M1918 BAR .303 SAA Ball

[Jabroni]

Just an M1918 BAR but in British .303 Caliber, Never came across this variant before.
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/3871/303bardr3.jpg

[Roanoke]

Very strange.

I'm guessing it was created when the US started giving lots of supplies to Britain during the war.

[ag05]

Why would the Brits need it? I thought they had the Bren for such purposes.

Wooden buttstock, too. Strange.

[Martino]

I have seen it before, but never have realy found anything on it.

[martinexsquaddie]

never heard of the bar in british service
might poke my frinedly weapon arnorak see what happens

[Roanoke]

You guys are forgetting that during the war the US supplied alot of stuff to the Brits.

[Hydro]

Probably made for the same reason any other weapon is offered in alternate calibres - export.

As it's a 1918 BAR, I presume it was made just after WW1, when the British were fairly happy with the Lewis gun, just before the adoption of the Bren.


The Home Guard were the main recipients of US made weapons - P14/17's, some BAR and so forth. US weapons in the regular military were actually fairly rare (other than Thompson 1928's I suppose). The Commandos used quite a few US weapons, M1/M1A1 SMG, even some Garands.

[oldsoak]

.303 was used by quite a few countries as an mg round in WW1, so it might have been manufactured for a European ally. When we twigged that we were heading for WWII we bought up a lot of stuff from the US

[D.E. Watters]

Colt made these for the British LMG trials, which eventually led to the adoption of the Bren.

You can read more about it in the book Rock in a Hard Place.