STEN: How Bad Was the Cheapest Gun of WW2?

Play World of Warships here: wo.ws/3DLsG6Y
Thank you World of Warships for sponsoring this video.
During registration use the code FIRE to get for free:
200 Doubloons
1M Credits
Tier 5 - USS Texas
20x Restless Fire Camouflage
7 Days Premium Account
The promo code is only for new players during the registration.
****************
As promised today I'm covering the technology of the STEN gun, its pros and cons, evaluating accuracy, and covering a bit of history not only of the gun in general, but of the two specimens I had to work on.
A special thanks goes to Michelangelo Neri Orliani for helping in the making of this project
If you can and want to help me making videos like this, you can directly support me on Patreon:
/ backyardballistics
with your help, I can keep making educational content without having to give up my freedom of speech to the advertiser's needs.

[@Backyard.Ballistics]

Play World of Warships here: wo.ws/3DLsG6Y Thank you World of Warships for sponsoring this video. During registration use the code FIRE to get for free: 200 Doubloons 1M Credits Tier 5 - USS Texas 20x Restless Fire Camouflage 7 Days Premium Account The promo code is only for new players during the registration.

[@ttjbiggunner2025]

It's been 5 days where's the video

[@moe.moe.codgamer5125]

Bro you forgot something. How can you test an old made gun in 2020? Of course it got rusty and the materials got old. I don't think a brand new one would have all of these disadvantages, sure it will have many disadvantages but not similar to the one you are testing.

[@jaxonbulter4864]

its probibley not smart to hold a sten mk2 by the mag

[@QuizmasterLaw]

This is the most clever tie-in of the channel theme to the sponsor (WoW) that I've ever seen. Good work!

[@QuizmasterLaw]

i'm assuming the maximum effective range is oh about 50m

[@felixguilbeault6329]

Our first lesson with the STEN was memorable. Our Sgt said, "select auto, toss it into a room you wish to clear and slam the door. Grenades are safer."

[@philosophicaltool5469]

Epic comment with epic advice is epic.

[@redcatmat]

😂

[@misterkaos.357]

And that is how the Nightingale was created.

[@circleshape388]

Lol

[@fangospucklovesveena464]

@@philosophicaltool5469 were you a DI in a past life? Humor like that deep up in the Corps, er, um u got crayons?

[@REXOB9]

I really appreciated "as comfortable as riding a bike without a seat"!!! This is a very clear description of the STEN, its design, and its function. Thanks.

[@AdamosDad]

I feel the same way about my KSG, holding your hand that close to the muzzle and getting kicked like a mule.

[@karlstuck6772]

You know the worth, you have for the bosses, when they send you to war with such an inferior weapon.

[@aceboogie8959]

😂

[@ISwearMyNameIsJohn]

That's because it's using the tube stock if you use the wire stock it's much better

[@USS-SNAKE-ISLAND]

@@karlstuck6772 Dunno what you're talking about. England had little money and an over-loaded industrial complex. The Sten put weapons into the field rapidly and in great numbers... and it killed Nazis... lots of Nazis. In a WORLD WAR you do the best you can with what you've got.

[@redsetteragain7112]

The Sten played a huge part in helping to win the war, very cheap and easy to manufacture in massive numbers. It re-armed the Brittish after Dunkirk and also armed resistance forces across Europe. It was never meant to be the finest weapon, but had a very important part to play.

[@frankmitchell3594]

I imagine that if you were being shot by a Sten, even at 50m, the inaccuracy of the shots would not be your first thought

[@nevillewran4083]

Only a tiny proportion of bullets from any weapon hit the target. Mainly they slowed advances, made soldiers duck & pause, etc. Part of a larger strategy.

[@julianshepherd2038]

​@@nevillewran4083 so it was "good enough" for war but not as a consumer product.

[@nevillewran4083]

@@julianshepherd2038 Lots of things had to be good enough in war. If you griped, you were hit with the "can do" reply. Saw the Small Arms Museum in Lithgow, Australia last week. Best I've visited. Shame we don't live in the 30s, when you could walk into a general store and buy a Thompson, fully automatic.

[@GuinessOriginal]

@@nevillewran4083 if you had the dough. Thompson’ s were about 2 grand when they came out, I think that’s about 40k in today’s money

[@nevillewran4083]

@@GuinessOriginal That price sounds about right. Not cheap. A fave movie scene is from "The Highwaymen", where Gault (Woody Harrelson) walks into a country gun store and loads his car with about a quarter of its total stock, including a couple of Thompson's. So if a Thompson was $2 thou then, I guess about $10-20 thou worth of guns & ammo. Then tells the owner to put it all on the government's tab.

[@fortunatoazzara]

1:00 actually the British were buying a ton of Thompson guns in the early war period, the problem is that they were horrifically expensive and they were buying them with gold and silver reserves that were needed for more important war projects (building factories, ships, airfields ect)

[@Simon_Nonymous]

Quite so... the urgent need for weapons to replace those lost in the Battle of France plus to allow expansion of the armed forces to face German invasion meant that the STEN was very good value for money when it was created.

