Original British WWII 1943 Dated Bren MkII Display Light Machine Gun by Daimler Monotype Serial T8655 with Live Barrel & Magazine Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a great deactivated display example of the iconic Bren MkII Light Machine gun, as used by British forces during WWII. It was built from all original parts on an original BATF compliant non-firing display receiver, making it a 100% legal Display Machine gun. This receiver was created by using portions of the original torch cut receiver, including the barrel bushing, combined with some new made steel portions. It has properly had a 25% section of the total length completely replaced entirely with solid steel bar stock. Meaning a 1/4 length section of the display receiver is solid steel, making this totally legal to own without a license of any kind. Every part on this display gun is original WWII manufacture other than 25% of the receiver replaced by solid steel (as required by BATF).

The display gun comes complete with an original magazine, and unlike many we have had, this example has a fully intact LIVE MkII barrel, which can be removed from the display gun relatively easily using a rubber mallet. The display gun marked BREN Mk II on the rear receiver over the cocking lever. It is also marked M 67 / 1943 farther up the receiver, which is the dispersal code for the Daimler Company Limited, an automobile manufacturer. It was part of the Monotype Group – a confederation of companies making parts which were assembled by the Monotype Corporation in Surrey. They produced around 72,000 Bren Guns from September 1941 onwards during the war. The loss of large numbers of Bren Guns at Dunkirk had resulted in the War Department contracting with many companies not previously involved in arms production to start production. The rear of the receiver bears serial number T8655, the correct format for a Monotype made gun.

This display gun has the correct MkII receiver, with a ladder sight attached to the rear, and the correct “high ears” on the front of the gas tube. The butt stock is the correct simplified version, with a sling swivel on the side, and a flat butt plate without a shoulder rest at the top. It has the correct all steel MkII barrel mounted to the front, which can still be removed. The barrel is pretty much new old stock, with a great bore that still has the arsenal grease left inside. The lower frame is the correct shorter MkII type, which stops at the tripod mounting location, and the receiver is fitted with the correct MkII pattern cocking handle. It comes with an original WW2 Bren magazine, which will be deactivated where required.

Overall it is in excellent condition, with much of the original finish present on the original parts. Pistol grip and butt stock are in solid shape, with a great color and patina of age. The butt stock has a small repair right against the receiver, where they are almost always repaired due to how thin the wood is there. This looks like a gun that was out on the battlefield, and then put away after the war, not one that was sold off as surplus.

A very attractive display piece for any collection!

The Bren was a licensed version of the Czechoslovak ZGB 33 light machine gun which, in turn, was a modified version of the ZB vz. 26, which British Army officials had tested during a firearms service competition in the 1930s. The later Bren featured a distinctive top-mounted curved box magazine, conical flash hider, and quick change barrel. The name Bren was derived from Brno, the Czechoslovak city in Moravia, where the Zb vz. 26 was designed (in the Zbrojovka Brno Factory) and Enfield, site of the British Royal Small Arms Factory. The designer was Václav Holek, a gun inventor and design engineer.

The Bren was originally very close to the Czech ZB vz 30 in construction, with carefully machined lightening cuts, dovetails, and other precision design elements. However, with the massive loss of arms during the evacuation at Dunkirk, the British Military needed a lot more Bren guns, and fast. Very quickly, a modified MkI Bren, called either the MkIM or MkI*, was introduced, which removed a lot of the bevels and lightening cuts that were machined into the original receiver. The complicated front adjustable bipod was also replaced by one with fixed legs. The extra sight dovetail on the left side was removed completely as well.

However, at the same time the MkI Modified was being developed, plans were already in motion for an even simpler redesign for new production lines that were not already set up to make the MkIM This new design involved a much simpler squared rear receiver, and did away with the complicated dial-driven rear sight. Instead a standard fold-away ladder sight was developed. The rear butt stock was dramatically simplified in design, being more of a slab, and it had a simple bent steel butt plate that screwed directly onto the wood. The MkI had a utilized a stamped “Cup” that snapped into special slots, and had a fold-away shoulder rest.

The most noticeable change to the layman however would be the new barrel. gone was the long stainless steel barrel shroud and flash hider that extended to the gas regulator. Instead, the flash hider was now pressed onto the end of the barrel, and was only about 3 inches long in total, with the front sight another piece that was pressed on. All of these changes together dramatically sped up production.