In Cyprus, the Greek defense forces (the Cyprus National Guard is the armed forces of the Greek portion of the divided island of Cyprus) is selling off some 9,000 of its oldest (as in very old) weapons to collectors. These World War II era weapons include over 7,000 Lee-Enfield No 4 rifles, 1,000 Sten submachine guns and 90 Bren machine-guns. A set of guns (one of each) is going for $1,700. The Stens, which are quite rare these days, go for nearly $650 each. All these weapons will be demilitarized (firing pins removed and a metal plug inserted inside the barrel.) The weapons would sell for more if they were sold in firing condition, but there was fear that terrorists or other criminals would buy and use them.

It is a pity they are deactivating them. The terrorist justification is nonsense, but I can understand them deactivating the Stens and Brens, they can’t sell them to civilians, but deactivating enfields is such a waste.

Sten Mk II submachine gun (From Wikipedia)

Hat Tip: Ride Fast & Shoot Straight

M96 Top Feed

The Top Feed or “BREN” transformation of the M96 can be done with no modification to the M96 receiver. The rear sight of the M96 rifle is remove and the lower receiver is attached where the rear sight was. The handguard is switched to the other side of the receiver. Two additional parts are necessary: a receiver cover with an offset rear sight; and a barrel with an offset front sight.

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The BREN with its 30 round magazine extending out the top of the receiver could easily accept a 30 round magazine. The operator could shoot prone or from a fox hole while keeping a very low profile and without the magazine being ground into the dirt. Addtionally, the top fed rifles also benefit from more reliability because gravity aides in feeding rounds instead of against feeding rounds in conventional bottom fed rifles.

It looks cool. I am not sure if they still make the top feed kit.

More info here.

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.

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

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.

From an A-Team episode

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