Edmonton gun show finds

Had a great time at the gun show in Edmonton today. It wasn't a cheap day although all of the items were picked up for fair prices. The Bren was the whole reason for attending the show. I had been pestering Rob Love for the better part of a year to put a Canadian Bren together for me which he did after returning from Afghanistan a few months ago. It's an early Mk I with all of the correct features. I was pretty stoked to see how well it turned out. Also found some other scarce items including a Canadian made No75 Hawkins mine, complete No69 grenade with original markings and the nicest German stick grenade handle I've ever seen. There were some other good items there but I had spent enough already. This was the best gun show here that I have been to in quite a long time. I hope it is a sign of things to come.

Very nice! I'm drooling...

Congrats Steve, some great items there. You did awesome. I wish I had a Bren gun, maybe one day.

Very nice...Rob does nice work, I have a Bren and Sten from him that are centre pieces in my WWII collection.

I love the grenade and mine pick ups!

Very nice bren Dale.
All put together with the original parts?

Haplo wrote:Very nice bren Dale.
All put together with the original parts?

It's not me who owns that beauty....I wish it was though. You will have to ask Steve.

Haplo wrote:Very nice bren Dale.
All put together with the original parts?

Yes, the gun has all original parts and they are also all correct for this early version. It also has the shoulder strap which was removed during the war and is therefore somewhat of a scarcity. The only thing it is missing is the anti-aircraft grip that attaches under the butt stock and the fixed line sight that attached to the side of the receiver. That item alone is rare to find but I will be looking for one now.

Hi Steve,

It was good seeing you at the show. That Bren you picked up is awesome. I had a good look at it before the show opened to the public and Rob had told me it was set aside for you. Truely a great item!

I didn't know you found a hawkins mine! Who had that? (you lucky bugger).

Cheers,

Geoff

GCR817 wrote:
I didn't know you found a hawkins mine! Who had that? (you lucky bugger).

A co-worker picked up a large collection of grenades and ordnance and parted it all out. I was lucky enough to get first dibs but he didn't want to part with the No75 originally. Because I had refinished a repro German para helmet for him he decided to sell it to me at the show which came as a welcome surprise. I've never picked up so much ordnance at one show before which was pretty cool. I just need a German M39 smoke grenade head to go with the handle I found. Patience and perseverance....

All good! I've had some luck with grenades lately, but that was out of a private collection. Oneday, I'll pick up a 75 (I hope). What are the marks on it? I didn't know their was a Canadian made version but it makes sense!

Geoff

I didn't know either Geoff until I saw this. It is made by CANCO which was a company that produced various metal products and I have an anti-dim tin made by this company that has the contents made in Canada so I just put two and two together. I'm certain that I have seen other Canadian issue items with the CANCO marking but can't remember on what. The color of the mine is slightly different from what is normally seen on British made No75's which may be another indicator, not sure. The construction is exactly as it should be so it's definitely real but I'm just not %100 certain if it is Canadian or not, however I feel pretty confident that it is.

Is that the same mine that Stauffenberg used to try to blow Hitler's butt off? I'm not certain, but I saw on a TV show that he had two of these mines but only used one. Or I could be completely mistaken...could have been plastic explosive.