used to be you could buy a tube with the design epoxied onto it, machine/dremel it out and finish it with a parts kit, but those days are long goneHickok45...
some of the best shooting and firearms info on YT. And, a damn nice range, too.
Ive got one for sale, C&R fro RAF Fazakerly for $8,000.00. Comes with extra parts kit, brass bolt, and dozens of magazines. All NFA rules apply.
used to be you could buy a tube with the design epoxied onto it, machine/dremel it out and finish it with a parts kit, but those days are long goneI’m actually kind of surprised the British didn’t drop the Sten—which had wildly varying quality of build depending on who built the gun—in favor of the M3 “grease gun,” which was a better submachine gun even with the issues with the magazine.
I fired one about 8-10 years ago. Nice to say I’ve fired another piece of history.
One reason I remember reading decades ago, for the Sten gun being designed in 9mm was the wide availability of 9mm ammunition in Europe. It fired the 9mm Luger parabellum round.
Another account was that the Brits in North Africa captured millions of 9mm rounds of ammunition and then designed a gun to use them in. 9mm rounds were definitely more common in Europe than .45 ACP that the Thompson & M-3 ‘grease gun’ used.
I don’t know if either is true, but they were anecdotal reasons I heard back in the 1950s and 60s.
Was it the STEN or the M3 that was affectionately known as “a spring, a wire, and a prayer?”
Very entertaining video.
I’ve been told by several vets that the only plus for the sten was that it cost just pennies to manufacture. They were issued to NCOs but many were ‘lost’ at the first opportunity, and a different weapon aquired.
4 million of them made. I guess they were all destroyed after the war.
I would love to have one of these; especially because they shoot the common 9mm round.