Early Sten MK II, Wrapped body

[lugerfan]

Yep - that's the beastie.....

[Vincent]

I'll see if I can get a better view of the interior, but it looks like there is a bar welded across the opening above the change lever, I'm guessing that it protrudes outside of the sheet metal work and is covered by the big dirty blob of weld at the top of the "washers"

Is this a normal modification ?

The “strut” or “brace” also keeps the sear from over-traveling upward into the gun. So, I am guessing it was original. If it’s a later modification, there would have to have been some other way to keep the sear from over-traveling .

[Peter Laidler]

It is original, for exactly the reason you say. I couldn't quite understand what strut and where L-E was referring to as you can't actually see anything.

To be honest, I never ever saw one of these in service, only when I saw several hundred being broken up for parts kits and spares for the US. But I had the reports and papers from archives so was able to use the reports, look hard at the examples and inwardly digest. The main criteria was that eben though the body was fabricated, the component parts must remain interchangeable. Another was that the change must not increase the unit cost. One good idea put forward be Fazakerly was that the casing tube could be punched out flat and rolled round as per usual. But the cocking handle (the c/h) slot could form the main part of the 'join' and the only welded parts of the join would be the short part to the rear of the c/h slot and the forward part. This weld could also retain the barrel nut insert.

I think that was Fazakerleys only sensible contribution to the war effort

[lugerfan]

Thanks Peter,

out of interest , am I reading the book correctly when it says the serial numbers to be returned in the FB range were FB 1-10000, if so can you tell from my pictures is my example (27667) not built to the faulty specification or were they just not very accurate with their records & it should have been returned.

thanks

[Peter Laidler]

These numbers were taken from the papers relating to these crap guns. But there was a MAJOR problem while these guns were being withdrawn. Due to the fact that the number was on the mag housing, hundreds of guns were being scrapped simply because they had a particular batch of numbers on the housing as opposed to a type of gun. It was the CASING that was duff and not the magazine housings! Like scrapping all Ford cars with defective 1600cc engines when you really ought to be scrapping the defective engines

[lugerfan]

I like it - good analogy

if anyone has comparison pictures of a later MK II showing similar detail please post them up, it would round this thread off nicely.

thanks all...

[Vincent]

But there was a MAJOR problem while these guns were being withdrawn. Due to the fact that the number was on the mag housing, hundreds of guns were being scrapped simply because they had a particular batch of numbers on the housing as opposed to a type of gun. It was the CASING that was duff and not the magazine housings!

Interesting.

[mrclark303]

I like it - good analogy

if anyone has comparison pictures of a later MK II showing similar detail please post them up, it would round this thread off nicely.

thanks all...

Here's my old spec Mk2 (a later example), old post, but quite a few pictures to compare and contrast with yours.

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=56537&p=361966#post361966

[Vincent]

See if this works better My Mk2 Sten

[mrclark303]

Thanks Vincent, on my phone, haven't figured out how to do links properly yet!