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OK, so I bought myself a WWII production STEN Mk.2 (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 6/19/2024 8:22:14 AM EDT
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What are the “must haves” regarding spare parts and accessories? This is not my first SMG. |
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy Glock and thy AR15, they comfort me.
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Originally Posted By -JC-: Invest in a new spring kit, more mags, extra barrels and bolts before they dry up. Also a loop stock if you don't have one. @makarov - this ^^^^^ Parts kits are still relatively cheap. Pick up a few so your gun will be running for a long time. |
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Originally Posted By prebans: @makarov - this ^^^^^ Parts kits are still relatively cheap. Pick up a few so your gun will be running for a long time. Originally Posted By prebans: Originally Posted By -JC-: Invest in a new spring kit, more mags, extra barrels and bolts before they dry up. Also a loop stock if you don't have one. @makarov - this ^^^^^ Parts kits are still relatively cheap. Pick up a few so your gun will be running for a long time. Best source(s) for all this???? I’ve got plenty of mags. ETA- Thanks for the responses! 
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I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy Glock and thy AR15, they comfort me.
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Originally Posted By prebans: @makarov - this ^^^^^ Parts kits are still relatively cheap. Pick up a few so your gun will be running for a long time. I was going to suggest this too. I'm by no means an expert on stens, but I do know it's a bummer when original parts and/or matching parts break. If I was going to shoot it a ton, I'd replace what I can and keep the original parts separate. |
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The post about a mag loader is very valid. They make a few types, my personal favorite are the spoon types that clip on the mags. They make box and spoon loaders. The box sits over the top and the spoon clips on. Both have a lever and you push down on the top of the rounds. Like everything surplus, they used to be cheap, but no longer. |
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Originally Posted By Makarov: Best source(s) for all this???? I’ve got plenty of mags. ETA- Thanks for the responses! Originally Posted By Makarov: Originally Posted By prebans: Originally Posted By -JC-: Invest in a new spring kit, more mags, extra barrels and bolts before they dry up. Also a loop stock if you don't have one. @makarov - this ^^^^^ Parts kits are still relatively cheap. Pick up a few so your gun will be running for a long time. Best source(s) for all this???? I’ve got plenty of mags. ETA- Thanks for the responses! Tag for parts kit sources. 
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Originally Posted By TAG_Match: Congratulations! I don’t own a Sten but have been fortunate enough to shoot one. Among the most fun FA I’ve had the pleasure of operating. I didn’t think I wanted one UNTIL I shot one
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I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy Glock and thy AR15, they comfort me.
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Hi Mak, Loop stocks are absolutely the most comfy. You can do a little grinding and get a maglula uplula to work with sten mags. I actually prefer it to the spoon type of loader. Mags are a must. There is a good bit of variance so, you may need to go through a stack to find ones that work well with your sten. It's also a good idea to to a cleaning deep dive on the mags. Many still have some cosmoline on the spring and follower. Leather Yugo SMG magazine pouches can clean up well for toting mags. |
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My father has a MK II Sten and I always enjoy shooting it when visiting him. I don’t think he’s had anything fail on it, and he bought it in 1986 when he heard about the MG ban. Agree the loop stock is the way to go. His has the reinforcement/brace inside the loop, but I’ve seen many pics of loops without it. Seems that’d make it less likely to bend. Attached File His mag well was unmarked so I found him a cool looking one with original British markings and he swapped it out. |
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Originally Posted By Banshee35: They make a magazine repair mandrel I would like to get as I guess the big issue with the mags is bent feed lips. If you jump in at the 13:20 mark you can see how the mandrel tool is used as a guide to to hammer the feed lips in to the correct position.  STEN MAG REPAIR, How to adjust feed lips and fix other issues Unfortunately that tool seems to have totally dried up on the secondary market. However, there's a pretty good Small Arms Review article on STEN mags that has guidance on how to use a tapered center punch as a field expedient tool to repair the feed lips. |
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Don't buy the $40 loop stocks off of gunbroker. The guy will take your money and never ship. Only thing I've broken is an extractor. Gun still ran without it but ejected weakly. New barrels are available from a few places, as well as extractors, springs, etc. Otherwise you could just buy a mk3 kit as everything behind the magwell is the same as a mk2. I got a mk3 kit last week off the EE for $200 and just saw another on reddit today. A threaded barrel and a nice fat 9mm can is a good match up for a sten. I put a "hot pocket" hamdguard wrap on my suppressed mk3 and it's great. |
