BAR Mags

[MCarter788]

Can anyone shed any light on how many 30 and/or 40 round mags were made for the 1918's, etc. for use in aircraft?

[jim c 351]

Carter,

I never knew that 30 & 40 rd mags were made for the BAR. Where did you read about them???

Jim C

[gunhistorian]

Jim C 351 - I think Jim Ballou in his BAR book has some photos of the BAR with a 30- or 40-round mag. If you go to Hathitrust.org and search for Ordnance Magazine you can pull up some of the older issues (post-WWI) that might have photos and info.

 

MCarter 788 - I suspect that the "large capacity" (LOL) magazines were either prototypes or very limited production. I imagine that a BAR was somewhat unwieldy in an open-cockpit bi- or triplane (hmmm. . .did the Allies have any triplanes?). I'd guess that the concept of a hand- or shoulder-fired small arm was quickly supplanted by the installation of flexible (or fixed) machine guns such as the Lewis then the Vickers, etc. Whoops! Can't forget the Villar-Perosa even though it is a bit on the puny side, caliber-wise. Not sure about Hotchkiss guns being mounted as observers' guns. You might want to check Tony Williams' site -- he is the "go to guy" for aerial armament. Can't remember the site.

[jim c 351]

I have Jim Ballou's book. guess I'll have to drag it out and reread it.

Since they had been using Vickers and Lewis guns in aircraft since the beginning of the war its hard to imagine why the would want a BAR in a plane.

Jim C

[StooperZero]

dont know about mounting in a plane.. the weight vs rate of fire ratio would have been disappointing.

 

 

 

there was an attempted AA set up with sights and 40rd mags. but it was more than likely scrapped cause 40rounds just isnt enough , no way to change the barrel .

 

 

 

 

 

I've only ever seen 1 40rd magazine and i remember it being well over $1200 .

[emmagee1917]

Yep , 40rd mags were limited USGI manufactured for ground AA use . There are 30-round mags being produced by OOW . It would have been nice if they had copied the original 40 rounder instead , but alas...

They did mount BARs on Blimps for anti-submarine patrol . The weight savings might have been a factor , but I'm guessing it was more of a machinegun shortage at the time and a surplus of BARs at the start of WW2 .

Chris

[OCM]

There was a drawing & story floating , some years ago, that Clyde Barrow made or tried to make a 40 or so magazine for his 18s. The story started from his sidekick, WD Jones but was never proved or found.

I had talked to Jim Ballou about Barrow, prior to his publishing the book . This may be what sparked some of this. ??

I think there is a picture of it in the Bonnie & Clyde Then & Now book. Have to look, been awhile.

[warren]

40 round mags were made on a special order for two BAR's which were ordered and sold to the RCMP in Canada

Canada ordered two BAR's with the "special 40 round mags" and both the guns and mags have disappeared into the woodwork.

I sent Jim Balou the sales and purchase records of this for the BAR book........

[Canuck]

That's very interesting. Do you know how many of these 40 round magazines they ordered? Did they disappear in 1969?

[OCM]

No way in hell could I hold up a 1918 BAR with a 40 rd mag, can barely hold it up now, empty !

[warren]

I'll dig out the data I sent to Jim Balou on the RCMP contract and re-read it. The mind grows feeble with age :-)##

I was not able to find out any disposition of the guns nor the mags and all my old contacts are long gone............Long gone.

[Big Al]

Thirty round magazines were recommended for testing, but none were ever produced. The idea was around, as evidenced here with them being mentioned in this photograph of the experimental M1920 BAR.

The 40 round magazine does seem to have reached production in some numbers. How many, I don't know. But, they were mentioned and depicted in the manual Antiaircraft Matériel for Machine Guns: Service Handbook. Here are some screenshots of the manual.

 

The magazine.

The magazine disassembled.

In gun on AA mount with sights.