The BAR

New Jovian Thunderbolt has written about his past love for the BAR (M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle)

The BAR was always my dream gun. Or it was. Back when I knew nothing and only looked at capabilities on paper, and then not looking TOO closely.

I have loved the look of the BAR. It just looks so solid.

800Px-Browning Automatic Rifle Cropped
A beautiful looking rifle.

I don’t really like the concept. My opinion is that the US forces should have adopted a true light machine gun such as the Bren.

Advantages of the Bren

  • Standard magazine capacity was 30. BAR held 20.
  • Top loading magazine. Better for prone firing.
  • Swappable barrel

800Px-Bren Wog
An ugly machine gun (Click to expand image)

On the other hand it would be foolish to say one is better than the other. The BAR served for 30 years through three major wars (WWI, WWII and the Korean war).

According to Wikipedia other countries modified the BAR to make it more like a LMG:

Poland (Browning wz.1928), Belgium (FN M1930) and Sweden (Kulsprutegevär m/21 and m/37) developed and issued BAR variants during the 1930s which had pistol grips and quick-change barrels.

Picture 1-8
From an A-Team episode

Read more at the New Jovian Thunderbolt’s excellent blog.

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Steve Dec 28th 2007 military, photos, rifles Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

5 Responses to “The BAR”

  1. CrazyFoolon 24 Oct 2008 at 11:39 pm link comment

    That A-Team BAR comes from the pilot episode. The guy weilding it is the 2/ic of the enemy team

  2. diggeron 17 Nov 2008 at 3:09 pm link comment

    the bren is a beutiful brilliant lmg

  3. root manon 30 Jan 2009 at 4:54 am link comment

    “I don’t really like the concept. My opinion is that the US forces should have adopted a true light machine gun such as the Bren.”

    Good thing you don’t make decisions for anybody.
    Folks that used them loved the BAR.
    Look what the USMC is doing with the IAR.
    “True Light Machine guns” are not so light or practical.

  4. Whateveron 11 May 2009 at 9:48 am link comment

    The BAR does live on in a way as the FN MAG (aka M240) is basically an inverted BAR action that is belt fed.

    If I ever win the lottery I am going to make a smaller version of the BAR which fires 223 Remington.

  5. Steveon 11 May 2009 at 9:50 am link comment

    Whatever, you known what, I don’t think anyone has done that before. You would be the first!

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