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What's "good enough"?


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How often does your sten fail to feed?

 

"Failure to feed" includes stove-pipes, jams, failure to strip off a round, or anything else that prevents a bang when the trigger is pulled. I'm getting about 1 per magazine, regardless of which mag or what bullet weight I use. I know the sten was a hastily-constructed weapon of war, but I've got a 1919A4 that hasn't jammed since I got it a decade ago. I'm new to the Brit world of warfare, so I'm not sure what's to be expected.

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If the gun is "original" it should run better than that. Hard to diagnose from your description but problems appear to be almost always magazine related. I have also seen "weak" ammo cause failure to clear the ejection port. I have had several STEN MKII and one MK V guns and as long as good mags and ammo was on hand, they run well. Happy to try to figure out the problem if you can get more details......

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Ammo plays into the scenario more than with other SMG's, in my opinion. Magazines are the first place to look, but if you're consistently seeing the issue with different mags, you may want to try different ammunition. Also, as Roscoe Turner stated, some failures are shooter induced, if you hold onto the magazine.

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

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Hi 2ndArmored,

 

I've a bunch of Stens and they are all excellent runners. When shot in competition, I cocked the gun at the start of the day and lowered the bolt at the end of the match when I put it away. I work hard to never pull the trigger on an empty chamber. Tactical mag changes are much faster w/o messing with the bolt. In other words, they run 100% if set-up correctly.

 

I agree with others that magazines must be of good quality and condition. Don't mess with trying to "fix" the 20 round mags (that were wire converted to single stack). Use good quality WW2 vintage mags. With that you should be good to go. I load them to 32 rounds. My guns will eat any ammo. I run handloads balanced for the guns. If you are careful you can load ammo that will run the gun w/o the bolt striking the back of the receiver. Very smooth that way.

 

A bit of tuning and you should get a sweet running gun.

 

Good luck.

 

Grasshopper

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I have had some problems also with my STEN. I was advised to try 124 grain ammo, but have not had the opportunity to do so yet. I do not hold it by the magazine, but tend to somewhat rotate the weapon so that the mag is slightly facing downward. Trying to break that habit. I do have 3 mags so that I can switch to a different one if I have to.

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As expected, the consensus blames the magazines. Is there a more efficient way of determining which my sten will like besides buying armfulls of mags at my next gun show, then trying them all out at the range to see which ones work, then selling off the rest at the following gun show?

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The obvious thing to do is firstly look for undamaged mags. Next you could do with some drill rounds and the little profile gauge that shows if the top round is seated in the lips and presented at the correct angle. I think the dimensions of the gauge are in the notes to Armourers if you have that and is a simple home made tool.
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  • 3 months later...

Again, thanks for all the advice. You'd be surprised (at least I am) by how many vendors don't want you putting ANYTHING into their magazines (lest it ruin their collector value??), so that option wasn't as actionable. But by tweaking both the offending magazines and my handloads, I was able to get 'er humming. :woot:

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It should not come as a surprise. When you have to deal with idiots who treat everything on a trade table like it was a $1.00 plastic toy it doesn't take long for vendors to start being careful.

Again, thanks for all the advice. You'd be surprised (at least I am) by how many vendors don't want you putting ANYTHING into their magazines (lest it ruin their collector value??), so that option wasn't as actionable.

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It should not come as a surprise. When you have to deal with idiots who treat everything on a trade table like it was a $1.00 plastic toy it doesn't take long for vendors to start being careful.

Again, thanks for all the advice. You'd be surprised (at least I am) by how many vendors don't want you putting ANYTHING into their magazines (lest it ruin their collector value??), so that option wasn't as actionable.

Understood, hence my surprise. I pick up only things I'm interested in buying, so I have a vested interest in treating them properly. (Plus that archaic "Respect others' property" thing dad taught us.) I have no idea what the dozen guys before or after me do to the vendors merchandise.

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