Semi-Sten: CFC AND RCMP approved and Home at Last

NavyShooter said:
and I already have a Sten Mk.II dewat hanging about here (LB 1943) that I'd love to use as the base of my SAS-3. I just need a SAS-3 kit (or local equivelant)...

NS
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Check down in the EE. Theres a guy selling parts kits for less than that dewat is worth. Besides, the dewat won't give you the trunnion that you need for a mk2 sten. Since you already have the magwell for an example from the dewat, he might even make you a better deal on a kit without the cut up magwell.
 
stencollector said:
I'll take that bet. However if you are going to bring more than 5 rounds to the event, then I get to bring as many mags as I want. Did I mention I have many, many, many, many , many, many, many etc etc... sten mags? All are demilled/crimped, but easily cut down and straightened to make 5 rounders.

Don't worry too much about the sten's bolt bite. It isn't terrible. A little less than a Garand. Make sure you round off the front edge of the ejection port nicely. For my part, the chamber of a cocked but not locked sten isn't a place I would want to stick my mitts into regularly.

Edited to add: It doesn't pay to be so long winded. Tiraq beat me to it.
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I've got to admit, watching such a match would be highly entertaining...Stencollector with 5 round mag, firing it off and reloading it and Spencer loading singles into a welded in single shot mag with his fingers under time pressure...:D:popCorn:
No idea who'd win but it'd be fun to watch...
 
To get the discussion back on track - there was mention made of setting one of these guns up in 7.62x25. This is something worth serious consideration. The CZ ammunition is very inexpensive. Pistol magazines in the calibre are available. It might be possible to make an adapter that would fit a standard housing to accept the pistol magazine, so appearance would not be altered. A big advantage would be barrels. .303 and 7.65 rifle barrels are much less expensive than a commercial 9mm blank, and could be finished in both original and non-restricted lengths.
Burst cases have been mentionned. The Germans rebarrelled PPShs to 9mm, and US shooters have been doing this more recently, making mag. well adapters to accept Sten magazines. The 7.62, being bottlenecked, feeds really smoothly, funnelling itself into the chamber. 9mm doesn't feed quite as easily. Some US PPSh shooters have experienced ruptured cases in their 9mm conversions. If the round hangs up at the wrong moment, it fires long before it is seated. The PPSh ejection opening is on top, so case fragments are likely to strike the shooter.
As far as rapid magazine changes are concerned, it is very hard to beat the AR sytem. A Sten is awkward in comparison, although with experimentation and drill, the time could be cut substantially.
Spencer - Ever used a Mk. I magazine loader?
 
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stencollector said:
Check down in the EE. Theres a guy selling parts kits for less than that dewat is worth. Besides, the dewat won't give you the trunnion that you need for a mk2 sten. Since you already have the magwell for an example from the dewat, he might even make you a better deal on a kit without the cut up magwell.
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What's a cut up magwell worth ?:confused:
 
Useful for obtaining the dimensions, if one is not on hand, or in the absence of accurate drawings. Pretty hard to make a new one without the necessary data.
Not necessary if an original is being reused.
 
I was also told by a vet that they had tried a Sten with two recoil springs forced into it. He reported that it became a single shot, and had to be cocked for every shot.
 
Ok,

So, my project is getting itself off the ground. Sten MK.II, per the one at the heart of this thread.

My bill of materiels...please add what I need that I'm missing:

1. Demilled Sten Kit (Coming soon)
2. SAS-3 kit....working on it....(or a variant...)
3. 1.5" dia 3/32" DOM tubing
4. 9MM Barrel Blank (on the way)

What bits do I need to add to this list?

Particularly, for the mag well....is there a standard sized tubing that will work for it?

NS
 
NavyShooter said:
Ok,

So, my project is getting itself off the ground. Sten MK.II, per the one at the heart of this thread.

My bill of materiels...please add what I need that I'm missing:

1. Demilled Sten Kit (Coming soon)
2. SAS-3 kit....working on it....(or a variant...)
3. 1.5" dia 3/32" DOM tubing
4. 9MM Barrel Blank (on the way)

What bits do I need to add to this list?

Particularly, for the mag well....is there a standard sized tubing that will work for it?

NS
Click to expand...

You only need the 1.5" tubing if you are going to make a dummy silencer. The kit will come with a templated tube for the receiver.

For the magwell I went with 12 ga flat plate. If you have some fairly heavy steel pipe which overlaps the diameters of the magwell, you can turn that down to the ID and OD you need for the tube portion of the magwell. At this point in time their is no substitute for the bending of the steel plate to make the rectangular portion. If you are not too worried about authenticity, you could go to the next lighter guage. It will be about 10 thou thinner, and may effect the fitting and geometry of some parts like the mag release etc, so you might be as well off to just have at the 12 guage plate.
 
