The New CZ Bren 3: What Did They Change?
14m
From the Mauser bolt action to the AK and AR, all new military rifles take time to perfect. With the Bren 3, CZ is now on the third iteration of the Bren platform, having gone from the original 805 to the much-improved Bren 2 and now a collection of less obvious changes to create the Bren 3. These changes have been directed by combat use of the rifle in Ukraine as well as the lessons of mass production. The main changes are around durability, taking a good system and making it better - along with a few changes to improve the modularity of the rifle. Specifically:
- Gas settings changed from Off/Normal/Adverse to Suppressed/Normal/Adverse
- New removable hand guard, including rail, Mlok, and UBGL versions
- Strengthened stock attachment
- Heavier barrel
- Replaceable cam lug rail in the receiver
- 7.62x39 chambering replaced by .300 Blackout
- Optional folding charging handle
- Slightly improved stock, and universal compatibility with collapsing "PDW" stock
- Heavier barrel
- Strengthening of various small internal parts
The handling of the rifle has been left essentially unchanged, and the grip/magwell assembly is interchangeable with the Bren 2 (although virtually no other parts are). The Bren 3 is only offered as a select-fire rifle for military and police customers for now, although I am sure a semiautomatic civilian version will be coming sooner or later.
Special thanks to Helitom (https://www.helitom.cz), B-Rdy (https://b-rdy.cz), and Hard Task Training (https://www.hardtask.cz) for making the helicopter shoot possible!