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It’s finally home....NESA 1918A2 New England Small Arms BAR


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I was finally able to bring home my NE Small Arms BAR today. It was worth the drive to the FedEx terminal this morning :-)

 

It has a nice early A2 trigger group with the bolt on magazine guides, original bipod, carry handle and even has a 6-44 Auto Ordnace barrel in it! Came with 3 Seymour mags too.

 

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Just did the math and found that my BAR receiver was made in Dec of 1943 and it has a barrel in it from June 1944. Wonder why the 6 month gap or was it given a new barrel during its use?

 

Most likely a replacement barrel. My NESA was manufactured Apr 43 and came with a 4-44 AOC barrel.

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Be interesting to know why it would have a replacement barrel so soon? The barrel has been on the gun for a really long time as the finish matches. Id have not thought it to be a replacement other than the fact the dates are so far off.

 

JimC-Ill have to think of something. Be possible to get the other local BAR owners interested in a little head to head fun?

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Be interesting to know why it would have a replacement barrel so soon? The barrel has been on the gun for a really long time as the finish matches. Id have not thought it to be a replacement other than the fact the dates are so far off.

 

JimC-Ill have to think of something. Be possible to get the other local BAR owners interested in a little head to head fun?

 

 

The AOC barrel could have easily been sitting in storage for years before an armorer replaced the original barrel.

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Or it could have been the original

Given the way that NESA operated, i.e. a conglomerate of different manufacturers each producing only a few parts or sub-assemblies, it's entirely possible that the receiver manufacturer shipped a lot of receivers to the final assembler sometime around the beginning of 1944 and AOC shipped the barrels in June. The assembler would simply have mated the first parts that came to hand not necessarily in the order received. This was long before the advent of computerized inventory tracking and scheduling much less just-in-time delivery. Everything was done with pencil and paper and surges and delays inevitably occurred

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