Spencer said:
I only have the one recoil spring. It's interesting that it could fire single shot only with a stronger spring. Nowhere near as good as plan a, but would be better than a plan b, and it could use 32 rnd ( I think ? ) mags.

Anyone know where to buy spring wire in various guages ?
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Which 32 round magazines could it use? The only ones that would be acceptable would be magazines originally designed and manufactured for a manually operated firearm. Can't think of anything like that currently on the market, it would be necessary for them to be made from scratch. They could not fit any existing autoloading firearm. Questar and Dlask experience has pretty much established what is acceptable in the way of larger capacity magazines.

Spring wire is available from industrial supply houses. KBC Tools lists it, in dozens of diameters from .006" to .180". Sold by the pound.
 
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tiriaq said:
Which 32 round magazines could it use? The only ones that would be acceptable would be magazines originally designed and manufactured for a manually operated firearm. Can't think of anything like that currently on the market, it would be necessary for them to be made from scratch. They could not fit any existing autoloading firearm. Questar and Dlask experience has pretty much established what is acceptable in the way of larger capacity magazines.

Spring wire is available from industrial supply houses. Iirc, KBC Tools lists it.
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Doesn't a 50 rd. Lancaster mags fit? I'm pretty sure I remember it will ?

We still need to get the dam tories to lealize original mags! it 's total crap
that we have devalue our collections just apize some stupid ##### down east!
Why should we have alter our historic collections just so we can shoot the same dam ammo at the same range!
In florida Kel Tec. makes .223 pistols that use AR type mags, so we can have 10 rders. what a bunch of legalistic crap! whats the difference where they came from. Why don't they use their collective brains? but then again if liberals had brains they'dd be tories!
I have a bushmaster, I can't shoot it anymore, F--k I uesd to hunt deer & rabbits & plink with it! at the pits or in my own field & bush that I own!!! Now I can't even sell it. the f--kheads should pay me for it! :mad:

When I go to visit my folks in Florida this yr. my friend is taking me to his gun club where every member get's 1 1/2 acre's of land deeded to them. so he hunts hogs with a .45, yr. round!
yep a 450 lb. porker with a .45. I seen the pics. Now thats a gun club!:dancingbanana:

There was a shoot on Wild T.V. last night from Titusville Fl. 12 miles north of my folks place. unreal shooting there. factory teams . even the U.S. Army team was in it.
You should see the guns they use.:runaway:
 
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A Lanchester magazine will fit a Sten, and vice versa, but must be altered to 5 rds.
There has been discussion in this thread of adapters for 10 rd pistol magazines, which would seem to be the only option for more than 5 rds in a semi auto Sten.
The magazine capacity for manually operated firearms is not arbitrarily limited, but that is only relevant for a magazine originally designed and manufactured for use in such a firearm.
 
cantom said:
The issue with that idea- the lab removes one spring, sub another in and presto!...:confused:

It has to be harder than that. That's the whole point with the SAS3 kit, it's virtually fail safe.
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All this spring talk is irrelevant to this thread...so lets drop it now. Cantom: they are talking about putting 2 standard recoil springs into an open bolt sten like Spencer has created. There would be no advantage, and playing with the springs would be of no advantage. Anything done in this vein is just semantics, and easily reversed or defeated. It is a non issue so lets drop it.

With regard to springs, however, there are two spring manufacturers in Winnipeg alone. I have used Hunter's springs a couple times for some short run productions, and their results have been fine. The more you order the cheaper they get. Your first spring is going to cost you $75. Make that a hundred and the price drops to $3 each.

The only magazine which I could see being an asset to the sten projects would be a Luger drum mag, which would give you 32 round capacity. But the drum is going to cost you $800 at a minimum. Not sure if repros are still being made, but under the law as written they too would be exempt from cartridge capacity regulations. The writers did not put in the phrase "original, not a reproduction" in the para for these. I believe there was an adapter to use the drum mag into the MP18 which is of course the father of the MP28, which in turn provided the genetic material (via a seized example) to allow the British to make the Lanchester. At the same time they were making their Chinese copy of the Lanchester the designers came up with the cheapened copy, which was the sten. So it may be possible to introduce the Luger drum to the Sten without too much engineering.

We'll have to see if any of the drum mags and an adapter fall into my lap in the next while.
 
It has been a long time since I handled an MP18. The magazine housing unit is a machined piece incorporating the collar, hinge lug and box. The box is set at an angle appropriate for the Luger magazine, and is contoured internally to suit. The spacing sleeve fits over the magazine. Without the sleeve, or stops of some sort, the magazine will enter too far and foul the bolt, being damaged in the process. Because of the angle, I doubt very much if a standard dimension Sten housing would work with an adapter for a Luger magazine. A purpose built magazine housing would be required, and that's another cert. Even if a drum magazine were to emerge gratis from Great Uncle Fred's trunk, adapting one of these magazines to a Sten would be a stretch.
 
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