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Buy all of the parts that you can get cheap. I have bought parts and parts kits for my arsenal that are no longer readily available. When they do come up, they’re ridiculously priced and they sell. My best purchase was a MK760 complete parts kit that would sell for more than what I paid for the SMG. No, it’s not for sale in case I need them. Remember when Uzi parts were practically being given away? Go price a parts kit now. Hell, go price an extractor. Try getting a parts kit for a FNC. Buy it now because it won’t be cheaper in the future and they WILL eventually dry up. |
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Originally Posted By vellnueve: Loop stocks are difficult to find. I have one repro that doesn’t fit my tube gun. The $40 one on gunbroker finally showed up in my mailbox after 2 months of no response from the seller. Even called his brick and mortar shop with no answer. Good news is that it's in nice condition and fits well. Definitely a huge upgrade over the t-stocks 
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Originally Posted By Dakota_Don: Buy all of the parts that you can get cheap. I have bought parts and parts kits for my arsenal that are no longer readily available. When they do come up, they’re ridiculously priced and they sell. My best purchase was a MK760 complete parts kit that would sell for more than what I paid for the SMG. No, it’s not for sale in case I need them. Remember when Uzi parts were practically being given away? Go price a parts kit now. Hell, go price an extractor. Try getting a parts kit for a FNC. Buy it now because it won’t be cheaper in the future and they WILL eventually dry up. This is expert advice. As my friend VegasSMG used to say (RIP), "these are the good old days." |
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Got my threaded barrel from KAK and didn’t have the cut in the barrel ring for the anti rotation pin. Wasn’t a big deal as I added it in 5 minutes with a Dremel it just to be aware. I love my Sten for what it is and its simplicity, reliability and availability of parts. Attached File |
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When I had a STEN I found a stock made from an Enfield rifle stock with a metal adopter - I think this was the arrangement on the Mk. 5 maybe? It made for a very comfortable gun to shoot and the added weight was a bonus. Sorry - no photo. |
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| I just acquired a Sten Mk II made by Wilson Arms. Shot it today for the first time. OMG, it is amazing. Cyclic rate is very nice, and I found I could easily mag dump the center out of my target at 7 yards. Mine came with a single mag, so I ordered a dozen from Sarco. I'll test them when they arrive. |
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9 (ESV)
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Originally Posted By Dakota_Don: Buy all of the parts that you can get cheap. I have bought parts and parts kits for my arsenal that are no longer readily available. When they do come up, they’re ridiculously priced and they sell. My best purchase was a MK760 complete parts kit that would sell for more than what I paid for the SMG. No, it’s not for sale in case I need them. Remember when Uzi parts were practically being given away? Go price a parts kit now. Hell, go price an extractor. Try getting a parts kit for a FNC. Buy it now because it won’t be cheaper in the future and they WILL eventually dry up. Originally Posted By Dakota_Don: Buy all of the parts that you can get cheap. I have bought parts and parts kits for my arsenal that are no longer readily available. When they do come up, they’re ridiculously priced and they sell. My best purchase was a MK760 complete parts kit that would sell for more than what I paid for the SMG. No, it’s not for sale in case I need them. Remember when Uzi parts were practically being given away? Go price a parts kit now. Hell, go price an extractor. Try getting a parts kit for a FNC. Buy it now because it won’t be cheaper in the future and they WILL eventually dry up. Lots of wisdom here. Originally Posted By Jmacken37: This is expert advice. As my friend VegasSMG used to say (RIP), "these are the good old days." That is a name I have not heard in a long time. I miss Tom as well. |
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Trigger/sear springs. Get a few spare machined sears as spares .....especially if you have a stamped one I've owned at least 1 or 2 over the past 30 years, and the only thing that ever broke was the little hook that connected the trigger to the sear spring .... If you've got a real C&R gun, you probably won't run into any ejector issues |
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Originally Posted By MikeDeltaFoxtrot: I just acquired a Sten Mk II made by Wilson Arms. Shot it today for the first time. OMG, it is amazing. Cyclic rate is very nice, and I found I could easily mag dump the center out of my target at 7 yards. Mine came with a single mag, so I ordered a dozen from Sarco. I'll test them when they arrive. I also have a Wilson. Great guns. Be sure to buy at a minimum a new main spring. Mine was about 2" shorter than it was supposed to be from use. Edit: Is anyone making an integral suppressor besides GSL? |
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Order brand new springs for the Sten magazines. RTG has them. I changed all of the ones I had.....yes they were expensive at 7 bucks each but it was worth it.. suddenly..my old sten mags were reliable and brought back to life. |
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These two I must have.
