Very interesting, guys. Thanks for showing them to us.

Their was a fun the states trying to sell. one with the rear locking lugs milled off of the bolt.

Garand thumb? There is, what I believe to be, an "official" method to avoid that. When the action is open, the right hand places the en bloc clip of ammo aligned with the "guides" in the receiver. The same hand is then aligned so that the "blade" of the hand is just forward of the charging handle and the thumb is resting on the top of the clip of ammo.The thumb pushes the clip all the way into the magazine "space". As the clip "locks in", it also actuated the "lever" that releases the "hold-open". Thus, as the op-rod and bolt rush forward, the charging handle shoves the right hand out of the way. This is, I understand, the "proper" way to avoid the pain and embarrassment of the "black thumbnail". IF, the rifle is old and tired, this sequence of events may get a bit untidy. This is what field armourers and other "knowledgeable individuals" are for. Why not a detachable magazine or a full ten-round capacity? When That Canadian chap first designed the rifle, it was built around the .276 Pederson cartridge, which has a smaller case-head size than the.30-06. The Pederson had used a TEN round , en bloc clip full of "waxed" cartridges to work with the toggle-lock action. Garand figured that the Pederson rifle, whilst "fascinating", was not the way to fly, but the cartridge was "Ordnance approved" as was the concept of the en block loading system. Then MacArthur got fixated in the concept of warehouses of .30-06 ammo languishing around the country and the idea that real soldiers use REAL cartridges. Never mind that within a few short years, US forces would be firing off those warehoused full of ammo on a weekly basis, and the construction of and production from, new ammo factories could barely keep up , regardless of calibre desired. And also never mind thet the US fielded MILLIONS of carbines chambered for s "pipsqueak" round derived from a slightly obscure French cartridge. But WAIT; there’s MORE! Consider that the Japanese had semi-seriously tinkered with the Pederson rifle, (as had Vickers in Britain). During WW2 the Japanese noticed noticed the "tactical" value of the M-1. Thus, the Type 6 Rifle In the last stages of WW2, the Imperial Japanese Navy did a short run of their idea of a Garand "clone"..It was chambered for their 7.7mm cartridge, as used in the type 99 rifle. Skipping the fancy en bloc clip, they built a rifle that had a fixed, ten round magazine system that protruded below the stock line and which was fed by the traditional five round stripper clips. Shades of the German G-41.

I perfer a closed bolt unless it's a full auto and I'm putting down alot of rounds in full auto other wise open bolts are only good for catching flys,leaves,sticks,dirt and what ever else finds it's way in that open hole... just a opinion from a American point of view..

