Chris Hall

Has anyone seen the bullet shreders fitted to Brens? They shreded the wooden bullet blank as it exited the muzzle. According to Peter Laidler, after a while, the shreder would fail and wood bullets would end up flying around

The park is very good mate, its the crinkly paint which has come off, I think its a very hard finish to replicate. I wonder what the markings on the top indicate, I guess its a ownership marking to a former country.

Heres a photo of the markings on a Police Carbine.

Mk4 L2A3 As sold to NZ and other Commonwealth countries.

Markings sometimes found on British L2A3

I agree with whats been said, about £50-£60 is about right but dont expect them to stay that price for very long. Now that the last of the imported Brens has been sold, just watch them rocket. Even the basic bitsa Bren now commands £350 as opposed to the £195 they could be had for a few years back.

No mention of the Aden Gun pods, although I know theres no Aden guns in there. The Rocket pods are one shot fibreglass items anyway so there nothing (Even though he says he made them). Hes better off selling on milweb as the ebay takings would be massive.

Hi John,

Can you re-check the date? The Mk3 wasn't produced untill 1944 and the first 8200 were marked as MkIII before changing to Mk3 in August 1944.

Also if you can find out the UE serial number and the original LB serial number (Barred out when convertedto L4 spec) that would be a great help.

ATB, Chris.

Hi Chris,

 

Yup, still got the beast, also scooped up a lithy Mk1 A22. Poor finish but a real warhorse that did not go thro the aussie refurb programme. Just need an original adj bipod for it as its got the non adjustable spike footed job at the moment. Would have had a normal one as original fit. Dont even mind if it was a stacked rifles job as a qty of parts was supplied to start off the production.

 

How are you keeping ? :-D

 

Regards

Tim

I'm good mate, I've got your early Lithy gun on my list, does it have the early enfield type lower with all the fancy machining or is it like the normal Lithgow with only the waisted rear. I've got 3 early DD Lithys all with the later type (Matching), but kev tells me the very early ones had the fancy stuff.

I've found that the early adjustable Lithy Bi-pods had diffrent feet to Enfield and Inglis. The hole is larger, Big enough to fit a .303 case through whereas the Enfield and Inglis guns you can't. Also, the curved part of the foot is alot larger than that of the Enfield and Inglis.

ATB, Chris.

Hi Tim, Long time no hear! Have you still got your 37 Bren?

ATB, CHris.

Was the No. 7 not removed from use with the No4 rifle because some one discharged a round when the bayonet wasn't locked and the round and bayo disintegrated. After this event, it was only to be used on the MK5 sten. This may of course be one of those urban myths as I've only ever read about it second hand, never seen an official directive.

The current AK round is 5.45mm, similar to our 5.56

I think the Americans giving us free ammo is a bit of a myth. We had AR15s and may have been given ammo with those but I believe the American standard 5.56 round is not permitted tobe used in the L85, so their ammo would be no good.

Hi Andrew, No offence taken mate, forums are there for friendly chats and banter, please dont take any of my posts as having a go at you, the forums here for the sharing of info and experiences so we all share the benefits and better our knowledge. I beleive the L9 will be phased out due to its age and not due to it wearing out. Its like the old Webley and Enfield revolvers being replaced by the L9. The new Sig is more 21st centuary than the old GP35 and I'm sure theres bound to be some contractual deals going on. I personaly prefer the L9, I had a civvy Mk3 before the ban and I put hundreds of rounds down the range and I fealt I was quite competent with it.

ATB, Chris.

Theres alot of people out there who slate the L85 but I actually like it. The A2 version is an improvement over the A1 but to be honest, I never had a issue with it. I'd guess that most of the L85s never see heavy use (Especially in the RAF ;-) ) and from my point of view, its perfectly fine for guard duties and normal every day use. I did a Tour of Iraq in 2005 on Bomb disposal (Not your everyday RAF Tour) with the A2 and because of its compactness, it sat by me in our Snatch, although I didn't use the sling. I don't know if im in the minority who like it, or if its just not getting the praise it now deserves but I'll defend its rep.

Going back to the L9, I asked a mate in the know and he confirmed what I'd already heard on the jungle telegraph.

'Thay are looking at replacing the L9 soon. But HOW soon is a matter of conjecture at the moment because xx,000 SIG';s are in theatre as we speak. But some trials are to be held soon. To be honest, if anyone seriously expects trials to be anything other than the nod for the SIG, then I'm a piccolo player.'

and he dosn't play the piccolo!

(I edited out the in theatre figure as I didn't want to publicise it, just in case some 3rd party wanted to misuse or misinterprate that figure for there own use, I may be being over cautious but hey.)

There on the way.

Fourteen years in, twelve plus with SMG as personal weapon, five years on the 1 (Br) Corps FLOT, three more just behind, and I never saw an SMG bayonet, even when parading for HRH The Princess Margaret, Colonel-in Chief.

 

Very much an SLR thing, the bayonet on parade. Not used at all during SMG drill (which is the only time we'd even consider a bayonet frog) when we'd be wearing leather (or plastic leather-look) regimental belts in deep shiny brown. Cannot recall ever seeing a bayonet frog to go with 58 pattern webbing for use in the field. Doesn't mean there wasn't one.

Thats why all the Sterling bayonets are in unissued condition and are sbeing sold for the Enfield No. 5. I agree, never seen one in use.

Also used on the Sterling bayo too.

Reminds me of when I was in a .22 comp. It was a American Jennings pistol we were using and on the command make ready, I pulled the slide back and let it go forward. On that, the whole thing erupted and 12 rounds of .22 went full auto down the range. It turned out some grains of powder from the previous shoot had jammed the firing pin out effectively making it fixed. Cought me right off gauard!

I'm only 15 miles from Newark and all is currently well, just a tuch Icy. 22:30 03/12/10

Sorry for the latenes, I eventually got the pics done

Its a good job its not a Rolls Royce engine or bits would come through the body work!

Heres my L4A2 converted to L4A4

And my L4A3

They are Mk2s with the external extractor, some had ring hammers and some had spur hammers. All had Lanyard rings originally and plastic grips. Since their introduction many have been modified/upgraded or parts replaced to Mk3 spec, an original L9 has the L9A1 marking and a NSN on the left and a BL prefix serial number like BL67A1234 on the right.

I can post a photo of my L9 if anyone is intrested.

ATB, Chris.

p.s. Pretty much every Hi-power on the market at the moment is a ex Israeli weapon.

Give him a call, he is very knowledgeable, I've bought some stuff off him in the past. His name is Philip and he works at Bletchley park (Or used to).

Its not me who is manufacturing the replica parts, its a profesional engineering company in the US, Surely no diffrent to importing a blank firer or water pistol. I'm going to email the DTI for their advice, as far I see it, there shouldn't be a problem as I am importing a imitation part, which for the sake of the VCR act, will be yellow. You can legaly own in the UK a barrel blank as it is just that, a blank, only when the chamber is reamed does it become a component part. I'm quite familiar with UK firearms law, just not the import or VCR side of things.

I'll see what the DTI come back with.

What sort of price do guns like this tend to sell for? The biggest gun I have at the moment is a .50 cal but have always wanted a Artillery piece, the 2 things that would stop me is Cost and/or space.