Bren Front Sights

[belly]

Hi

I've seen a nice MK1 dovetail for sale but one of the front sight protector ears has snapped off. Are these easy to find and easy to replace for a novice like me?!

thanks
Belly

[britplumber]

The same Bren is for sale currently on 2 sites so make sure you go to the right one. One is asking £642.50 (Was £442.50 4 months back) and the other is £550. This is the history I have for this gun thus far.

For Auction by Wallis and Wallis on 11/01/10

Then at Arundel Militaria.

For sale at drop zone militaria. 30/01/11

For sale at DandB for £495 then £450

for sale at DandB and XXXXXXX at the same time £442.50

For sale at XXXXX £xxx 24/06/11

I've added x to hide the current vendors.

I think it was a Ryton Arms deac, I seam to remember seeing it in 2010 in their armoury.

To answer your original question, its very straight forward, simply remove the screw and it slides off. Kev G may have replacements.

Also, to help in your decision, bare in mind it has a later Mk1m lower slide and a much later Mk3 barrel catch which you cant swap out.

[belly]

Hmmm, yes I've seen it on XXX's website for £550. But a lot of websites seem to advertise things that don't exist! There's been 3 mint examples of all 3 marks at great prices on warstuff, only when you enquire mysteriously they have 'just been sold' or they are "old adverts, please check out our current stock of knackered items at twice the price...."

Thanks for the tip, hadn't spotted the catch, I always seem to worry about the bipod as the non-change item.

A nice bren is an itch I've been wanting to scratch for a while!

[ronreme]

Hi Belly, I have a front sight protector, email me at [e-mail] if you require one .Regards Ron

[Kev]

Or here - www.bren-gun.com/index.html/html/barrel_group.html item 18

ATB Kevin

[belly]

Thanks chaps for your great help! Although now I'm thinking does it have a chequered history it seems to have gone through a lot of dealers and never found a home for long. The slide’s niggling me too now, I must admit I didn’t know the MK1 and Mk1m slide was different, are the differences external or internal?

I’ve been looking for about 18 months now and they all seem to have at least a few mismatched bits, am being too fussy??!

Cheers
Paul

[britplumber]

You'll find about 95% of DD Brens will have later lowers and the chances of finding a matching numbers example is really slim. Pretty much the only way to get a DD with all correct parts is to buy the basic gun and replace what you can with parts from other Brens that have the parts you need. I've done this with a few, its not cheap but at least you can resell the doner Bren.

As a side note, Peter Laidler told me the other day that he had just had a look at a original late 1939 DD found by the Navy in there store system. Its now gone to one of there museums, it just shows that they are still out there!!