bren gun magazine box

[Menno]

Goodevening,

I have a question, can anyone tell me the difference between a ww2 and post war
bren magazine box? There's one at a local store, and I would like to know what I'm buying.(empty, no magazines)
I think it has a canvas or leather handle to carry the box. No metal handle.

Are they in general easy to find? If so I might be better of buying a complete one.

Thank you very much,
Menno

[HARRY THE MOLE]

It depends entirely on how 'post war' you mean. When the British army changed over to the SLR and 7.62mm ammunition, the Bren guns were converted to accept the new calibre. This meant a much straighter magazine with just the slightest of curves. This also meant a newer storage case for the magazines. Without photographs it is impossible to tell.

[Menno]

the Bren guns were converted to accept the new calibre.

Thanks, hen were they converted? The box is like the one holding the curved magazines.
I will try and make a photo one of these days.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Conversion to 7.62mm started in the 1950's... The 7.62mm Bren's that our (artillery) regiment had in the armoury in 1969, were wartime dated examples.

[Martin Bull]

Are they in general easy to find? If so I might be better of buying a complete one.

Thank you very much,
Menno

I'm afraid that I don't have the necessary knowledge to tell wartime from post-war production.

Although not as easy to find as they once were ( but what is ? ) these aren't rare and if you wait long enough you'll find a good one. They had many civilian uses after the war ; below are some pics of mine which is genuine WWII. I bought it 2 years ago from an antique dealer ( 'brocante' ) near Caen for 25 Euros. It had previously been used to store vehicle parts in a Normandy garage. Sometimes the interior felt parts and spring clips will have been removed - a point to look out for. The magazines are also easy to find - most of mine were bought ' 3 for £10' at a UK militaria fair last year.

In my opinion, these make an impressive addition to any collection of WWII British militaria.....

[BlackCat1982]

Out of interest have these magazines been holed or otherwise messed about with vis VCR Act etc?

[Martin Bull]

Er....sorry for the slight delay in replying ! All magazines shown in my box are unmessed-with. They're still around - I just acquired a bunch of six magazines, only one of which had a hole cut-out near the top of the magazine. They were all Mk II* and were £5 each.

However, I've noticed the price of the magazine boxes marching steadily upwards since I originally posted this thread......