For my love, I’ll sacrifice
My life.
For liberty, I’ll sacrifice
My love.”
Petofi Sándor
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Originally Posted By m6z: What's the going price on a Sten these days? Tube guns are 10ish but for a few coins more C+R guns have significantly dropped from Machinegun Price Guides pricing. No idea why. Its not like they are making them anymore http://www.machinegunpriceguide.com/html/subguns.html I recently picked up a rare WW2 Canadian mfg gun for 12.5k. Its still in NFA paperwork jail but hope to see it soon. STENs are actually the gun that got me into MGs many years ago as a kid watching Bridge on the River Kwai. Still a top 10 movie for me. It will finish out my WW2 C+R sub gun collection. Finally after all these years. |
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Originally Posted By lightguy: Tube guns are 10ish but for a few coins more C+R guns have significantly dropped from Machinegun Price Guides pricing. No idea why. Its not like they are making them anymore http://www.machinegunpriceguide.com/html/subguns.html I recently picked up a rare WW2 Canadian mfg gun for 12.5k. Its still in NFA paperwork jail but hope to see it soon. STENs are actually the gun that got me into MGs many years ago as a kid watching Bridge on the River Kwai. Still a top 10 movie for me. It will finish out my WW2 C+R sub gun collection. Finally after all these years. That's a damn cool thing to collect! |
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Originally Posted By home_alone1: Austen mag loader is the best , plenty of mags because a bunch won’t work , grab a parts kit and a spare barrel and a suppressor. My silenced Sten is my favorite , sold my other machine guns a while back but kept that one. What can do you recommend? I was thinking it would be cool to get an integrally suppressed barrel, but I have no idea if such is available. |
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9 (ESV)
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As to a can… Integrally suppressed is cool but makes the can a one trick pony. I bought a direct thread can and run it on my Sten & Madsen as well as semi AR9, can shoot sub 300 blackout through many of them as well. I have an older Gemtech Multimount and a Rugged Obsidian 9. The obsidian is cool because you can shorten it to a K can if you want. I’m waiting on paperwork for a B&T MP5SD can and now I’m wondering if I can get somebody to make me an SD barrel for the Sten? |
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Originally Posted By MikeDeltaFoxtrot: What can do you recommend? I was thinking it would be cool to get an integrally suppressed barrel, but I have no idea if such is available. There used to be a few on the market I believe several of the custom makers still make them , I didn’t like them due to not being as historically correct as possible. I built mine on a form 1 to look more like an original. Suppressor cover is from HTC reproductions in the UK , he uses original canvas and correct brass eyelets. Enjoy your Sten sir , I sure do enjoy mine. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By Banshee35: As to a can… Integrally suppressed is cool but makes the can a one trick pony. I bought a direct thread can and run it on my Sten & Madsen as well as semi AR9, can shoot sub 300 blackout through many of them as well. I have an older Gemtech Multimount and a Rugged Obsidian 9. The obsidian is cool because you can shorten it to a K can if you want. I’m waiting on paperwork for a B&T MP5SD can and now I’m wondering if I can get somebody to make me an SD barrel for the Sten? I already have lots of cans, so this is not an issue for me. |
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9 (ESV)
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Originally Posted By MikeDeltaFoxtrot: I already have lots of cans, so this is not an issue for me. Me too, I just hate to buy one I can only use on one gun. Thanks to this thread I called my friends at US Armament and asked if they could build an SD barrel for my Sten that I could use with my HK can and was told “sure can”. I asked if I should bring a spare barrel and they said they would likely have to make a custom one. Said to bring my Sten and the can and they would work me up a price. Once again ARFCOM has cost me money! |
