Sten Mk 11

[HARRY THE MOLE]

My latest coronavirus lockdown 'toy' arrived the other day in the shape of a very nice Sten Mk 11 submachine gun .





There are many things said of the Sten, and not many are all that complimentary. Apparently, so the legend goes... it would either fall to bits if you dropped it, or it would fire off a full magazine before it stopped. Some have even claimed that when clearing buildings, a Sten would be cocked and tossed through the open window, and the resulting jolt when it hit the floor would cause it to fire off the full magazine. Anyone who knows about guns will know this cannot happen, at the most it will fire off one round before the bolt engages with the sear and stops the bolt returning to battery. The Sten suffered from the same problems as virtually all blowback firearm, if there was no safety to lock the bolt when in battery... there was a very good chance that dropping the weapon on its butt could cause the bolt to travel backwards sufficiently enough for the bolt to clear the magazine housing and strip a cartridge and fire it as it returned to battery. The recommended method of carrying it in combat was to have the bolt drawn to the rear with the cocking handle engaged in the safety slot - although that wasn't entirely fool proof either. Eventually, with the introduction of the Mk 5 cocking handle, a much safer option was introduced where the bolt was effectively locked in battery when the cocking handle was pushed to the left and engaged with a hole in the lower left of the receiver. Virtually all Sten Mk 11's with the old cocking handle were modified after the war.





If you examine the images closely you will see that neither the bolt or the barrel have been subjected to the same brutal cutting and chopping that all deactivated weapons go through. The bolt still strips and chambers ammunition, and the fire selector switch functions as it should. I have tried to illustrate one of the rounds in the process of being ejected from the chamber.





Some more photographs of the gun in various stages of the field strip. I was going to remove the firing mechanism too, but the time I had left to play with it and photograph it further were running short.





All in all I'm quite pleased with it... even the missus likes it, and its probably one of my best buys of this year. Click on images to enlarge.

Cheers,
Steve

[Gunny Hartmann]

Nice find Steve and good condition too.

[Composite]

Steve...nicely presented....thank you for making the effort......

Is it old old spec or a firer or what pls?

[BodhiEtheridge]

Nice find!

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Steve...nicely presented....thank you for making the effort......

Is it old old spec or a firer or what pls?

Hi Ade,

A rather long answer to your questions...When the gun is cocked and the trigger is squeezed... never pull a trigger, the bolt travels forward, strips a round from the magazine, and then chambers it. If you cock it again, the cartridge is ejected from the chamber. There are only three reasons why it won't fire... there is no firing pin, the central part of the barrel is blocked, and it would prove extremely difficult to get hold of the ammunition in this country. Its a hell of a lot different than your average deactivated gun, and there has been no cutting, welding, or pinning done to this one... in fact it doesn't even have a deactivation certificate and has never even been anywhere near a proof house! I see no reason why it wouldn't fire if you were to drill out the block in the barrel and add a firing pin to the bolt. Of course there would still be the problem of getting hold of the ammunition!

The camera can - and often does lie, and my camera is no different. If you take photographs of objects in a blank surrounding - with nothing to reference the size with - then your brain can jump to the wrong conclusions. The books I used to prop up the magazine housing (which rotates) are miniatures. The red book (Shakespeare's Julius Caesar) measures 2.25 X 3.25 inches, and the dark blue backed book (Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam) measures 2.5 X 3.5 inches. I deliberately introduced the books to give a false sense of perspective to the gun.

The truth is that the gun measure just a shade under 15 inches. It is made entirely from good quality steel, and all components that should be welded are welded. The bolt is cast and machined from a steel block as per original, and the only thing left out is the firing pin. The gun and magazine strip down exactly as per original, and the rather diminutive rounds are made up from three components which the purchaser has to assemble. There is a die made up of four components to do this. The rounds are a shade under the size of a .22 cartridge, and it is debatable whether you could find ammunition to suit this arm. The gun comes with both types of stock, and there is even a very nice acrylic stand... and it really is a work of art. You may wonder about the price of this? It costs about a quarter of the price of a new spec deactivated Sten Mk 11 smg. It is also entirely legal to own and makes a fantastic conversation piece. The only foreseeable problem is when my eight year old grandson spots it!

Cheers,
Steve.

[Composite]

Ahh...now some EBay sellers would’ve described that as hyper rare experimental SOE mini-sten.....

Nice.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Or... going off the last picture, a 24 inch Fairbairn - Sykes dagger built for giants...

[Gunny Hartmann]

Had me fooled

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Had me fooled

It really is exceptionally well made Paul. It weighs just a shade under 1lb... I was originally going to stick it on top of my Thompson model of 1928 for comparison.

Cheers,
Steve