A recent pick up... A 1940 dated double dovetail Mk1 Bren gun. This one is not Kings Crown - although the Enfield logo and date are still on the right of the receiver. This gun was probably manufactured towards the end of the true Mk1 production run before the transition to the Pattern 'A' (Mk1 M) began. It is all matching serial numbers and came from the batch of guns which were sold to the Irish Army in 1940. All parts are original to the gun - no Inglis or Lithgo bits, and all parts are either marked with the B.S.A logo or Enfield. I have photographed it above my Mk1 transitional gun to highlight the differences. Click on all pictures to enlarge.
The next few pictures are of the very hard to find Mk1 Bren gun magazine. Most were modified to Mk1* and very few survive in their original form. The first picture shows the Enfield made Mk1 on the left, and the later MA magazine on the right. The second picture of the magazine base plates shows the the major differences between the two, the early magazine being the bottom magazine. The last two pictures show the other change to the magazine. A second spring was added to stop the nose of the bullets catching on the inside front of the magazine, the ends of the spring were folded over on the outside of the magazine to hold it in place. The top magazine is the later magazine with the spring.
Cheers,
Steve
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