A few other tings: The Lee Enfield "two-piece" furniture arrangement started out, following the Martinis, as a VERY useful "military logistics" thing. Firstly, has anyone ever seen any other service rifle of a similar vintage, with the ability to easily be set up to better fit soldiers of various "statures"? The modern "six-position" AR butt assemblies are about as closes as anyone gets, but that caper was to accommodate operating out of vehicles and the widespread adoption of body armour. The other interesting thing about the L. E. action is the transfer of recoil. The rear-locking action has "some" flex, hence it may want to move under recoil. Note the lack of anything resembling the serious recoil lugs under the breech ring. as opposed to all the Front-lockers of various denominations. These "conventional" rifles transfer the recoil to the butt, primarily via the thin wooden side-panels of the stock, around the magazine area.. The beauty of the L. E. setup is that the rear-fitted locking surfaces have a very short transfer path to the butt, via the generously- proportioned "Butt Socket' (actually referred to in official documents as a "Ferrule"). Rear-locking actions "inaccurate"? The Steyr SSG and the French FRF2 , and even the "budget" Remington 788.might beg to differ. There is another fine detail that a lot of people miss: The recoil thrust id supposed to be transferred to the butt ONLY by the centre of the "tenon". There is SUPPOSED to be a small gap between the OUTER circumference of the "ferrule" and the "shoulder of the wrist of the butt. If there is no "gap", recoil will soon start to rip chips off the butt wrist. The Whittaker specials tossed all of this "subtlety out of the window. The Canadians did the same when they were developing the Ultra-light "carbine", the J-5550. This was a proposed alternative to the more Prosaic" No5 series. There seem to be two versions of the J-5550, and the major difference is at the rear of the receiver. One version seems to have gone all out to shed weight and thus the 'ferrule was basically completely cut away, as it was "not needed" in a one-piece" stock. There was a small "tag" at the top to transfer the rather substantial recoil to teh butt area. The other one I have seen is a bit more "thought-out". The "ferrule" was reduced to a "leg", with the sides od the ferrule and the recoil plate machined away. Interestingly, this "leg" functioned much like the rear "recoil" leg of an SKS, a somewhat different rear-locker with a dubious stock. It works. Funny how nobody seems to make a "modern Sporting rifle" with one-piece furniture, (apart from the M-1A and its cute cousin, the Mini-14.. L1A1 rifles could be set up for differently-statured troops; with the traditional wood, it was a bit fiddly and there were stocks of differently-sized buts to be "warehoused". The UK polymer stuff came with a ""bantam" (very-short) butt and additional "spacer (slices) capped of with a "standard, one-size fits all" plastic butt-plate. That Maranyl stuff can get quite hot just being exposed to sunlight, BUT, it was adopted primarily because wooden furniture gets ugly, fast after a few trips through the NBC warfare "decontamination" steam cleaner. And ANYTHING "black", (Think; "Chocolate Chip cammo uniforms), lights up like a Christmas tree when viewed through Night-vision / "thermal" optics.

Carried one in Ireland in the 70s when carrying the man pack radio. Put loads of rounds down range training. A lovely handy little weapon, reliable, light and easy to use . In fact I don't remember a single jam or stoppage . Surprisingly accurate right out to 200m.

I had a "System 1892" numbered 109 until someone stole my sister's purse with keys. It had the most beautiful bluing i ever seen.

NTCH creates a repeatable reference point and improves cheek weld.

During Desert Shield at we had a British Officer waiting in our tent to board our C-21 Learjets for a flight. He left the tent and forgot his Sterling on the table. I ran out and handed it to him and said "Here you might need this" He replied " I don't know what for they wont give me any ammo for it anyway . " If I could have gotten it home I would have kept it but I knew better.

I had a Mk8 closed bolt here in the UK before the ban, it was so nice to shoot but it did like hot ammo to shoot reliably

My Lee-Enfield No. 4 will eject the round just fine but it will not eject it. The bolt simply pulls the spent casing from the chamber and leaves it resting on top of the magazine. I have to grab the spent case with my fingers. Does anyone know if this is a bolt head or weak ejector spring issue? Thank you!

Beautiful

Rounds from a Sterling in the black at 50? I'm impressed. Mind you I was always crap with these!

Btw, I’d love a my 6, “Where do you get ‘em.”

Petite astuce pour enlever la plaque de recouvrement d'un revolver sans forcer : tapoter avec le manche du tournevis sur la poignée.

Neat. I really would want to get myself a Rast & Gasser 1898 but since 8mm Gasser rounds are not sold here I thought I can't do that. Good to know that .32 wadcutters seem to work. Thought I've still heard people say that they wouldn't recommend using them.

Throw it in the bergen and tab away...Loved it. RAMC

I trained with the sterling whilst serving in the Canadian army.

I love the giddy enthusiasm from the two of you getting to do this. I think I've said it before - here on FB - that I really wish I had bought one of the closed-bolt Sterlings when they came on the U.S. market about ten years ago. Actually, I should have bought two, so I could turn one into a Stormtrooper carbine, but both would have been SBR'ed.

Okay... But... Which one is going to get the StarWars upgrade and get turned into an E-11?

At 1:05 -- it was the national firearms act of 1934 ["NFA '34"] that brought the concept of SBRs to the US; it was GCA '68 that codified that 16" rifle barrels were the minimum "non-NFA" length [down from the formerly 18 freedom units...]

When you told chappie to shoot five, I was expecting an insert of the Brigadier ordering “five rounds, rapid“

I fear the Absolute Gorilla Bear of a man that can actually do a mad minute on a Mosin.

