ok guys im gonna get a little crude lol
this is the sten
looks like something i could build out of household junk right
but then thats kind of the point
lets go back to the beginnings of wwii
woooooosh
so europe has rumblings
pretty much everybody knows theres gonna be a big fight
and all the countries start collecting their stuff and gearing up
germany had been prohibited from having any military after wwi
and the allies took all their stuff
but in the end that just meant when hitler rebuilt the military in the 30s everything they had was brand new cutting edge
so germany started eyeing the people nearby and getting way too cozy like that creepy drunk guy you saw at the bar last week
and everybody else was playing catch up
one thing germany had was a pretty good submachine gun called the mp38
so the point of a submachinegun is it fires full auto
so its like a machinegun
except it fires little baby pistol rounds
so the weapon is actually small enough for one guy to carry
instead of a big honker that needs a squad of like three guys
it has a way shorter range than a regular infantry rifle or machinegun
like 100 m instead of like 1000 m
but they usually hold like 30 rds and go babababababababababababa
instead of five rounds that go boom
cock
pull back bolt
push bolt forward
lock it down
ow i got shot to death
so yeah up close fighting like in a city can be a lot easier with a submachine gun than a bolt action rifle
other countries had smgs too
the soviets had the ppd 34
they were fighting the finns who had the kp31
the italians had a different gun called the mp38
and of course america had the thompson
that was kind of the problem tho
the british had seen the tommy gun in the hands of gangsters over the past 20 years
and theyre like nah were no thugs
but then once things started heating up the british were more like
aw dang
so then they had to scramble because the royal air force needed something smaller for paratroopers and aircrews
the royal navy needed something to board and repel boarders that would fit in the tight quarters of a ship
and the army needed them for tank crews and stuff
so at first the british are like ok lets buy thompsons from the us
but thompsons are pretty complicated to build because they have all these machined parts that have to be milled out of solid chunks of metal
it takes a long time and is super expensive
meanwhile france just fell and the uk is probably about to get invaded
so the british are scrambling for something way cheaper and faster
first thing they did was start copying an older german design they captured from italians in ethiopia
but that was a stopgap
the big breakthrough was the sten
so the sten was created by two guys named shepherd and turpin at the enfield factory
shepherd turpin enfield
sten
thats how it got its name
the biggest innovation they did was to make a huge portion of the gun out of stamped metal and castings with as few machined parts as possible
this saved on labor and also allowed the weapon to have many parts constructed in very basic workshops
this is the biggest and most important strength of the sten
the receiver is just a tube with sheet metal box welded on
the only big machined parts are the bolt and the barrel itself
and even those are simple cylindrical pieces that can be made out of bar stock
the design was intended to be extremely simple to construct
and it was very successful for its intended purpose
it had a 32rd magazine and could fire at 600 rounds per minute
you could make 15 of them for the cost of one thompson
and the ability to make components in cottage workshops helped endure the blitz
overall they made like 4 million of them
the troops had mixed feelings about it tho lol
to explain why well look at the design
first off its a simple blowback locking system
we just talked about that last time with the ppk
big heavy bolt and powerful recoil spring pushing forward
since this is an smg and meant for two hands you can give it the extra weight needed for a blowback to handle 9mm
guys this thing weighs like 7lbs
kinda heavy for a pistol yeah lol
the fire control group is super simple
the trigger is connected to a sear
the sear hooks onto the bottom of the bolt
so when you pull the bolt back it locks open
this is called an open bolt design
this keeps the chamber cooler which is nice for a fast firing weapon
but its also super easy to make which is why we see it here
and the bolt has a fixed firing pin
it doesnt move at all its just a nub
super simple and very few moving parts
so simple in fact it only has full auto
hold the trigger down and it just keeps going
it doesnt really have a safety either
just a notch that kinda holds the charging handle
so if its cocked back and gets bumped the bolt can slip off and slam forward
and every time the bolt goes forward it will try to chamber and fire a round
so this was a problem
it got the wrong people injured and killed
another problem was the magazine
the british just straight up copied the magazine from the old mp18 they had captured in ethiopia
but turns out that mag had problems
so the mag is whats called double column single feed
double column or double stack refers to the way the rounds line up inside the magazine
if you make the rounds staggered you can hold a lot more ammo with just a little bit more width to the magazine
but see at the top where things start getting wonky
the magazine only has one feed point which means the rounds have a harder time lining up
this can cause jams
a more reliable solution is to open up the top of the magazine so the rounds can switch back and forth left right left right
this is called a double feed system
but the downside to that is its more complicated to make a weapon feed from both sides
you need more cuts in the bolt and the sten is all about minimizing as much machining as possible
and the sten is all about building it quick and easy right now
so we ended up with a weapon that was cheap and quick to build but not super reliable
and the hasty construction of early examples made it even worse
as a result troops preferred to give them all a test run before having to count on them in combat
the ergonomics were pretty poor too
the grip was just an angular piece of metal with a circle cut out to lighten it
the welds were messy but good enough
they made improvements as time went on
the mark ii had a t post for a stock
and the mk iii changed it to a stamped triangle
and the mk v had a wooden pistol grip and stock
after the war the design was further refined and eventually replaced by the sterling which uses a similar concept of stamped parts and simple open bolt blowback operation
the sterling also fixed the magazine by making it double stack double feed
but the basic crude unrefined sten design was so simple it stayd in use for decades in the british mikitary and was used by so many people
and the concept of stamped sheet metal open bolt submachine gun was so successful even nations that didnt adopt it often made something similar
as for buying one today
you pretty much cant
no new full auto can be made for regular people
you can buy kits but they will have their receivers cut and to rebuild them youd need to do modifications so its not open bolt
the atf is scared of you owning an open bolt because it is really easy to make an open bolt gun into full auto
and you having full auto would undermine the entire existence of a bureau designed to prevent you from having your rights oops
but as i mentioned its designed to be super easy to build even in a garage with the most basic tools
so if you want to build a fully legal non firing replica
grab your angle grinder and drill press
and follow these instructions
please use these insteuctions for educational purposes only lol
pewpew
#click here for previous articles
view the rest of the comments →
robot7247 ago
The STEN is a great example of building what you could. Britain left huge amounts of heavy gear on the Dunkirk beaches so its arms industry was dedicated to replacing that. The only SMG in the pipeline for 1940 was the Lanchester, a copy of the German WW1 era Schmeisser MP18/28. It required lots of machining/hand-fitting which would take away from SMLE production. Therefore, the only SMG they could build was with minimal tooling and built on near net shapes; tubing & rod by small machining firms. It is a brilliant design.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
truth
it works well enough
accurate enough
reliable enough
they can build them fast enough
not the best weapon
but it was kinda like the m4 sherman tank
if you get enough of them out there it wont matter if the german stuff is better on paper