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

Rob

Good job on the semi home made sten

Your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to design a loop stock that can be welded to the reciever that will still allow the bolt to be removed that will make the overall lenght over the magic length..26 or 27 inches.

Then you can have a non restricted sten that you can take rabit hunting and wind up the conservation officers.

Joe
 
FNC1 said:
...Your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to design a loop stock that can be welded to the reciever that will still allow the bolt to be removed that will make the overall lenght over the magic length..26 or 27 inches...
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?

With the 18 1/2"+ barrel necessary for non-restricted status, 26" overall length wouldn't be an issue.
 
Your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to design a loop stock that can be welded to the reciever that will still allow the bolt to be removed that will make the overall lenght over the magic length..26 or 27 inches.

Then you can have a non restricted sten that you can take rabit hunting and wind up the conservation officers.

Joe
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He'd have to install a 18.5" barrel, of course. Perhaps stencollector could chime in here...Would the OAL be 26" without the stock with the 18.5" barrel?

Of course, the next Sten project is to make a modified mag well and make unique mags, and design a Sten to a straight pull bolt action with a legal capacity of 32 rounds... Of course, it would kind of defeat the purpose of a subgun, but would provide some sustainable firepower for some of the shooting competitions around, as well as being non-restricted without the huge barrel.
 
The distance from the breech face to the rear of the receiver is the better part of a foot, so with an 18 5/8" barrel, overall length with stock removed would be well over 26".
 
stencollector said:
I am not a manufacturer, so I cannot build these for others.
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Understood, but of course that doesn't mean that someone who has the facilities & equipped to manufacture couldn't build several of them.

Given the current high value of the Cdn $, I know of several local (three at this time...) machine shops looking for work to do.
Based on my experience with one of them, and assuming some marginal volumes, these could be built for a very reasonable cost.

More importantly, I personally wanted to say thanks for your efforts at opening-up a whole new opportunity for GunNutz everywhere.

Well done!
 
Weapontech - Are you suggesting that these shops could manufacture finished firearms, or semifinished components that could be used by individuals to produce one-off homeworkshop projects a la Stencollector?
The BD-38 and BD-3008 retail for about $3000 and $2500 respectively; there should certainly be a market for a decent Sten reproduction, particularly if the price were somewhat less.
 
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tiriaq said:
Weapontech - Are you suggesting that these shops could manufacture finished firearms, or semifinished components that could be used by individuals to produce one-off homeworkshop projects a la Stencollector?
The BD-38 and BD-3008 retail for about $3000 and $2500 respectively; there should certainly be a market for a decent Sten reproduction, particularly if the price were somewhat less.
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Let's aim at less than $1000 for a non restricted version. That'd be worthwhile for many, still too much for many too.
 
well 1st you would NEED a maufactures license to manufacture guns for sale

I seriously doubpt the places would be secure enough for the cfo's likeing

the permit process is likley long and time consuming the paperwork required is probably huge for each gun made again MORE time thier time is NOT free costs go UP FAST

bottom line is IF thier was money to be made making guns people would allready be doing it here. our market is to small and exporting is a PITA and often NOT possible to the biggest market the U.S

coupled with the SHORT supply of sten kits available in canada and the chances of customs letting kits in is slim to none
 
tiriaq said:
Weapontech - Are you suggesting that these shops could manufacture finished firearms, or semifinished components that could be used by individuals to produce one-off homeworkshop projects a la Stencollector?
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I was suggesting your second point.........as already noted there is simply too much licensing required to produce complete firearms. I was suggesting that they could make the magwell parts in quantity, with (hopefully) very little varience between each specimen. This would allow individuals to complete their own as required. Of course, they need to produce a couple of dozen to recoup tooling and setup costs.

However, this might all be a moot point. As pointed out previously, if Sten kits are hard to come by, getting a bunch of magwell parts in quantity would be pointless.

Makes me think though;
Wasn't Long Branch able to build a complete Sten for around $3 or so in 1944?
Makes you wish you had a time machine and $1000 in your pocket.......
 
once a FRT# is issiued the sten parts kits would not be 'prohibited parts ONLY"

so importing them would be hard but possible i would leave out the bolts as they are not needed for the semiauto build

now see if we can get the sten semi parts kits brought in I would love to build one for myself and could do the magwell easily

I just need a semi auto kit
 
Actually, given how the BD38 and BD3008 are built, original bolts should NOT be a problem. In fact, I've been thinking alot lately - open bolt guns are not a problem in Canada. If you lathe-turned an original bolt down and filled the FA sear slot with weld and re-machined it flat, I see no reason why an original bolt could not be used - assuming you modify the firing group to be semi-only also & weld the selector internally into the semi-auto position.

