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Gun is from my personal collection if anyone has any further interest, the OP and I were discussing a trade that has since fallen through. This Thompson is an AO 1928A1 with no serial number on the lower, however, both the upper and lower are factory Auto Ordnance / Bridgeport, s/n is AO98xxx with no NAC suffix or prefix. It looks to have been nicely refinished at some point with the replacement barrel, bolt, and actuator, all being Savage "S" marked. The Blish lock is AOC marked. It is a fantastic shooter!

Hey Pitfigher, Those are not ZB loaders, they are both styles of Bren. The one clamps to the magazine chest as pictured, and the other stores in the front of the chest as you can see in Richards photo as well. Granted they look the same, but you are correct in that the ZB loaders will not fit Bren mags. I have a ZB loader for my ZB and if I recall I bought it assuming it was for the Bren since I couldn't tell the difference at the time. I wish the loaders were as common as the ZB loaders, but they indeed took quite a while to find. The sight is a fixed line sight and what looks to be a binocular case is the case for it with a wooden insert that the sight goes into. Not pictured is the light box setup and stake that is shared with the Vickers. The sight slides into the front dovetail in a MK1 often referred to as a "double dovetail". That was fairly quickly eliminated since it's only purpose was this sight and the dream of the No.32 scope mount that would fit into the front dovetail that never materialized. Machining this beast was complicated enough and later marks got rid of the dovetails altogether. The chest is unfortunately Canadian, so technically not correct for this Enfield, but so far it's the nicest one I could find. I've seen a lot of British chests, but they all so far, have not been that nice or there was a shipping issue on the nice one's I did find. I had always assumed a Bren would be out of reach since prices when they come up are very high, but on a sheer quirk of luck at an auction, there were few bidders I and stumbled into it. I'm not sure I've ever seen another early Bren like this come up for sale publicly? The gun came out of a museum, as did the sight in a separate lot. You guys need some cleaning rods in those lids! Same as the Vickers IIRC? Without the Bren gun saga, I wouldn't have gone half this far, but I think I am only missing one or two items from memory? I think only the MG34 is worse for accessories?

Hopefully this answers the questions. Yes we can, but not as individuals. What it does mean however is that fully automatic weapons are limited to a very few so they’re quite cheap compared with say, a bolt action rifle that many people can own with a licence.

I have permission to post a sale. This is a very nice gun from Merle Bitikofer estate. For sale is a 1919A4 belt-fed Browning-style rifle, configured in 7.62x51 NATO (.308 Winchester). This is the semi-automatic version of the 1919A4 light machine gun, so no special tax stamp is required. It was produced by U.S. Ordnance in Sparks, Nevada, using a combination of U.S.-made and Israeli parts. Several key accessories are included: A trunnion shield to avoid damage to the trunnion when firing linked ammunition rather than the cloth belts originally designed for the machine gun. A trigger crank mechanism designed and manufactured by Merle Bitikofer of Oregon.A trigger crank mechanism designed and manufactured by Merle Bitikofer of Oregon. There are accessories i will offer first to the buyer, including a cloth belt loader and linker, and links, M2 tripod , and T&E mechanism. But just offering the gun here first. Asking $4500.