From the Mauser bolt action to the AK and AR, all new military rifles take time to perfect. With the Bren 3, CZ is now on the third iteration of the Bren platform, having gone from the original 805 to the much-improved Bren 2 and now a collection of less obvious changes to create the Bren 3. These changes have been directed by combat use of the rifle in Ukraine as well as the lessons of mass production. The main changes are around durability, taking a good system and making it better – along with a few changes to improve the modularity of the rifle. Specifically:
– Gas settings changed from Off/Normal/Adverse to Suppressed/Normal/Adverse
– New removable hand guard, including rail, Mlok, and UBGL versions
– Strengthened stock attachment
– Heavier barrel
– Replaceable cam lug rail in the receiver
– 7.62×39 chambering replaced by .300 Blackout
– Optional folding charging handle
– Slightly improved stock, and universal compatibility with collapsing “PDW” stock
– Heavier barrel
– Strengthening of various small internal parts
The handling of the rifle has been left essentially unchanged, and the grip/magwell assembly is interchangeable with the Bren 2 (although virtually no other parts are). The Bren 3 is only offered as a select-fire rifle for military and police customers for now, although I am sure a semiautomatic civilian version will be coming sooner or later.
Special thanks to Helitom (https://www.helitom.cz), B-Rdy (https://b-rdy.cz), and Hard Task Training (https://www.hardtask.cz) for making the helicopter shoot possible!
Re: “7.62×39 chambering replaced by .300 Blackout”
Potential users should be aware that this is a change to a cartridge with less kinetic energy. A terrorists AKM has more punch than the typical police officers .300 BLK arm. And it cannot be changed, because the available space for propellant in the .300 BLK cartridge is considerably smaller.
Probably chosen so as to reduce the number of lower receiver types in production… 7.62X39 needs a longer mag well.
My guess is that the 5.56mm chassis will remain what it is, and if they need 7.62X39, then it will be done on the bigger platform for 7.62 NATO.
@ Kirk
Nope, it does not need a longer mag well. You only need to extract the insert for STANAG magazine – otherwise the lower stays the same on Bren 2, which had the 7,62×39 capability. And – as Ian said, and I concur, having handling it as well – the lowers are identical, just control levers were tweaked a bit, but are completely interchangeable. The magazine well is retained unchanged – note the STANAG magazine insert present in the magwell. According to what I was *told* (relata refero – do not shoot me if that proves not true ultimately), the initial B3 is to use the B2-style lower until these run out, and then the new lower would be introduced, only taking the STANAG magazine.