Food for thought. After all, the mag well is the receiver ;) Further insurance would be to use a new made tube with a smaller ID so standard parts cannot be swapped in.
 
Having read this thread from the begining I think that making a semi auto sten is going to be expensive. I have eventually come to the conclusion that it would be easier and cheaper to start from scratch rather that with sten parts.

I found this site a while back....... http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/

Ok they are not stens, ( neither is a semi auto only sten ) but they are almost identical in operation and would cost a hell of a lot less to make, plus the parts to put one of these together are available almost anywhere.

bsp-image2-small.jpg


BSP. British Standard Pipe :D

I wonder if we could get these registered ? It might be difficult to make it semi auto only, but single shot would be a piece of cake and would make it legal to possess.
 
The point of a Sten reproduction is to meet a collector demand that cannot be filled with original specimens, not to just make an interesting firearm. There have been various pistol calibre subcarbines on the market, and those introduced since the photos got circled in the Gun Digest are not prohibited.
There is no reason why a seriously semi auto open bolt gun could not be manufactured in this country, rather than being imported, as is the case with the SSD firearms.
Now, starting from scratch to maunfacture a limited number of firearms, for a limited market, of any description is not an easy undertaking. Believe it or not, there are complications in the manufacture of a firearm as elemental as a Sten - or a single shot Cooey 39, apart from obtaining a manufacturing licence. There is also a substantial difference between handcrafting a one-off, and manufacturing a quantity.
A LB Sten cost about $13.55, a No.4 some $45, a Bren about $250. These numbers look small, but compare them with a weekly wage of the time. Even then these costs are misleading, because they represent production costs in a fully equipped factory, with all the economies of mass producton in place, with no thought given to a profit margin. A UK Sten was about $10.99, Mk. Vs somewhat more.
I expect that there would be a market for newly manufactured components - NOT a ready to weld together kit of parts - but unfinished, unassembled pieces that would be more difficult to make without dedicated tooling or machines.
 
Spencer said:
Having read this thread from the begining I think that making a semi auto sten is going to be expensive. I have eventually come to the conclusion that it would be easier and cheaper to start from scratch rather that with sten parts.

I found this site a while back....... http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/

Ok they are not stens, ( neither is a semi auto only sten ) but they are almost identical in operation and would cost a hell of a lot less to make, plus the parts to put one of these together are available almost anywhere.

bsp-image2-small.jpg


BSP. British Standard Pipe :D

I wonder if we could get these registered ? It might be difficult to make it semi auto only, but single shot would be a piece of cake and would make it legal to possess.
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Since that's off topic, I like the Castleman airgun at that site you mentioned. I would like to see something like one of the Encom pistols in .45 acp,(which looked suspiciously like something Bill Holmes might have designed) although they were a little bulky for a pistol. I would rather have one of the BD-38's than a sten, but that's just me.
 
now here is a thought

since the rcmp/cfc say the magwell is the reciever and you have to make one yourself so its not a converted auto

any reason you could not make it take colt 9mm mags (or any pistol mag?) and therfore have 10 rnd mags???
 
contact148 said:
now here is a thought

since the rcmp/cfc say the magwell is the reciever and you have to make one yourself so its not a converted auto

any reason you could not make it take colt 9mm mags (or any pistol mag?) and therfore have 10 rnd mags???
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One big reason...it wouldn't be a sten.

Weapon tech said:
as already noted there is simply too much licensing required to produce complete firearms. I was suggesting that they could make the magwell parts in quantity
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If you are making magwells, then you are making firearms. The RCMP maintain the magwell is the registered part. Unless you are talking about simply making the round pipe part, and the rectangular part that fits over the mag as unassembled sets.
 
stencollector said:
A decision is coming soon. If approved, the biggest snag will be that the magwells will have to be newly made. Recycling a WW2 magwell will make the gun a prohib.
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What is the difference between a newly made mag well and an original recycled one ?:confused: Metal is metal right ?
 
the rcmp say the magwell IS "the reciever" so by useing an orig magwell you would be makeing a converted automatic firearm and they are prohibited so you would be making a prohib which you cannot do


make a new magwell its a "new reciever" and is designed as a semiautomatic

thus legal
 
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