Sten gun Mk2 cocking handle

[stencollector]

Any explanation of the difference between no6 and 7 in the line-up? The little "tail" on the bottom of #6 (missing on no7) really does not seem to have any purpose.

[Peter Laidler]

That lack of the little tail indicates to me a changeover from the earliest tail-less cocking handles to the 'tailed' cocking handles. The tail simply fits into the pilot hole and gives the handle a bit more support. The pilot hole was the first operation (or certainly one of the first) in the manufacture of the breech block and it was from this position that most of the other radial operations were taken from.

The actual main/return-spring sits against the shaft of the cocking handle and prevents it rattling. But alas, it won't tighten up a loose cocking handle.

There is a nice part in the Sten Gun book from a fellow who used to set up the machines for the lady machine operators who machined the breech blocks. One of the lady operators came to work in tears, the day after learning that her son had been shot down in a bomber on operations over Germany. She was given the day off!!!!!!!

[Topfmine]

I noticed on my friends Sten with a Finish bolt handle (basicaly looks like a Mk2 bolt with a large ball in place of the short knurled shaft) that the handle was bent slightly forward caused by the repeated inertia of the action over time, did this happen with the other marks of bolt handle. Which handle did you think was the better design for use apart from the safety aspect of later model?

[Peter Laidler]

I don't think the reciprocating action of the Sten made the cocking handle tip forwards because the handle is not fixed in position in the bolt like the Sterling, it's free to rotate and I'd say that every time the bolt reciprocates, the cocking handle will move/rotate with it. And don't forget, it goes backwards as many times as it goes forwards. I think that it's just got a bent cocking handle.

Best cocking handle was the last one that you could push through to lock the breech block forwards. This simple 1942 modification made the Sten gun as safe, if not SAFER than or at least AS safe as any other SMG before and after it. A lot of these old boys who were there (???????) and those who have been reading too many comics won't admit to this but tests using live ammo have proved it time and time again.

If I had a penny off everyone who's brothers uncles best friends sisters boyfriend had his finger chopped off in the ejection opening port I'd be a rich man now. As for those buffoons who tell me that it would cock and fire by inertia as the parachute breaks from the static line and deploys...............

[browningautorifle]

I actually tried the cock on impact test myself. I took a Longbranch gun, drill rounds only in the mag, and attempted to make it fire from impact on a hard object. I sat and repeatedly pounded the butt on the floor until I thought I'd damage it. Not one drill round loaded into the chamber. On the other hand, we had a man shoot himself in the hand and shoulder with a Sub Machine Gun C1 by cleaning it without clearing it first. He wiped it down with a rag, which caught on the cocking handle, which operated the bolt far enough to catch a round. He took one in the hand and one in the shoulder. Too bad it didn't hit him in the head, it would have passed through without causing damage...he survived by the way. Strange, his name was Toole...with an e.

[Topfmine]

I don't think the reciprocating action of the Sten made the cocking handle tip forwards because the handle is not fixed in position in the bolt like the Sterling, it's free to rotate and I'd say that every time the bolt reciprocates, the cocking handle will move/rotate with it. And don't forget, it goes backwards as many times as it goes forwards. I think that it's just got a bent cocking handle.

I can see the sense in what you say, didn't take in consideration the bolt rotating and the bolt handle going back as many times forward.
I read a reveiw about the Sten in a Machine gun publication evaluating similar weapons old and new, the Sten and the Owen came out best.

[stencollector]

I can't tell you how many times I have heard the tale of the "toss the sten into a room full of Germans" myth. Apparently, it would spin round and round discharging until every last German had expired. Poor German's likely didn't know what hit them.

I had one vet, when challenged as to the validity of such a tale, angrily point out "well I was there" before walking away.

I have heard the same story re-gurgitated for the SMG C-1, although certainly not as often. Old myths die hard.

[browningautorifle]

I have heard the same story re-gurgitated for the SMG C-1

Yes, and I carried one on many occasion. Never had much problem with them. And I was there...

[Mk VII]

By the late '50s Pamphlet 4 emphasised that any unit finding itself with a Sten without the Mk.5 cocking handle should report it to the REME for exchange or modification, and in the interim no magazine should be put on it unless the handle was in the safety slot.