sterling L2A3

I have a restricted Sterling police Carbine, actually I've owned 3 different ones. Very cool having a semi auto open bolt SMG in Canada. Open bolt is semi auto feels like of weird and it takes a bit to get used to. Works best with the surplus Canadian hot loaded 9mm SMG ammo. We are looking at bringing in surplus Brit roller mags for February.

Steve
 
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I have 3 Sterlings. My favorite one is the L34A1. It has a small wooden forearm to hold on to. Probably so you don't burn your hand on the silencer.
 
For example, maintenance troops at a Canadian airbase in Germany. Some had to be armed in case of paratroops dropping in etc. It was a potential war zone.
How to carry their issued Sterling around while keeping their hands free to do some actual work?

Not sure who made this. It looks to be made of the regular webbing slings etc. were made of.


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It was a rescue. I bought it along with a couple of L2s. I didn't have the heart to see it get deactivated. One of the perks of having a film BFL.

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Cantom , the British made them. Anyone know where I can get the hardcover sterling book?
 
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There may have only been 3 C1 SMGs IMPORTED (by OGT), but there were approx. 200 C1 SMGs sold to DCRA and PRA members directly by CAL between 1958 and 1978.

The ones I have seen were all still selective, and not neutered to "CA".

I suppose that some may have been converted to "CA" between 1979 & the mid 1990s.

Yes. I paid $69 for the SMG, and $199 for the C2. Should have bought a C1 too, but that would have been another $139.

Guns were brand new in the box, with mags sealed in plastic, bayonet
 
I miss my Sterling police carbine and semi auto UZI they were fun to shoot.
We were in Florida last spring and went into a place that lets you shoot FA firearms, but the only gun that they had that I haven't shot was an M60.
 
One of the posters on this thread told me that the British Sterlings actually shot better than the Canadian C1's.

Why? Canadian Arsenals simplified the design by making the bolt a solid, one piece item with a spring, similar to the bolt on a Sten.

Thus more reciprocating weight. Cheaper to make, but at what cost?

The Brit Sterlings utilized a lighter, hollow bolt assembly with several external parts, that apparently cut felt recoil, making them easier to hold on target.

Sadly I have no personal experience and would be happy to be corrected by those who do.

I scooped some pics of the Brit bolt assembly on the net, and have one pic of a C1 bolt.

I have owned 3 of the Sterling Police Carbines, and on the first two I installed the Canadian bolt. Can't say I ever noticed a difference. I far prefer the Cdn bolt as it is much easier to install than the goofy two piece set-up the British used. I will say that I far, far prefer the British trigger mechanism over the Cdn mechanism. The stainless steel trigger plates were far superior to the cheap stamped Cdn plates which wore.

I would like to install the Cdn bolt on my current Sterling, but have not found a Cdn bolt for it yet.

As Irunguns mentioned, I like to use the higher powered Cdn ammo as well. I have had undesirable malfunctions using some of the commercial ammunition.
 
the idea was to shoot your way out of a surrounded situation or to defend against multiple hostiles- that's why hip shots- with the shoulder stock closed- ie centre of mass hits centre of mass- you don't care how accurate , just as long as your target goes down- that's also why the boys that carried that as a primary practiced at ranges of 100 and less there were both 10 and 30 round mags issued- if I remember correctly, the first 2 rounds were blank and then hardball- all on full auto- those 2 blanks gave you time to deescalate the situation- exp at pay parade- some of the payees would get the idea to rob pay roll even though it was all cheques
remember this was before body armour

WTF are you talking about? Show me any semi-auto gun that will run on blanks without modifications that would also preclude firing live ammo?

FWIW Shooting from the hip is mostly worthless except maybe at point blank range. Guns have sights for a reason.
 
There are enough guns in Canada and America that maybe Wolfe gun springs might do a run
of sterling springs
 
One of the posters on this thread told me that the British Sterlings actually shot better than the Canadian C1's.

Why? Canadian Arsenals simplified the design by making the bolt a solid, one piece item with a spring, similar to the bolt on a Sten.

Thus more reciprocating weight. Cheaper to make, but at what cost?

The Brit Sterlings utilized a lighter, hollow bolt assembly with several external parts, that apparently cut felt recoil, making them easier to hold on target.

Sadly I have no personal experience and would be happy to be corrected by those who do.

I scooped some pics of the Brit bolt assembly on the net, and have one pic of a C1 bolt.

C1


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Hollow British Sterling bolt.


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Its been a long time since I had my hands on a C1 but my memory of it is that it had the helical raceways and did not look like the modified sten bolt above.

I can tell you that decreasing bolt weight in a pure blowback gun is going to radically increase cyclic rate and the beating the gun will take.

As far as felt recoil goes, thats not a simple equation. Cyclic rate plays a part in felt recoil. Faster feels smoother. Something like a Grease gun, with its very slow cyclic feels quite lumpy.
 
I have a restricted Sterling police Carbine, actually I've owned 3 different ones. Very cool having a semi auto open bolt SMG in Canada. Open bolt is semi auto feels like of weird and it takes a bit to get used to. Works best with the surplus Canadian hot loaded 9mm SMG ammo. We are looking at bringing in surplus Brit roller mags for February.

Steve

I have a CA Grease gun and you should feel that. It is so slow and the 2 pound bolt flying back and forth makes it feel as if it fires two shots when it only fired one.
 
Its been a long time since I had my hands on a C1 but my memory of it is that it had the helical raceways and did not look like the modified sten bolt above.

That bolt looks like any C1 smg bolt I haveever seen. In fact, looking at that photo, I realize it was one of mine. I recognize the book case and thethe Boys anti-tank parts poster in the background.
 
I honestly don't know what that 2 part bolt is all about, aside from typical British over-engineering. The lineage of the Sterling goes back to the Lanchester, which goes back to the Bergman, both of which had a similar designed bolt. Did one of the early guns have a separate firing pin?

I can tell you that it almost takes 3 hands to get the British bolt into the gun. You have to hold the gun, put the bolt partially in, insert the cocking lever partially in, put tension onto the mainspring pushing the second part of the bolt against the inner spring, then you could finish getting the cocking handle in place.

There was a practical reason why the Canadian guns differed from the UK guns: it saved the royalties. In the book "The Guns of Dagenham" it is reported that the different trigger mechanism was in order to get away from paying royalties to Sterling for their design of trigger. Perhaps that was the reason why we went to the simpler bolt as well?

I was armoured in the militia back in the 70s, and the SMG C-1 was our standard weapon. They were not perfect during blank fire, but live fire always seemed OK. We used to abuse the mags back then in ways that I would never dream of doing these days. Those were the pre-twist off top on the beer bottle days.....the little 10 round mags were perfect for the purpose of aiding in re-hydration.

Perhaps the question about the bolt design is one that could be put to Peter Laidler over on the milsurps forum.
 
Mr. PL always feels that the British way is best and our way is substandard at best...no point asking him.

A knowledgeable gent indeed but not overly enamoured with our Canadian inventions.
 
He far far preferred our bayonet lug on the C1 over their over-engineered Sterling version. Ours was an offset welded on stud that allowed the use of the FN bayonet, whereas the Britsh method had the whole front cap machined so as to accept the jungle carbine bayonet ricasso.
 
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