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ive been considering a Sten for a while and found a DLO that looks decent for around $7k

 

welds look good, finish good over all w/ wear around where you would grip the gun

 

i have also heard Stens in general dont run well (from WW2 info)

 

do DLO stens run well?

did DLO refinish everything to create basically a new looking gun?

is DLO considered one of the best tubes for a sten? (i see they made 1000)

 

converting a DLO to a Sterling...i see mixed info on this...if its marked DLO on the tube can it be converted?

 

anything i should look for when purchasing?

 

is $7k the going price for a nice looking one? (machine gun pricing list says its on the high side)

 

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what do i need to know about them?

 

i heard some have registered tubes vs having the registration on the part under the tube/the trigger area.....i saw something about turning a sten into a sterling because the tube was the registered part....something about it coming in 2 versions

 

this DLO is from a dealer ive bought from before and i know he will not get me any extra pics...so i have 2 decent pics..trust is all i can go on for the rest...

 

price is fair, but i know i can bargain some if the gun sits for a bit......got 20% off my last one, but it sat for months.....

 

looks like a fun gun to own and something different than what i currently have in my collection.....saw a sten for $5k on Sturm last week.....no pics or info.....sold in a day or so......

 

im waiting to see if more pop up on GB just to get an idea of pricing vs condition

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Hi Huggy,

 

In the past the word was "shoot it". This is the best way to determine the quality of the build. DLO supplied many registered tubes to other builders over the years so the DLO may only mean Doug registered the tube. The Stens are one of my favorites and they supress rather nicely. Style; not so much. They are a war tested design. I've always loaded my mags to 32 and they run just fine. In a pinch, grab a Lanchester 50 round mag and have a bunch of fun. Just be careful on door frames.

 

IIRC the S/N is on the trigger housing, it is an earlier gun. The later guns had the tubes with the S/N engraved.

 

In the past, Stenlings were build from Stens. Personally I'd avoid that as the cocking slot/ejection port gets very thin. Do a bit of google to look at that area.

 

The gun is light. It is a favorite of my Wife. She prefers to shoot it in semi and she does quite well with it.

 

Find a friend with one to try if you can before you buy. We normally have 1 or 2 at each of the monthly matches.

 

Enjoy,

 

Grasshopper

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I have had quite a few Stens, the primary problem is the magazines, more specifically, the angle of the round sitting in the feed lips.

I did an article for SAR on Sten mags, I don't recall what issue it was. I used a Brit angle gage and mandrel on all my Sten mags and they work flawlessly. They do require a periodic adjustment because the metal is soft. I bought some aftermarket, new manufacture Sten mags from Keep Shooting and have had no problems at all with those; so far they have worked and don't require the same "adjustments."

 

I also have a Stenling made from a Sten MKII tube by Don Qunniel with the wider cocking slot. Despite all the negative internet gossip about the wider cocking slots and Don's conversions; mine was converted many years ago, and I have shot my Stenling a with LOT with zero problems.

 

As far as Stens, the MKV is the more ergonomic, than a MKII, but the Stenling is the best.

 

Frank

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talked with my accountant...getting a $9,200 tax refund......so i give the good news to the wife and her first words---''now we can afford a nice trailer for our land'''......not exactly what i was thinking...i was thinking i could buy a $7k sten and get a POS trailer for $2,200

 

she doesnt know about the last subgun thats coming on form 3 this week....now i want to add a 2nd one she doesnt know about.......i didnt think she noticed the differences in guns very much, thought i could just toss it in the mix----WRONG.....bought a $249 Beretta 92s 2 weeks ago....been working on it for a bit in the basement....brought it up and she immediately asked ''when did you get that one?'''.....didnt know she could tell the difference between a 1911/glock or a Beretta.....obviously she can

 

i thank everyone for the Sten info....i may or may not bite on this one for $7,000.....i may let it sit a while since its the same seller that came down 20% on the last FA after a few months...meanwhile i can keep my eye on GB and see what they come up for....i dont really see many for sale.....

 

i think it would look great sitting next to my thompson.....

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STEns are very under-rated. With good mags, they just plain work! There a er a few improvements that make them much better, like modifying the front sight into a post, and using a decent stock.

