Original Item. Only One Available. The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) was a family of United States automatic rifles and light machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the U.S. Expeditionary Corps in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benet-Mercie machine guns.

Dated 1943, this is a very rare original BAR WWII item. Top quality Leather hard case expressly constructed for the legendary Browning Automatic Rifle complete with steel strengtheners and belt hinged end cover. Clearly marked D-6065 and BOYT 43 under the end cover.

Apparently designed to be used with pack animals in the Japanese War and also used by Paratroops as Drop Cases. Extremely rare, in fact the only example we have ever had in our possession. Leather beautifully matured, a high quality item in it's day and even more so today.

Condition is good, but the leather shows very heavy overall wear. The stitching is still mostly strong and the securing strap is great. This model of scabbard was meant for used with the Phillips Pack Saddle on horseback. 

Ready for use or display!

The BAR was designed to be carried by infantrymen during an assault or advance while supported by the sling over the shoulder or fired from the hip. This is a concept called "walking fire" thought to be necessary for the individual soldier during trench warfare. The BAR never entirely lived up to the original hopes of the War Department; being neither a rifle nor a machine gun.

The US Army, in practice, used the BAR as a light machine gun (aka squad support weapon) often fired from a bipod (introduced on models after 1938). A variant of the original M1918 BAR, the Colt Monitor Machine Rifle, remains the lightest production automatic gun to fire the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, though the limited capacity of its standard 20-round magazine tended to hamper its utility in that role.

Although the weapon did see some action in World War I, the BAR did not become standard issue in the U.S. Army until 1938, when it was issued to squads as a portable light machine gun. The BAR saw extensive service in both World War II and the Korean War and saw some service early in the Vietnam War. The U.S. Army began phasing out the BAR in the late 1950s, when it was intended to be replaced by a SAW variant of the M14, and was without a portable light machine gun until the introduction of the M60 machine gun in 1957. The M60, however, was really a GPMG, a general-purpose machine gun, and was used as a SAW only because the U.S. Army had no other tool for the job until the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in the mid-1980s.