Sten gun jamming

[phoenix44]

I have just finished reading a new book, "A mirror caught the sun", which is about operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich. The author who seems to have carried out an awful lot of research, has described the incident of the Sten gun failing. I have previously read that the reason that the Sten failed, was as a because of the stock being removed, to reduce the size, the result of this would be predictable, the bolt shot out the a**s end of the gun.But, this is not apparently so, according to the new book, the stock was cut off flush and the gun dismantled and placed in a bag, to conceal it.Now for the crunch, the Germans, allowed the Czech's to keep rabbits for food and also allowed them to collect grass to feed them,(jolly decent).So somebody carrying around a bag full of grass, would not have raised suspicion, but it seems that grass had got into the dismantled Sten,this was the cause of the jam, as witnesses said that it did fire a few rounds off.
My question, do you think that grass would have caused the gun to jam? I'm not sure,Pete.

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[browningautorifle]

With enough obstructrion of any sort a jam can happen.

[bouletbill]

I may be wrong, but I have always had the impression that the reliability of the Sten was compromised by its magazine feed. The long sprung platform would easily stick and this was never sorted. The Sterling mag had a roller guide platform ... problem solved.

[browningautorifle]

Personally, I found most of the stoppages with Sten were user caused. Not gun fault.

[Peter Laidler]

I'm not happy that grass would cause a jam in a Sten gun............ Look at it this way.......... If it fired the first time then the breech block went forwards unimpeded. Just how much grass would now be needed - and where did it magically appear from....., to prevent the recoiling breech block to returning to the rear - under far greater force than it was going forwards in the first place? Then, if it went forwards AND backwards once, what overcame the even greater spring loading that prevented it going forwards the second time. Don't forget, the second time the breech block goes forwards, it starts from further to the rear where the return spring is under even greater load.

I'm no expert in these matters but the Germans, who were there at the time and siezed the gun told that the butt had been removed to shorten the gun. Remove the butt, remove the 'abutment plate' and the recoiling breech block WILL blow out of the rear.

On the subject of Sten magazines. The reason why the Sten kept the old single feed magazines was that Turpin only had sufficient money (£5) to develop the gun and not the magazines so he designed it with the untried and untested Lanchester mags. Get 10 mags that work with your gun and you were happy

[phoenix44]

Peter.
the reason I raised this point, is that I found this hard to believe myself.I forgot to mention that he had removed the barrel/barrel nut in the bag and re-assembled it in the bag.If he fired it without the butt plate in situ, is it likely he would have sustained an injury? The germans recovered the gun, but I have never seen any information, to say if they examined it or not and the pictures of it are not very clear.As one of the most famous exploits of this gun, I wonder if it was man or machine, especially as the attack only just succeded.Pete.