This Bren is lot #1013 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction.
The Bren gun is widely regarded as one of the best light machine guns ever built, but that reputation is based on the British .303 caliber version. How does the design perform in 8mm Mauser? Today I am going to find out, using one of the John Inglis “sterile” 8mm Brens.
The British lost some 90% of their stock of Bren light machine guns in the disastrous Dunkirk evacuation, and in the following months rushed to rearm. Part of this program was a two-tiered simplification of […]
Sailor mounting an antiaircraft Hotchkiss Portative machine gun on the Canadian corvette Trillium.
Sir Charles Ross was really a jerk sometimes. Not the sort of guy you would want to go into business with…
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Why don’t you show us the target after you shoot? Too embarrassed? Watch this video yourself to see just how tedious and boring it is to watch someone shoot sixty plus rounds , saying “Wow! This gun is really accurate even on full auto”
and never see the results of your shooting… disappointing…
Dude, shut up. He’s giving a weapons exhibition not shooting this thing in competition. Watch it for what it is or sit down and raise your hand to speak.
I stand corrected and very chagrined to have dared to offer criticism that might improve the channel . Let us all go back to watching “bang bang” cowboy movies and not think about improving this channel. I only offer the comment to attract some notice concerning the improvement of the content . We have all seen what a good shot Ian is, so why not let us see how the Bren works with an eye to accuracy?
Improve? What would you like to see “improved” in real terms? You think you don’t get you money’s worth? 🙂
Let Ian decide.
Dave J. Potter. I think you need to go back to the Youtube shitefest. You obviously learned your comment style from there. On here your comment is just stupid and ignorant (and those are separate things, but I doubt you’d know, or care). If you have posted on Youtube you’ll get far more abuse for being such a total numb twat than you’ll get here.
Thanks for the comment. Your cleverness is SOOO obvious.
Take caution in your tone, sir. Your point would have come across much better without it.
Chuck:
You wouldn’t be doubting my claim to Ian’s superior ability shooting machine guns would you. I seem to recall how he showed up Mae and Othias fairly well in the machine gun tests the three of them ran last month.
I’m doubting that your choice of tone is wise. I think you have a bulldog mouth and a puppy-dog bite.
Well ,Chuck : I think your ears are remarkably uninitiated if you think my words are offensive . Which words ? “criticism” Oh, what words of the Devil! Perhaps you should stop in to a local high school some day and hear your kids speaking at the lockers.
HA. Puppy dog is right. Or is pussy better?
I like the cap that Ian is wearing.
Finnish field cap!
Presumably the 20-rd. magazine is less a hindrance to carry than the 30-rd. particularly if it is loaded down to 28 cartridges with .303 versions?
Also, it doesn’t stick up too far for the usual objection to top-feeding box magazines, namely, that they are too visible given the shape, and give the gunner’s position away?
The sniper myth may have come from the fact that the scope used on the No. 4 (T) rifles was originally developed for the Bren gun. This scope may have caused the MG to be to accurate? However, wartime economy allowed for the scope to be better used on sniper rifles
I have no idea about that, but the Nambu Type 96 and Type 99 were both issued with low-powered marksman’s scopes. The scope doesn’t make the machine gun more accurate, but it sure allows you to get a more precise view of your intended victim.
I’ve noted that when firing Bren guns and their Czech older brothers, that the Zb26 family of guns are *too* accurate for proper use as a light machinegun in the “normal” style, unless you do the opposite of what I was taught to do with GPMGs and LMGs — instead of holding on for dear life, hold them kind of loosely and let them bounce around a bit to yield a useful beaten zone.
On semi auto, despite being open bolt, they’re freakishly accurate. Accurate enough to do “rifle work” with them (thus, the scope mount for the No32 telescope on the Mk1 Brens)
As I made a note in previous episode, I can tell that the gas tap is lot closer to chamber than it was with vz.26/30 series and similar to .303 cal. Bren.. Yet, I did not sense in this case that rate of fire would be faster. Cannot comment on vigour of ejection since it is under the gun. Has anyone had same or different observation?
Strelkovove orugie (1947) says that ZB 30 firing “7,9 mm Mauser rifle cartridge” has Rate-of-Fire 600 rpm and that Bren (firing default British cartridge) has Rate-of-Fire 500 rpm. It also says that main difference between Bren and ZB 30 is that, first one has “anti-recoil arrangement” meaning that barrel and receiver goes backward during firing.
Also note that Bren has gas regulator. Also note that ZB 30 has gas regulator. Strelkovove orugie says that you need to set bigger opening if light machine gun did not cycle properly, which suggest size of opening should be proportional to dirt amount inside gun. However, I suspect with fixed dirt amount using gas regulator might affect Rate-of-Fire.
“anti-recoil arrangement”
I wonder what they meant by that. AFAIK the only true means to reduce RoF is with hydraulic absorber. I do not believe the Bren had such device (soft-er spring in butt might help though). But, there is a difference in burning characteristics between conventional propellant of German/ Czech origin and British Cordite. The later one is more “puffy”; e.i. burns faster.
The description sounds like the ZB37; the whole action could shift backward a little to help soak up a little recoil even though it was gas operated, sort of like a dead-blow hammer
The Brens gas regulator had a setting for use in the AA role. I believe it fired around 950 rpm. I bet some squaddies tried it with the regulator wide open but we’re gently persuaded not to do it by an NCO making them run with the Bren till the NCO got tired.
The Training Pamphlet says ‘position 4 (ie largest port) for AA use’, otherwise the smallest port at which the gun will operate correctly. Iirc the SOP was to set to position 2. I only ever used it as the 7.62 LMG, and never had a gas stoppage.
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Thank you for busting the myth that the Bren was ineffective as a light machine gun.