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Originally Posted By lightguy: Tube guns are 10ish but for a few coins more C+R guns have significantly dropped from Machinegun Price Guides pricing. No idea why. Its not like they are making them anymore http://www.machinegunpriceguide.com/html/subguns.html I recently picked up a rare WW2 Canadian mfg gun for 12.5k. Its still in NFA paperwork jail but hope to see it soon. STENs are actually the gun that got me into MGs many years ago as a kid watching Bridge on the River Kwai. Still a top 10 movie for me. It will finish out my WW2 C+R sub gun collection. Finally after all these years. I don’t own a Sten myself but was recommending it as a first option to some guys I met at a gun range. They said they weren’t interested because it cost way too much for something so ugly. Made me realize maybe the ingenious design and utilitarian nature of it adds to the beauty and charm for me. It’s like how Han Solo perceives the Millennium Falcon haha. They said they’d rather spend the money on a M16 or MP5. Didn’t have the heart to tell them how much those probably go for these days. |
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I have to admit that when I bought my Sten I wasn’t looking for one but have been pleasantly surprised by it. Parts and mags are available and cheap, gun just chugs along, shoots “cheap” and readily available ammo and love the history of such an ugly gun made in mom and pop shops helped save the free world. Down side is that it is what it is with no caliber conversions, limited configurations or accessories but for what it is, what it did and the lower end of cost for a transferable makes it a solid choice. |
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Originally Posted By Banshee35: Down side is that it is what it is with no caliber conversions, limited configurations or accessories but for what it is, what it did and the lower end of cost for a transferable makes it a solid choice. There is probably a market for a .22LR conversion kit. |
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Originally Posted By lightguy: There is probably a market for a .22LR conversion kit. Originally Posted By lightguy: Originally Posted By Banshee35: Down side is that it is what it is with no caliber conversions, limited configurations or accessories but for what it is, what it did and the lower end of cost for a transferable makes it a solid choice. There is probably a market for a .22LR conversion kit. Wonder if .22 TCM would work, though the brass would likely be a pain to resize. |
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If nobody has mentioned it yet, get an Austen magazine loader. i have been using one for years now and have had zero issues loading my Sten mags with it. Spare bolts, sears (milled preferred). recoil springs, extra barrel or two, mag gage for setting the mag lips and feed angle. I also have a Sten MKII, 1944, Longbranch. |
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Originally Posted By Banshee35: I have to admit that when I bought my Sten I wasn’t looking for one but have been pleasantly surprised by it. Parts and mags are available and cheap, gun just chugs along, shoots “cheap” and readily available ammo and love the history of such an ugly gun made in mom and pop shops helped save the free world. Down side is that it is what it is with no caliber conversions, limited configurations or accessories but for what it is, what it did and the lower end of cost for a transferable makes it a solid choice. There was a 7.62x25 conversion at one time. |
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There is a guy on GB selling STEN complete silencer / barrels; https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1162232085 No affiliation or experience with these. |
That would be me :)  STEN silencer |
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Originally Posted By Banshee35: A good mag loader Bolts, recoil springs, barrels Honestly they are pretty rock solid and I don’t think I have broken anything on mine. They make a magazine repair mandrel I would like to get as I guess the big issue with the mags is bent feed lips. The best mag loader is the Austen loader, not cheap but it is the best. BRP has magazine gauges once again, not cheap but well worth it (works for MP40 mags also) You can never have too many magazines. A spare barrel, bolt, couple recoil springs, a milled sear or two, spare extractor, magazine springs. I have had mine since 1994 (Sten Mk.II, 1944 Long Branch) and all I have had to replace was recoil springs, mag springs and a sear, |
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A bunch of us went shooting last weekend and got to shoot the Sten. Everyone was impressed that this "ugly" little gun was so much fun to shoot. I'd take it over a MAC any day. Added bonus was I bought a ton of corrosive Egyptian 9MM eons ago but they are corrosive so didn't want to put them through an MP5 or something more valuable. Also Primers are too hard for many semi auto pistols. The Sten ate through them all and because disassembly is so complete washing everything out was fairly easy. |
OK, so I bought myself a WWII production STEN Mk.2 (Page 1 of 2)
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