
- #HOW DO YOU CONVERT A STEN MARK 2 INTO A SINGLE SHOT HOW TO#
- #HOW DO YOU CONVERT A STEN MARK 2 INTO A SINGLE SHOT MANUAL#
- #HOW DO YOU CONVERT A STEN MARK 2 INTO A SINGLE SHOT PLUS#
4 Commando recalled, “but if you fired it too long and too quick, the barrel heated up and the accuracy decreased. “The Bren was a good weapon,” a member of No. A spare pail of water was often not available, however, and in combat most Tommies did without that simple procedure. To change barrels, one simply lifted the barrel-nut catch and pulled the barrel forward, after which it could be cooled in water.
#HOW DO YOU CONVERT A STEN MARK 2 INTO A SINGLE SHOT MANUAL#
At a full rate of fire, the gun would go through four magazines in a minute, and the barrel would have to be changed after 10 magazines or, as the manual noted, the gun “may get so hot it starts playing tricks.” Resorting to true rapid fire was only needed for real emergencies, and the Bren’s instruction manual, Know Your Weapons, warned against that.
#HOW DO YOU CONVERT A STEN MARK 2 INTO A SINGLE SHOT HOW TO#
The gunner had to learn how to hold the trigger and count “one hundred and one” at a moderately slow pace.

Firing that way required practice, however. If done properly, this would give up to a minute of firing time before having to reload. To cut down on ammunition expenditure and barrel wear in combat conditions, the weapon was usually fired in short bursts of four to five rounds. In skilled hands, a Bren was accurate at up to one mile and was capable of firing 500 rounds a minute, making it an immense improvement on its forerunner, the robust but clumsy Vickers. Measuring just under 46 inches, and weighing a total of 23 pounds with a full magazine, the potent weapon could easily be carried into battle by one man, assisted by a “number two,” who was responsible for bringing preloaded magazines and a spare barrel. As the gun was fired, empty rounds would fall from an aperture on the underside of the gun immediately in front of the trigger. To prevent damage to the spring, however, magazines generally were loaded only with 27 to 28 rounds. 303-inch standard rifle ammunition fired by the Bren was fed to the breech from a 30-round curved box magazine.

Originally produced in the state-owned Zbrojovká Brno factory, it was eventually modified and put into production at the British Small Arms Factory in Enfield-hence the name, which draws from the first two letters of both towns. The gas-operated, air-cooled Bren- usually known simply as the LMG, at least in the British army-was developed from a Czechoslovakian machine gun, the ZB26, designed by brothers Václav and Emmanuel Holek. Elevation could be adjusted while the firer was prone by increasing or decreasing the distance between the elbows. The reliable adjustable bipod, together with the well-placed pistol grip and carrying handle for further support, ensured that the operator had good control over the weapon. Both were arranged to minimize the weapon’s recoil.Īdded to that was the gun’s mechanical design, which directed all movement backward and forward. The butt, for example, contained two sets of springs: the butt-plate buffer spring and the piston-return spring. The gun’s unique features helped account for that level of accuracy. That might be overly dramatic, but it was a fact that on a range and in the hands of a skilled gunner, a Bren could fire a single burst of five rounds that would usually display the same grouping as five single shots. “If you fire a burst at oncoming troops,” some troopers claimed, “all the rounds will go through one man…and only leave one hole!” Stories about the accuracy of the Bren light machine gun are legion among the thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers who relied on it during the war.
#HOW DO YOU CONVERT A STEN MARK 2 INTO A SINGLE SHOT PLUS#
With a Lewis, you get plenty of spray and that, plus the motion of your cockleshell, should get you out of trouble.” “They’re handy little tools, aren’t they?” “How about a Bren?” the boat owner responded. Perhaps frazzled that he had to help organize the rescue, the CPO sarcastically asked the man what sort of gun he wanted. Desperate to give his boat some means of protection, one of those civilians went to an ordnance depot before departing to ask a veteran British chief petty officer for some firepower. During the British evacuation of Dunkirk in the spring of 1940, many civilians with boats were pressed into service to rescue British soldiers trapped on the beach.
