10,500 Canadian Brownings headed to Ukraine

T

trilobite

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Not sure what percentage of the whole inventory that represents.

press release: https: //www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2024/09/minister-blair-announces-additional-military-assistance-for-ukraine-at-the-24th-meeting-of-the-ukraine-defense-contact-group.html

These pistols TBH seemed pretty crapped-out when I fired them in Gagetown in the early 1990s - hopefully there's going to be some grading and quality control on what's being sent.

On the other hand: taxpayers back in the day bought them to help defend the free world against Russians ... and, in a surprise move, after all these years, that's how they're going to be used.

Happy Friday -
 
TBH I think it is a disgrace to offer M1935 to Ukraine. All of them past their service life time, I assume most of them at the trash condition, nevermind pistol is outdated, nevermind pistol is not needed in Ukraine. It looks like Lib gov saw the opportunity to get rid of some unwanted surplus for free. Not the first time with military aid for Ukraine.
I'm saying this as big fan of BHP from historical and collecting point point of view.
 
JP said:
Well at least they won't be melted down and maybe in a better world they will make their way back to canadian collectors.
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Indeed, best news I've heard about these guns in years.

Per an Ottawa Citizen article from earlier this year, the CF was set to dispose of 11,000 pistols by the end of the year.

I'd much rather see them off to Ukraine than the smelter. Even if Ukraine does not issue them out, I'm sure they could be used to sell/trade for less dated equipment. I guess only time will tell.
 
These are not the drones they are looking for...... Our Govt could probably make some money selling them to collectors even if they were de-activated..... but I guess we've got money to burn now that our debt is paid off. Sunny ways.
 
there were still a significant number of pistols held in war stocks (20000 back in the early 2000's) and I suspect that all of those are going over in this batch

those were in new or nearly new condition.

I like the BHp, the biggest failing was not that the pistols were shot out, it was that the mags were buggered up
 
I have a friend, former re-enactor as myself, he is with 3d brigade (Azov) now. He had as his sidearms: TT-33, then switched to BHP Belgium made under Nazi occupation, then switched to P-08. I will tell him Inglis HPs are coming... He does this just for sake of love for historical firearms.
 
Horilka said:
I have a friend, former re-enactor as myself, he is with 3d brigade (Azov) now. He had as his sidearms: TT-33, then switched to BHP Belgium made under Nazi occupation, then switched to P-08. I will tell him Inglis HPs are coming... He does this just for sake of love for historical firearms.
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He was using a P-08 while serving over there? :ROFLMAO: awesome
 
Horilka said:
I have a friend, former re-enactor as myself, he is with 3d brigade (Azov) now. He had as his sidearms: TT-33, then switched to BHP Belgium made under Nazi occupation, then switched to P-08. I will tell him Inglis HPs are coming... He does this just for sake of love for historical firearms.
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azov guy using a luger, the memes write themselves
 
woodchopper said:
there were still a significant number of pistols held in war stocks (20000 back in the early 2000's) and I suspect that all of those are going over in this batch

those were in new or nearly new condition.

I like the BHp, the biggest failing was not that the pistols were shot out, it was that the mags were buggered up
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This, the JI Mags that where in use generally needed to be mandreled, or discarded if beyond repair, new mags are readily available on the market. I was able to get a Brit BHP mag in Bosnia that was head and shoulders better then a JI WWII mag. I also observed that the guns generally lived a hard life getting dragged and tossed about QM but the old war horse(s) generally could not be considered "shot out" . Send them through a FTR and get them back in the fight..............far better and more honourable then a smelter.
 
Were these the same pistols that our Canadian Forces team ended up having to SHARE pistols while competing due to almost all of them breaking down at the competition?
 
JP said:
Well at least they won't be melted down and maybe in a better world they will make their way back to canadian collectors.
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Indeed. In peacetime, Ukraine was a huge supplier of surplus to Canada and the USA.

If the handgun ban is reversed, in a few years, some survivors may appear on the p&s website (fingers crossed).
 
I like how the Canadian Forces seems to issue every soldier who qualifies with the 9mm Browning an additional 4-letter qualification code as a Small Arms Life Cycle Material Manager. The average troop with an opinion on the Browning believes every single one is a POS - because they shot the 45 shot (or whatever it is) lowest level personal weapons course of fire.

As others have mentioned, there are hundreds and thousands of high quality high readiness guns in the inventory. In 1990 I inspected 10/10 condition mint BNIB war stock Brownings issued for the Gulf. What the I-shot-a-qualification-so-I-know crowd doesn't know is in a stroke of actual genius, the LCMMs cascade the most beaten up guns down to the training units and pools so the taxpayer squeezes their last amortized 1945 buck of value back. Their next stop is the condemn list.

Someone mentioned bad magazines. I agree 100%. The wartime John Inglis magazines were long past due for replacement three decades ago. The Browning I carried in Afghanistan had two very nice MecGar mags thank you very much.
 
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B said:
^You saw some nice units 34 years ago so everyone else is wrong? Interesting.
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You missed the second part about cascading the worst guns to the training pools that get the hardest use. Those brand new 1945 guns didn't get issued to the 2nd Bn Foreskin Fusiliers in East Pump Handle to fill their entitlement of 12 Brownings. They would have gone back into stores.
 
The way I heard it, most (if not all) of the pistols were discovered in a warehouse and are in unissued and therefore, unfired condition. Bear in mind that Inglis made around 152,000 pistols! Is it truly inconceivable that 11,000 were warehoused and forgotten? I'd love to see them on the collector market here though we know the Liberals would never allow that. Just like the 750 Lee Enfield .22 training rifles in the transit boxes that went under military guard to Stelco into the furnaces. As if a 4', 10 lb. single shot .22 rifle would ever be the criminal's firearm of choice.
 
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