Superb job!! Looks like all the effort you put into this has paid off and you now have a very nice Sten. That’s some nice trigger manipulation too!

Hard to say what’s causing the additional dings to the casing base. Any witness marks on the bolt?

When I built my IO Mk3 Sten I tried using the original extractor. The hole in the bolt for the extractor pin was in a different location, so the extractor wasn’t in the same geometry as on the original bolt. The casings were getting beaten up. I removed the extractor and test fired a few rounds. They looked good and I made a new extractor with the correct geometry. Case hardened it with Cherry Red.

Where did you get the barrel?


BTW, To add a little to Peter’s comment about holding the magazine. I was taught to put my left hand around the barrel jacket because it gives better control of the weapon and speeds up getting an accurate aim. That seems to be true for me. I hold the Sterling with my left hand as far forward as possible… knuckle of index finger up against the guard and thumb near the barrel support. Give it a try and see what you think.

There’s also the danger of an out of battery detonation. They are fairly rare. I have only experienced two. Both probably caused from dirty ammunition.

They happen when a round doesn’t feed into the chamber. The heavy blowback bolt has enough energy to occasionally ignite the primer. As the cartridge case is not supported by the barrel chamber it erupts and shards of the casing can be discharged with the powder blast around the magazine and through the ejection port. It’s an unpleasant experience if your hand is there. I was taught better, but my hand found its way there once as I anticipated the need for a magazine change.

**

I like my Thompson… but I love my Mk4 Sterling. My wife even calls it “the other woman.”
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