Don't hold it by the magazine housing or magazine. That barrel shroud is there for a reason. Holding it by the magazine is asking for malfunctions and also you won't see rounds #2, 3, 4, etc go anywhere near what you want to hit except by accident.

 

Get a spare barrel as many STEns have seen a lot of rounds down the tube. Even if yours has not, it will! Excellent gun to introduce shooters to full-auto as it's easy to control and has low recoil and rate of fire.

 

The Sterling or STEnling is in a whole other world, though. Probably the finest open-bolt submachine gun ever made. Will use STEn mags if you can't find enough of the superb Sterling ones. My STEnling is also an early Don Quinnell and has been a pure joy!

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Got a bunch of stens and variants and 2 more tubes inbound. 7K seems on the high side, but by this time next year maybe not? Had I not just bought two I would have bought the one on sturm at 5K, that was a deal for sure. The only one that did not work was the one I sent to Don's to have done into a sterling. Sent if back.....better, but not fixed, so we ended up finishing it here. I can't recommend his work in my case, but others have had no problems. Little can go wrong with a sten other than the magazines which can be surplus junk 70+ years old, plentiful, cheap, mixed mfr., mixed countries leaves a lot of room for issues. If you don't like to tinker, you buy 20 30, or 40 try them, keep the ones that work and sell the rest. Other than that it's a bolt and a spring so there's little room for problems, just not many moving parts to mess up? It's one of the safest and easiest guns to learn MG principles on.

 

I don't normally shoot bursts, but if I do it's two or three rounds and you start to wander off target, by holding it down you have time to pull the gun back onto target and the more you do it the quicker you learn to pull it back on target. Obviously certain guns hold target better than others for obvious reasons. Shooting at an indoor range is probably the worst place to practice. I prefer outside, waaaay out of town, and alone to learn a gun and it's tendencies. A berm or water is the best guide to see what's going on. Course I'm easily distracted and don't care much for shooting around crowds. HTH

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no one saw a pic of the $5k sten...so who knows the condition....ive seen a huge variance on the welds...the DLO seems like a flawless weld, others look like frankenstein...

 

using the machine gun price guide yes $7k seems high.....this is why ill wait a while....

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The use of registered Sten tubes for Sterlings got complicated quite a few years ago. The Sterling cocking handle rides a bit higher on the tube than the Sten and to make the ocnversion "right", the cocking handle slot needs to be altered and cut higher for the Sterling handle. ATF decided that altering the position of the cocking handle slot constitued creating a "new" machine gun, in this case an unregistered, post-May sample, so moving the slot on a registered Sten tube became illegal. Thus, there are Sten/Sterlings with the altered slots and ones without tthe altered slot. Buyers of Stenlings tend to get a bit hysterical about this issue, but it is right at the bottom of ATF's priorities for pursuit and prosecution. There are, of course, graduations of quality in the builds of Stenlings, which is an actual issue depending on who has done the work, which does need to be researched by buyers.

Original Stens have the serial and makers ID on the magwell and not on the receiver tube, another issue that can generate concern by those who see ATF bogeymen behind every MG, but that is how they were made. Some form 1 Sten builders making and registering tubes for the guns between '68 and '86 didn't mark the tubes but put their ID and serial on the magwells but again, it is of little concern.

Any remanufactured Sten can be repaired and by this date most of the poorly constructed Stens have long been fixed. Original Stens that had the tubes cut and welded back together sometimes displayed slightly bent tubes, a few of which I have come across, but they work and the tubes can be cut and straightened if any remain unfixed. DLO's new manufacture, registered tubes became the standard.

Vintage Stens are a joy to handle and shoot and even during the years of manufacture and issue, the practice was to toss any mag that didn't work and put together a lot that did for combat. No different today as Sten mags remain very inexpensive and easy to find.

No collector of vintage SMGs should be without a Sten. They represent a wonderful and quirky example of Small arms invention and development at a crucial time in the history of GB and are right at the top of the list of historic MGs. FWIW

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can you tell my wife that i should not be without?

 

im on the list for the $5k one on Sturm...if the check doesnt come im hopefully next in line....havent seen a pic, but the seller says the check is due today......if the welds look good im game for a $5k sten...how can you lose.....refinish it, fix it...your still in good shape

 

if anyone sees a DLO for sale let me know....still considering a Stemple too

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