Prototype 7.62x51mm Sterling rifle

[Vincent]

I came across this and thought some of you might find it interesting.





There's more here - British .308 Sterling prototype | Forgotten Weapons

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

I spent a lot of time researching Sterling products for the Guns of Dagenham book and I never heard of this. I spoke to David Howroyd who was the engineering director no less of Sterling. Nope....., he hadn't heard of it either. It does illustrate the phrase that '.....give an hacksaw and a hammer, anything is possible!

But you can be as sure as god made little green apples that in 30 years time, this 'rifle' will feature in a book somewhere as an illustration of what Sterling produced before...............................

[Brit plumber]

Intresting, I don't see how this could even have been taken seriously. The blurb states it a FAL mag but its defo a L4 mag. My main concern would be firing a 7.62/308 round with that breech block, it would have to be really heavy to be safe, and that must have made the recoil terrible and inaccurate. This must have been more a case of someone proving they could make a 7.62 gun from a Sterling rather than a true experimental Rifle.

[Peter Laidler]

We really don't know enogh about the technicalities of the 'thing'. It's locking mechanism for a start. Did it fire from an open bolt, feed, load, lock and fire. How did it unlock. ........

It's a Mk3/L2A2 trigger mech too............

[limpetmine]

Here are some additional pictures from his link. Strange creature, it is!
Too bad they blacked out the trigger tag.

[RCS]

Difficult to determine the method of operation, but almost looks like a delayed or retarded blow back with short recoil. The barrel and action could employ just a short recoil with an
accelerator too

[browningautorifle]

It would definitely roar. How would that be to hold on full auto?

[smellie]

Looks to me to be rear-seared with an inertia-lock system using the differential motion of the bolt-head and the bolt-body to control opening speed. There was a Hungarian guy named Kiraly who worked this out and got some SMGs made during War Two. After the war, he left Europe (smart thing to do at that time) and his system showed up as the Cristobal Carbine in 30-M1 Carbine calibre.

This one looks to be more sophisticated than Kiraly's original guns, but the principle is the same.

Notice that the firing-pin is operated by the forward-moving rear part of the bolt, much as with the 1921 Thompson: definitely rear-seared. Bolt s still moving forward hen th thing fires, just like with an Oerlikon. The "leg" that sticks out the side of the bolt is the locking-piece; as the bolt-head starts to come back slowly, it throws the heavy rear part of the bolt backwards faster, giving you a delay in opening.

Where can I get one?
.

[Vincent]

That looks like a 30rd FAL mag to me, BP.

I thought you Brits called it the SLR?

[Beerhunter]

That looks like a 30rd FAL mag to me, BP.

I think that someone has correctly ID'd the mag as from an L4 (7.62 mm Converted Bren). One was not supposed to use L4 magazines in SLRs but my boss did for years without a problem.

Imperial measurements FALs were called the SLR (Self-Loading Rifle) or more properly the Rifle, Self-Loading L1A1. In addition to not using Metric, the SLR did not have a full-auto capability.

The whole thing looks like a bit of a dogs breakfast to me. I have severe reservations about it.