"French"-"Broken" Sten Stocks

[Flying10uk]

Does anyone know why the same eBay vendor keeps producing Sten Socks which they claim to have sourced in France yet they all seem to have broken keys that fit into the rear of the trigger guard. Were the French much rougher at handling the Sten than everyone else or is there some sort of silly regulation that stipulates that the stock first has to be broken before it can be exported/sold??? Thanks for any information.

WW2 BRITISH ARMY STEN SPARE BUTT STOCK () ORIGINAL FROM FRANCE. | eBay

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Peter Laidler]

De-militarised in order that he can possess them?

[Flying10uk]

I'm trying to set up a link to the eBay page but is proving difficult at moment.

Managed it.

[Vincent]

It would still fit on the gun and be somewhat usable. You could still shoulder the gun with it.

It’s probably the type that uses a small pin to hold the button/key on. Not really a robust method of attachment. The pin could easily be sheared. Also, the shaft of the button/key is weakened by the hole for the pin.

There are probably a large number of them because the pin attachment method makes them more prone to failure than the other types.

[Flying10uk]

It just seems odd that the same vendor has had a number of these stocks, all from France, and all with a broken button/key.

[Peter Laidler]

The butt would simply rotate about the return spring cap axis Vince. And as a result would become semi-uncontrollable in my opinion. But regardless of this, it is a simple fix that'd take all of 15mts to do including turning up a few buttons, countersink hole, fit button shaft and braze

As an afterthought - and because it was designed by the arch genius Harold Turpin I wouldn't mind betting the the actual button was a standard stock off-the-shelf diameter to boot

[Vincent]

Is it the same vendor who claimed he found it at a market stall in France?

[Flying10uk]

I think so. Perhaps the market trader had some sort of bazaar accident and somehow managed to break off all the button/keys???

[Vincent]

Yeah. He’s probably “romancing” them. Some dealers do that here too. Make up a story to add some romance to whatever they are selling.

[Flying10uk]

He doesn't seem to have anyone interested yet but it does look like a genuine original example and a fairly simple repair job to make it usable. I did a thread some months back on this type of repair. Here in the U.K. there are some/a few fake or reproduction Sten stocks appearing on some of the U.K. deactivated Stens for sale. I believe that some of these repro Sten stocks originate from India, but the "give away" that they are repro is the laser cut plates that make up the assembly. The "Faker" has even reproduced the makings on the stock in the case of the fake stock which came with the last U.K. deactivated Sten that I purchased. This was despite me telling the dealer that I didn't want a reproduction stock and he insisting that it wasn't. In the end I went and purchased another genuine stock separately. For something like this a reproduction item does nothing for me, in interest terms.