Courtesy of reader Peter, we have this neat cutaway drawing of the Norwegian Brøndby military rifle. This rifle was originally chambered in 6.5×55 Swede and was sent to England for military testing.
Neat – thanks, Peter! For the interested parties, there was also a Brondby “Maskinpistol” firing a pistol-caliber cartridge with the same basic mechanism.
We have previously mentioned Fridtjof Brøndby, a Norwegian arms designer who created a number of self-loading rifle designs in the 1930s. Last time we were looking at his model 1933 maskinpistole (submachine gun), and today […]
Today I’m answering some questions sent in last week – I think this will be a fun and interesting regular feature for the site. If you have a question you’ve been wondering about, please email […]
Harald Sunngård was Norwegian inventor in the early years of the 20th century who noticed a common perceived weakness of automatic pistols: reloads under stress were often bungled by shooters, leaving them vulnerable to return […]
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Does anyone have any information about the performance or testing of this rifle?
Hi, Ian :
Please correct me if I am wrong or in any way amiss, but I seem to recall an in-depth article on the Brondby sometime ago on FW that may have answered at least part of your query.
Having said this, I’m going to have to look it up again to confirm my thoughts.
Yep, there is one on the site – I linked to it in this post (or you can find it under “Early Semiauto Rifles” in the sidebar). The cutaway view was simply a cool addition to it.
Hi Earl,
Yeah, it was that article which got me wondering since Ian writes:
“This rifle is in the collection of the UK’s National Firearms Centre (aka Pattern Room), which suggests that it was sent to England for military testing. We don’t know the details of those test (if they were ever completed), but clearly the rifle didn’t do well enough to be developed further, or adopted.”
I was hoping maybe someone might know something about any tests which may have occurred.
Looks like an M1 Garand-style safety in the front of the trigger guard. The “Maskinpistol” 7.62mm smg has a positively Soviet/ AVS36 looking muzzle brake. Or maybe Boys antitank rifle…
This is robust and courageous design. Since the firing is from open bolt is precludes cook off and permits conversion to LMG. One would think, for military application almost perfect.
Thanks for the schematic, Peter. It certainly helps to explain about how the rifle works.
Magne takk!
The Brøndbys are fascinating designs, and forgotten weapons seems like the only website out there with any info about them. This looks like what’s captioned as the “M/1937” in the article about the machine pistol. I’m not used to reading technical drawings like these, but it seems like the trigger mechanism is more complex than the two other Brøndbys, and connects to the bolt further ahead. Does this mean that it fires from a closed bolt? And what the deal with the part with the rear sight that extends beyond the reciever? is it some kind of cocking slide that stays stationary during the operating cycle? Anyway, many thanks to Ian and Peter for this.
Looking at the trigger linkage, it does almost seem like this might fire from a closed bolt, with the carrier held slightly back, almost like a fg42 on semi-auto.
I think you’re correct on the non-reciprocating cocking handle/sight assembly. I certainly wouldn’t want that jumping back at my eye with every shot.