Machines | 2-Gun Match: Chinese 7.62x39mm Bren
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http://www.forgottenweapons.com http://www.smgguns.com Thanks to the folks at SMG Guns in Texas, I just got my completed semiauto Bren gun in 7.62x39mm. What the best way to break it in? Take it to a run-n-gun match, of course! First off, the front grip is a repro experimental piece made by IMA - it would not originally have been on the gun, but I needed a way to hold/shoot it offhand. Some thoughts after shooting this converted Bren... It's HEAVY. According to my scale, it's 23 pounds, which is only about 2 pounds heavier than the Madsen LMG I shot in one of these matches a few months ago, but it's longer and not as well balanced. Great off the bipod, but I had serious trouble shooting it standing (not that it was designed to be shot that way, of course). Recoil in 7.62x39 is trivial. It's possible to fire 3-5 round bursts that are actually fairly effective and accurate, because the muzzle hardly moves. Try that in a .303 semiauto Bren (or any other full-power semi) and you'll have a much larger group, or take longer to get a small one. The big rear aperture sight stays nicely in view when you shoot, and overall it's one of the most effective and shootable "semiauto machine guns" I've had a chance to play with. Malfunctions - I had three, two caused by my ammo and one by the gun. The ammo problems were one dud primer (it had a nice sold firing pin strike) and one that hit the barrel face and stopped rather than feeding into the chamber. I was using softpoint ammo (grabbed the wrong can for the match), and the Bren certainly wasn't designed for that (in any caliber). The gun-related problem was a case that didn't fully eject, and got jammed between the next round being fed and the side of the receiver. This was caused by a combination of a receiver much larger than it needs to be (because of the caliber conversion) and a gas system just barely strong enough to run the gun reliably. When this malf happened I was firing from the hip instead of holding the gun solidly, and just like short-stroking a recoil operated pistol, a bit of free movement in the gun was just enough to delay ejection and cause a problem. I was very happy to find that throughout my initial zeroing, the match, and some demo shooting afterwards, I had no other problems. The Bren was obviously built to run on much more gas pressure than the 7.62x39 cartridge generates, and I've seen conflicting opinions on whether this conversion would work reliably, especially with the additional striker spring required for the semiauto setup. SMG did a great job building the gun!
Comments
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How much altogether did the 7.62x39 Bren cost? I saw a beltfed variation that was about 2000. I'm a fan of the Bren though I'd love to get my hands on the ZB26
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Looks like the clip from the bren is useable for the ak47
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Damn that thing is heavy
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You always bring weird guns to these things. You're like the king of the conversation piece.
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NEXT WEEK: Ian does a two-gun match with an original Gatling gun and a duck's foot flintlock!
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I have read that the British army was using a .308 version of the Bren gun during the 1982 Falklands war.
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4:58 "Ha-HAW!" Get some, Ian! GET SOME!!!
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Man the Bren is smooth as butter.
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1:05 you have been officially over-run by Zulu's and are being stabbed to death (if they had Bren-guns in the Zulu wars)
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that Chinese bren is been used in thousands of shitty Chinese movies and tv series
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Wow that is a nasty pony tail.
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what a crazy gun. I WANT ONE!
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China communist army, the PLA was lack of small arms when they took the power from Republic of China. Before they receiving more weapons and production lines from Soviet Union, they had to re-chambered the old weapons which survived Sino-Japan war(WWII) and the civil war. Actually they even re-chambered the famous ZB-26, not only Bren. This kind of weapon served many years for militia even when they were obsoleted from regular army.
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Never supposed to be fired left handed, learn to switch shoulders depending on weapon. Im left handed and was taught to fire the Bren/LMG from the right as the weapon is set up this way
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Is this a 7.92 barrel relined to shoot 762x39, or is it made for 762x39?
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the BREN is a great gun but to mate something that heavy with a 7.62x39 thats a gun only a bureacrat could love
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Most Chinese WW2 rifles and machine guns are in 7.92x57mm due to caliber Standardization
After the civil war a great number 7.62 version of ZB-26 and bren were converted from the 7.92 version which were captured from us by the communists
It was proved that the 7.62 version have a higher chance to malfunction than the 7.92 version -
That's freakin awesome. I hope they were converts, couldn't imagine them producing that heavy thing in 7.62x39 with RPD and RPK technology out there at the time.
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Id really like to see a LeMat covered, they are very rare and I have never seen one fired and if not original (as I know they failed a lot) there are reproductions...
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enjoyed