It would have been nice to see the fired cases. I would suspect the closed bolt gun to produce dirtier cases than the open bolt gun. Reasoning? The closed bolt has to have greater mass and spring tension to keep the case in the chamber long enough for the bullet to exit the barrel, but still starts to open sooner than the open bolt allowing more gas to leak backwards. The open bolt has momentum working for it and this keeps the chamber sealed a bit longer than the closed bolt. The open bolt is traveling forward has forward energy that will need to be expended before it can start to travel backwards, while the closed bolt has only inertia to be overcome, and no momentum.

i neeeed the flintglock

Mk IV Sterling remains a personal fave of mine, if nothing I'm like to ever have in my safe.

When I was in armourer training in Borden 38 years ago where we were taught on the Sterling. The round fires while the momentum of the bolt is still moving forward effectively acting like a heavier bolt and spring. It's interesting to see that in action.

Flexing on the poors/those in hostile jurisdictions.

The reference to the shower is lost on me. But a closed bolt SMG sounds really, really nice.

Does an open bolt have long lock time or long unlock time? 😆

Just so you know...I supported Freedonia in the Elbonian war of Freedonian oppression. I still watch your videos.

I bought a 16" barreled Mk.6 when they first entered the US in the 1980s. I don't recall ever shooting it before I sent it off to Bill Fleming for a full auto open bolt conversion. At the time there were no L2A3 parts to be had, so Bill modified what was in the gun. The importer later acquired some L2A3 parts, including a proper bolt and barrel, which I was able to install myself. I ended up with a true L2A3 which has been a "blaster" to shoot. And unlike Imperial Storm Troopers, I am able to hit what I aim at.

My stormtroopers say "pewpewpew!"

Nice Elbonian patch Bob

Cold War pipe Gats. I have never shot a closed bolt conversion that I was impressed with. The open bolt design lockup is just better handling but always a bit of a surprise after the trigger pull. Thanks Bloke and Chap for taking us to the range. And congrats Bloke for the new pew.

One of the few SMGs that I would own if I could, can’t afford the price in US.

Why do they look so rotten in the thumbnail.

Have you ever thought of installing a red dot sight on these Sterlings? I’m sure that you and the Chap should be able to design a decent adapter to use the perfs on the barrel to mount a piece of Picatinny rail so a dot coukd be mounted??? Aesthetics and history ignored it might make an interesting comparison to the modern 9MM carbines.

Very interesting. I bought my wife a machine gun experience fir her 50th. One of the guns was a Sterling. On that day, a significant percentage of the cartridges were going off out of battery (enough so that the cases were exploding and bits were jamming up the works). I can only assume it had something to do with primer hardness because the cartridges were dropping into the chamber correctly when we tried to diagnose the issue. When I say a significant percentage, I mean something over 25%. So I would agree that in the Sterling advanced primer ignition is possible.

Watch the assault of Piz Gloria in the film On His Majesty's Secret Service to see the Sterling SMG in its full glory.

Where did you get that Elbonian patch?

Phf... Those are clearly patterned after a Stormtrooper's standard issue E-11 Blaster. I don't know they managed to do this decades before the movie came out. But clearly they did it somehow. Time travel probably.

Looking forward to the eventual nerdy vid on testing the API thing. It would be good to see some high speed video of the bolt closing on a live round vs a dummy. That ought to be definitive, right? If API you should see the bolt begin to slow down before it fully closes... accellerometer data will be super interesting too.

Love the way the stock is designed and the finish is badass too!

Great comparison guys looking forward too the strip down in the workshop ❤

Nice vid. Since one use a annular hammer and sear the other does not they are not the same trigger function. I have a wise lite sterling sporter (mk6 clone 16") fun to shoot. annoying to clean.

I've always loved the E11 blaster. Too bad they are terribly inaccurate.

👍🏿

Open bolt has to stop and reverse the momentum of the bolt, closed bolt is a blowback from a no momentum position hence a more snappy cyclic rate ?