t grooved to slide onto the slide. Again I attempted various ideas but finally and reluctantly decided that there was no nondestructive way to mount it to the slide. I ended up drilling and tapping a hole and screwing it to the slide. 

[mikie]

The big problem was how to get the cut up and cleaned up parts of the receiver together. I wanted it to be as simple, easy and effective as my nonexistent skills and resources allowed. The sections that slid on the slide wasn’t too difficult to mount, but how to keep them together? After trying and failing at a number of methods, I finally hit on hammering in a tight fitting block of wood. 

Almost “finished”, whatever that means. I just need to put it all together. Just put it together! Ha! Sounds so simple. There is a crucial missing section at the barrel release area. It took all kinds of fitting and fiddling to get this working. It still needs work but that will go in the “Someday“ to do list. Same goes for the cocking handle. But it all works good enough for now. 

The last major thing to find was the bipod. I had a heck of a time getting it on. But I eventually figured it out. One problem though is that it does not fit very tightly. The bipod flops around back and fort maybe 10-15 degrees. I don’t know what if anything I can do about it. 

[mikie]

There was a LOT of put it together, find a problem, take it apart, adjust this, adjust that, get mad and throw it out the window, put it back together, find another problem, repeat a few thousand times. 
mikie

But at last it finally all came together. There are still some issues, and some odd small parts to get if I ever find them, but i’m essentially done now. It’s been a fun project. Insane but fun. But I’ve never been known for being level headed and sane. 
Thanks everyone who has looked in here and those who have piped in with your comments and experiences. I’m always ready and willing to hear more! 
mikie

[Charlie Flick]

It looks very presentable, Mikie.  Nice job!

 

Charlie

[Richie B]

Well done that man. What's next - a Vickers MMG!

[mikie]

4 hours ago, Richie B said:

Well done that man. What's next - a Vickers MMG!

Thank you!
A Sherman tank would be fun😁. 
 

Actually, the Bren was so much fun I may do something like it with a few junk M1 Garand bits and pieces I came across. If and when I decide to start playing with it I’ll start a thread on the USMF.