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Bren Food - Any commercial favorites


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Hi All,

 

I've the need to feed a Bren Gun. I'll likely only use commercial loaded ammo and save the brass. I'd like to reload the brass one or two times? The prime candidates are the Prvi Partizan or Sellier & Bellot. Is either brass suitable for reloading? Also, does the Bren have a preference of bullet nose shape? Softpoint or FMJ spire point?

 

This is my first rodeo for the Bren. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Grasshopper

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I second SR's comment. I use and reload Prvi Partisan in my Lewis gun.

For factory loads I set the spring at 15 lbs and for my reloads I set the spring at 13-14 lbs.

Military firearms are made to work with FMJ ammo, but will frequently work with SP ammo.

I load for 2200 FPS and get over 5 loads before splits happen.

Jim C

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Once my still-in-jail Lewis gun comes home, I plan to finish off the last of my stash of Winchester and S&B .303, followed by a meager 200 rounds of South African I'd forgotten I had.

 

Once those are gone (except for reloads), I have moderate amounts of both Prvi and Wolf Military Classic. I fully expect the Prvi to work well.

 

What's your opinion of the Wolf? e.g., too hard on the barrel?

 

Thanks,

 

Bryan

 

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Steel cased is fine and I use it wherever needed. I've shot it out of numerous guns, some ammo as old as the 40's, some made last year. M60 to MG08, I've never had an issue in any gun. Any time you're trying a SP tip, depending on the gun, feeding can be an issue on guns that tip rounds at a steep angle. FMJ is always preferred as that is what military guns are designed for specifically......so as to wound and not kill people?

The mythical steel vs. brass case argument has been around a long time.

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The mythical steel vs. brass case argument has been around a long time.

 

Yeah, I'm not so much concerned about the steel case (well, just a little), nor much about Berdan vs Boxer primed, but more about the bullet.

 

I'm probably misreading the articles, but I thought Wolf's .303 British bullets have a steel core instead of lead, under a soft outer shell (of probably copper). Steel bullets going down steel rifling would tend to cause more wear on the rifling, especially in MG barrels which get very hot very quickly.

 

Have I misunderstood, and the Wolf bullets have the traditional lead core?

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Some wolf had been steel core, but you'd have to check specific lots and calibers to be sure since it has varied a LOT over the years as wolf batches do. The core isn't really relevant since the jacket is thicker than the groove/land dimensions so the core never touches. If you're shooting it on a Bren, barrels are common and cheap, not to mention more than half of the barrels sold today are already worn to, or past their British spec. What you buy today is surplus, mostly used, and thus worn but for the recreational shooter they are just fine. Lewis barrels are still relatively cheap as well.

 

If you by cheaper ammo say 3 cents a round less and shoot 20K through it, the price difference is $600, enough to buy 3 lewis barrels or 6 bren barrels. Surplus 303 is in the .20's while new PPU is more than double.

 

Currently reloading is not cost effective for me, but I do see a time in the future when it could be, or if at some point I need something more accurate than Fed. 308 match, or if my stash of specialty calibers runs low. Back in the early 2000's when wolf 9mm and 7.62x39 was $78/1000 there were still guys reloading and claiming they were still ahead, but for me the math never worked out that way? We Americans have never been particularly gifted in mathematics as a group.

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Hmm too bad they did not consult someone with an actual science background when they did the testing? You never run one specimen of anything and you would gauge and borescope a barrel before you used it to verify what you started with. Bare minimums for fun would be three samples of each, to get close to scientific you'd start with 5. Fire rates would need to actually timed, and not random with all fired at the same time which guarantees like atmospheric conditions. The fact the two rifles started the test with accuracy issues means you really never started with apples to apples, even though they claimed to fix them, it doesn't mention if they rechecked them at the end? A look at the extractors clearly shows those were from different vendors or process' by the machine marks. Lots of good info in the comments section however.

 

I just went out the shop and checked some 308 and 223 wolf and neither had bi-metallic jacketed bullets in the steel cases. I wonder if they even knew what they were actually testing, and if the ammo was even from the same lots? In no way should this test ever be construed as a legitimate "test". All that said if the ammo was the same price, I'd buy brass everytime because it does hold several physical long term storage advantages.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello Grasshopper:

I have shot thousands of rounds through my cut/welded DLO Bren.

My current favorite is MENS E german, but cant find it anymore. The steel case russian is ok, but not as hot.

I have a lot of empty brass if you want it for a fair price. Let me know.

BPinFL

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