CF SMG nostalgia

The Canadian SMG is a cheap copy of the British Sterling. The British Sterling is better built and does not have a solid bolt like the Sten and SMG. I have fired the Canadian SMG, and the British service Sterling, and Police Carbine. At one time I owned the British Sterling and Police Carbine. For example the Sterling has smooth areas where the mag attaches to the body, and the bolt is hollow with two springs and a counter weight in the middle to reduce recoil.
This make the gun very accurate and easy to control in semi or full-auto. If you can find pictures or exploded diagrams of both there is quite a difference. The 34 round roller mags are superior to the Canadian mags, the gun was also designed to take Sten mags.
I sold my Police Sterling to a young collector, he told too many of his pot smoking buddies about his collection and he lost it and his handguns.
If you look at the pictures of the Canadian SMG and British Sterling the difference in quality is very noticeable.
I still have some of the 5/10 & 5/32 round mags, and a few small parts for the Canadian SMG.
 
I remember the Sten very well. I was in RCEME 48 till 58 and later the Reserves. Olso served in Korea 51and 52. I got to shoot a :bigHug::bigHug::bigHug::bigHug:load of 9 mm from the sten,loads of fun.Never heard of a runnaway back then. With some practice you could get very good at up to 50 yds with 2-3 shot bursts.A lot of fun to shoot. They were a much better SMG that the Sterlings we got later in the reserves. Duker
 
I recall the SMG C1 with fondness. The major problem was ammo quality with IVI. When it was good the SMG would run quite well. When quality lagged the gun would mis-function in various ways like doubling or tripling on single shot. Oddly enough I seldom encountered problems with blanks. We commonly referred to the gun as a "smidge"
 
Off topic here, but do you remember the GPMGs we had? Back then I didn't appreciate the toys we got to play with so I wasn't really into them, but I am now.
 
No, I don't that that was it. I'm remembering something that looked sort of like the FNC1A1 but it had a built in bipod. Does that ring any bells?
 
I remember having to lug around the GMPG, so that vehicle mounted one is definitely not it. It might actually be the C6. Now that I think about it, they gave us a lot of old stuff. We were even firing Lee Enfields.
 
Two FN's and a Sterling....

Milcon '85

Milcun.jpg
 
The SMG C1 was a "Canadianized" version of the British Patchett Stirling SMG, manufactured by Canadian Arsenals Ltd at Long Branch, Ontario, chambered for the 9mm Parabellum round. The standard magazine holds 30 rounds, but a 10 round magazine was provided for use by vehicle crews. The SMG is selective fire and has a 100 and 200 yard aperature rear sight, (pretty well useless beyond 25-50 yards, though I wouldn't want to get hit by one even farther than that) similar to the #4 Lee Enfield. It had a metal folding stock and was fitted for the standard Canadian C1 pattern bayonet. The SMG C1 remained in service until the mid 1980s, when it was withdrawn and placed in war reserve stock. You can't get them, AFAIK, even in semi-auto mode. PITA to carry, hot in the summer, cold in the winter, you couldn't sling it with a magazine in place and not very accurate. Now the FNC1A1; that was a weapon. Nor can you get an FNC1 A1, as they are classified as prohibited, unless you have that class on your PAL.

I enjoyed shooting it! I was in the navy so never had to actually pack it anywhere.
 
Ah yeah, thats it. I got stuck with that as well ! But up in Petawawa, which I thought was some pretty gorgeous country.
 
shooting fibre glass silhouette targets that popped up from the ground with the smg was fun.

once i fired the smg and the gpmg , i have no desire to pay hundreds of dollars to shoot full auto in LV.
 
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