Bar m1918

[Douglas Jr.]

Hi everybody,

I recently posted this on Jan Still's Forum, but I just realize that I never had shown this beast in this forum either, up to now.

Let me present you my Browning Automatic Rifle Model 1918.

It was born as a Browning Automatic Rifle M1918 (with provision to full auto fire and semiauto), made by Winchester. However, as happened with thousands of BARs, it was upgraded to a M1918A2 version (only full auto fire) during WWII. Its barrel was also changed in August, 1944; the stock was also replaced, by a hard plastic-like model.

My bet is this gun was supplied to Brazilian troops upon their arrival in Italy during the last half of 1944, to fight attached to the US 5th Army, under Gen. Mark Clark. Brazilian troops left Brazil unarmed (with only few exceptions like high officers and MP personnel) and were fully equipped after arrived in Italian soil.

Anyway, the gun is a firing specimen and it is in good and working condition. I must to confess that I bought this one for impulse, only motivated by my reminiscences of a kid watching reruns of “Combat!” TV show, where the PFC Kirby was always firing one of those with its characteristic slow burst sound.

It has been in my vault since then (2004), and I never managed to get some decent pictures of it. Photographing long guns is a completely different proceeding, and all my techniques that I developed to use with pistols, doesn’t seem to work. In order to mitigate the fuzzy effects, I adopted a white background and made some changes, but I didn’t get the right hand with that. Well, here are the results. I promise to upgrade to pictures when I get better shots.

Hope you enjoy it.

Greetings

Douglas

[Douglas Jr.]

the remaining pics...

[saab-bob]

Douglas
Thanks for the great pics.
The BAR is my favorite rifle of all time. I have only had the pleasure of shooting one at full auto a few times,it was great.
I fondly remember going to a early SOF convention in Las Vegas and drooling on a table with 5 of them all lined up.All where WW2 vintage.They where all for sale and marked on the stock LASD. They must have been surplus from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Dept.The price was $5000 each. One of my major shoulda couda moments.

Speaking of the TV show"Combat".A few months ago,I visited the Franklin Canyon Reservoir in the hills above LA. It is where the studio shot? alot of episodes of that great old show.Good stuff.People had told me you could still find empty 30-06 cases! I didn't.

Bob

[John Sabato]

Nice!

[alanint]

Mine is a correct Winchester 1918 about 100K above your serial number. Ohio Ordnance here in the US is a good place to find some of the parts you would need to retrofit youra as a correct 1918

[Douglas Jr.]

Thanks for your comments!
I'm glad you like it.
I'll check Ohio Ordnance site to see what they have there, but at this point I do not intend to retrofit this one. But som accessories should be nice.

Greetings,
Douglas

[DavidJayUden]

"Anyway, the gun is a firing specimen and it is in good and working condition. I must to confess that I bought this one for impulse, only motivated by my reminiscences of a kid watching reruns of “Combat!” TV show, where the PFC Kirby was always firing one of those with its characteristic slow burst sound."

Wasn't "Little John" the BAR guy? Man, it's been a while...
A friend has a registered one that we shot at a sand pit a couple of years ago. SWEET!
Nice picures. Thanks for sharing...
Sometime I'll drag out the Maxim gun for some photos.
dju

[Ron Smith]

"Wasn't "Little John" the BAR guy? Man, it's been a while..."

Kirby was the BAR man. It's odd how many war movies depict a big hulking guy to be the Squad Machine Gunner. After all they are heavy and it takes a strong man to pack them around.

I've heard and read that the BAR men, or the Machine Gunners were usually chosen for their slight stature, which makes for a smaller target. The Machine Gunners and BAR men were the first ones the enemy tried to take out, to cut down on the fire power. Snipers are trained to go after them first since they are considered the most dangerous threat.

Ron

[DavidJayUden]

Ron and Douglas:
I stand corrected and plead old age...
Is Combat available on DVD? It's a shame about poor old Sgt. Saunders.
dju

[Douglas Jr.]

Originally Posted by DavidJayUden

Ron and Douglas:
I stand corrected and plead old age...
Is Combat available on DVD? It's a shame about poor old Sgt. Saunders.
dju

Good question.
There is a box with 30 DVD (according what I've found on Net) with all episodes (152) but it seems that they were cut off of six or seven minutes each.

And yes, Kirby was the BAR gunner! Unfortunately, most of cast passed away.

Douglas.

[RichSr]

Ron,
I don't know about stature but i can verify slight. My uncle carried a BAR with the Marines on Tarawa and Okinawa. He was 6'2" but I'll bet he didn't weigh 140lb at the time, making not much of a target.

[Fazer]

My uncle was a lifer either master or first sergeant in the Marines. I can remember him telling me and my older brother as we reached draft age. " Machine guns are a lot of fun, but don't become to proficient with them. You'll live longer and have less weight to carry while your doing it"

Chip

[mikedavid]

I know of someone who has a Browning commercial Model 1919 BAR. It was sold for civilian use. I was told that there was only a few still around and it was worth a lot of money. Anyone with any info: on the commercial BAR.

[MikeP]

A lot of wiry type guys ended up humping ARs amd M60s.
Big guys tired out pretty quick.
My 1st 6 months in RVN we had M2 Carbines, A6s, and BARs.

They are very heavy and complicated. The 20 round mag was a hinderence, but it was a long lived design.

I shoulder fired them, and at 200lbs, tended to step back from the recoil.

Anybody with training knows short bursts are the only effective way to fire most anything full auto.
I missed the 3shot device on the M16, but they sound like a good idea.

[Douglas Jr.]

Nice picture Mike!
Thanks for sharing!
Douglas