British rifle pull through, info needed

Dyspnea

Dyspnea

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I bought this pull through today, I thought it was two enfield pull throughs. But it's not , it has a lead weight(?) on each end and a single loop in the middle. It's overall length is 8.5 feet.

I've found online thus far, similar ones with multiple loops and a single weight of brass. Which were issued to machine guns . But why is mine different? Just a later Mk perhaps?

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Sounds like one issued for the Bren Gun or some other machine-gun with a removable barrel.

Procedure was for one man to stand, holding the barrel very firmly in a horizontal position, the pull-through through it. A man on each end of the pull-through then pulled it first in one direction, then in the other, to dislodge powder and (especially) jacket fouling from the inside of the bore. The barrel would be held very solidly during this, as the pull-through was NOT allowed to contact the EDGE of the bore. This would cause cord-wear and eventually render the barrel first inaccurate and finally useless. The pull-through had to be CENTRED in the bore perfectly.

For dislodging heavy jacket-fouling, the pull-through would have been used with oil and a piece of wire mesh which looked much like window-screening. For normal cleaning, it would have had a 4x2 patch in th loop.

Let's hope that Buffdog is able to reply to this thread today. He had a COMPLETE Lewis Gun kit at one time, so it would be good to know if this type of pull-through was included with it.

Hope this helps.
 
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My Lewis Gun came from Ireland, at a time when the Irish were changing to the Bren. If I remember right, there was a Cleaning Rod in the wooden carrying chest. However, I have seen and used many pull throughs like this one after firing the Bren. As SMELLIE notes, it took three men, one to hold the barrel and one on each end of the pull through to pull it back and forth inside the barrel.

One way to hold the barrel fairly steady was for the person holding it to put it behind his back, and have the barrel resting inside his arms at the elbows. By pushing his arms forward, the barrel could be held fairly well by the small of the back, and the elbows. Of course, the manditory two pints of boiling water was put down the bore first to get rid of the corrosive salts, loosen up the fouling, and heat up the barrel.
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smellie said:
Sounds like one issued for the Bren Gun or some other machine-gun with a removable barrel.
Click to expand...

This is a BREN pull-through. The method of use entailed THREE men. One stood, with the removed barrel held behind his back with his arms hooked around it to hold it still - against the small of his back. The other two stood one on each side, and 'sawed' the pull-through from one side to the other, clearing the barrel on each stroke.

tac
 
tacfoley said:
This is a BREN pull-through. The method of use entailed THREE men. One stood, with the removed barrel held behind his back with his arms hooked around it to hold it still - against the small of his back. The other two stood one on each side, and 'sawed' the pull-through from one side to the other, clearing the barrel on each stroke.

tac
Click to expand...

THREE Men to clean a gun barrel ? :rolleyes:

Grizz
 
The pull through you have is Yugoslavian, I have a bunch of them that came in the cleaning kits of Yugo Mausers. Identifiable by the soft lead weights on each end and loop in the middle, like the top one in my pic. You can see it is the same type of twine and the same crimping technique on the lead weights.

Bren double pull throughs have a brass weight at one end and loops in the middle and are much longer than a single enfield pull through ( middle one in my pic)

Bottom is standard single enfield pull through for comparison.

On the right is the manual showing the Bren barrel, 3 person, double pull through cleaning technique described earlier.

3n8b.jpg
 
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