Building the Canadian Semi-Auto STEN

[Claven2]

PS: What kind of mill you running? I changed out mine recently to a Busy Bee knee mill - MUCH better than the Mill/Drill I had before.

[Mick]

last one was open-bolt and I still have it, it remains unblued and is still in CFC limbo, every month or two, I call and ask what's up with it, and they promise to get back to me, then don't... lol. .

That sounds familiar. If I were you I would be tempted to send it to them so as to get it sorted once and for all. Let them know you are serious, I have a feeling you will be waiting forever if you don't. On the other hand if you just want to get it registered I can help you out with that.

They have a gun of mine in for inspection at the moment, and I have another one to send in this week.

That's a really nice looking machine you have there, is it the 2hp one ?

Mine's an RF45 clone. If that means anything to you then you know a lot more about milling machines than me.

Here's a couple of pics...

[Mick]

I did some test firing before giving the MkIII's a finish this evening, the windage is spot on. I was a bit concerned about this with the fixed front sights. The new machine is doing it's job.

[J. Savoie]

Nice job Mick! Now, either a Mk2 or a Mk3 unrestricted without the anteater look would be even better.

[tiriaq]

How can that be done? With an 18 1/2"+ barrel, Stens get really long. Bad enough with the US mandated 16" barrels. With the 8" barrel a Sten is about 30" long. Add 10 1/2", its up over 40". The handling is really affected as well. If a non-restricted version were made, perhaps a dummy barrel unit could be used for display.


Adding a Mk. IIS style canvas wrap might make the barrel assembly look shorter, but the gun is still pretty ungainly.
I suppose it depends on how important non-restricted status is.
I am not aware of any non-restricted Sten FRT numbers.

[J. Savoie]

How can that be done? With an 18 1/2"+ barrel, Stens get really long. Bad enough with the US mandated 16" barrels. With the 8" barrel a Sten is about 30" long. Add 10 1/2", its up over 40". The handling is really affected as well. If a non-restricted version were made, perhaps a dummy barrel unit could be used for display.

- SNIP -

Adding a Mk. IIS style canvas wrap might make the barrel assembly look shorter, but the gun is still pretty ungainly.
I suppose it depends on how important non-restricted status is.
I am not aware of any non-restricted Sten FRT numbers.

I know that there were no MkIII with silencers but as long as a fake silencer (very thin, to keep the weight as light as possible) would allow one to use his semi Sten wherever long guns can be legally used. No permit to transport would be worth the inconvenients that go with such a long barrel.

At least that's how I see it.

[tiriaq]

The casing in the photo above is a piece of 1 1/2" EMT - pretty thin. There are some 4130 options as well. Those photos were taken some time ago, applied a quick and dirty coat of BBQ paint since then. Doesn't look too bad. Still haven't decided what to do with the set, whether to use it on a restricted carbine, or try for a non-restricted.
A III could be made with a full length tube, which I think looks better than an add-on dummy suppressor casing. Still pretty long, though. Why not mock one up, see how it looks. Or a Mk. I* could be replicated. Having the collar as part of the mag. housing might break up the length of the tube, improve the appearance.
That unit in the photo does make for an ungainly Sten.
How would Law 9 affect your making a restricted longarm?

[Mick]

Nice job Mick! Now, either a Mk2 or a Mk3 unrestricted without the anteater look would be even better.

You are always talking about an unrestricted sten without an anteater look Why not make one ? Maybe you could even persuade Dix to part with his long barrel

I think they are nice looking guns when built with the sight rail, I'm pleased with the result. Here's a pic showing the tabs.
Here's a pic of the tab bender jig I used.



Next time I speak to Mr Smith I will ask him if I would need to send a gun in with a full length barrel to get a non restricted FRT number. I have a feeling that the anwer would be yes, but you never know.

PS, I am sure a 9mm bullet would shoot down a curved barrel. If you were to bend his barrel around a mandrel to make it like a spring you could probably reduce it from an 18 1/2" barrel down to 9".

[tiriaq]

As an experiment, put a blank tube into a trigger box/head casing unit, and measure to see how long it would have be to shroud a 18 1/2"+ barrel. I don't think you would find it appealing. Although a non-restricted version would likely find buyers, nevertheless.

There is nothing in the law that says a barrel has to be straight, is there......
As long as the last 2 or 3 inches aligned with the sights, it should shoot OK......

[stencollector]

Here are a couple photos of a mk2 SAS sten with a 18.5" barrel. I built the dummy silencer slightly longer than stock and left the 4" of barrel protruding unfinished so it doesn't stand out as bad. The gun is, as Tiriaq points out, somewhat nose heavy. There was an early version of the sten silencer that was 21" long IIRC so a very long silencer is not completely out of order.





As with most sten barrels, but more so with the long barrel, I had to rotate it until the bullets were closest to the zero position. Then I marked the barrel for future indexing.