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszykiewic3338]

Yeah, the British were initially meant to use the Lanchester As their SMG, but the army decided that they didn’t need to produce any because they assumed the Thompson would be enough to equip their entire army ( P.S , this would be the most expensive logistical mistake the British army would make in the entire war)

[@Simon_Nonymous]

All three assertions are quite wrong...

[@fortunatoazzara]

@@Simon_Nonymous expand

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszykiewic3338]

@@Simon_Nonymous “ all three assertions are wrong “ - proceeds to not explain why any of them wrong

[@jackthebassman1]

When I was about nine, my dad drove a lorry for a local scrap metal company, who shipped in a load of World War Two scrap and brought home a disabled sten gun. We painted a piece of wood black for a magazine and my brother and I ran around with it, how we were never stopped by the police I’ve no idea. One thing for certain, we were well respected by our “colleagues”.

[@alexm566]

Simple times...

[@NiSiochainGanSaoirse]

how old are you jack? or more importantly, what year was this?

[@jackthebassman1]

@@NiSiochainGanSaoirse I was around 10 at the time, I’m 75 now. That would have been around 1957

[@RealLifeZatoichi]

Damn. If only! I remember running around with bb guns shooting the shit out of each other with my brother and my friends crying about it, doing it again anywyas cuz we're dumb.

[@alanmacification]

My father fought in Sicily, Italy, and Holland. He had been issued a Thompson SMG like the rest of the 8th Army. Some of the American paratroopers of the 82nd had been issued the new M3 " grease gun ". They preferred the Thompson so a lot of Canadians traded their worn-out 8th Army recycled Thompsons for the paratrooper's brand new M3's. When they were moved to Holland, they were rearmed with STEN's

[@danielgreen3715]

What soldiers really liked about the sten gone was the fact that you could fire it from a really low position and thus not give yourself away as easily fired in 3 round Bursts it was effective if cleaned regularly. I love the fact that these were found in a cellar and just cleaned up

[@ericb2501]

Their low-cyclic rate made them easy to shoot & not wasteful of ammo.

[@garryej]

My cousin has a farm in the Dordognes, FR. He has never found a sten gun but he frequently gets "treasure hunters" knocking on his door asking about Sten guns as, it seems, during WW2, this area was a favourite spot for the allies to drop materiel for the resistance.

[@dougmoreton9416]

We trained on the STEN and the proper way to hold it was magazine on the forearm, hand palm down on the barrel guard, fire from the hip. It was meant for the resistance thus the 9mm caliber. Accuracy was never a consideration, and never single shot. Basically you sprayed the area or room for maximum effect. At the time, a factory just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada manufactured them for $2.36 CDN. It was never intended to be sophisticated or pretty, and if it didn't jam, it was effective.

[@royporter4232]

I entirely agree with you. I used the Sten Mark 4 in the '50s and was trained to spray in bursts of 4. I never used the sights.

[@ozdavemcgee2079]

Yes it was very very cheap, therefore effective. We made them in Australia. But greatly improved the AUSTEN. Crossed wires, the attitude was if we show the poms we made it better they will be happy lol. Instead of realising it was meant to be nasty and cheap lol. We also made an Owen gun. Same principle except mag on top and improved action to stop jamming with mud dirt etc. Great gun. But same same jump out of the back of a truck brrrrt empty mag. Dunno if Canada had them we had a F1, used L1A1 Lower. Looked cool but if wont penetrate a wet well blanket at 40m lol

[@GG-qo4qo]

@@ozdavemcgee2079 Was the Owen gun used in 'nam by the Ossies would be interested to know ?

[@MarkGoding]

@@GG-qo4qo it was , but mainly by radio operators.

[@kbjerke]

I own one of those two dollar Long Branch STENs. Have shot it on occasion, but only as a novelty and in appreciation of its precious history. My Dad carried one in WWll. CDN 2nd Anti Tank Regiment. RIP, Dad.

[@blackittysamurai]

My dad dumped the sten gun he was issued as a sergeant in the Royal Army Service Corps, and picked up a captured German MP40 which he carried through Holland til the end of the war.

[@ssherrierable]

So your dads about 100 years old now right? How old are you?

[@pierreo33]

@@ssherrierable never said he was alive. dog brain.

[@blackittysamurai]

@@ssherrierable he is passed now, I am 63.

[@moonman6359]

@@blackittysamuraimy grandfather had an MP44. But they issued it to him. ; )

[@normanpearson8753]

Moonman, did he get the Iron Cross?

[@skilletpan5674]

I like the mix of history and technical because usually the history helps you understand the technical decisions. This was a good video.

[@dylanwight5764]

"How bad was the Sten?" Answer: Pretty darn good actually. Especially for something that was designed to be churned out in their thousands every month. It was no worse than any other tube gun of the period and arguably more suited to its purpose than some. Being inexpensive to produce does not make it unreliable to use. If anything, the engineering work on the Sten is nothing short of phenomenal. That the British managed to create an effective and reliable design with minimal tooling using established pre-war civil industry is truly remarkable. Just like the M4 and T34 tanks were built on existing production lines often using commercially available components, the Sten gun represents the best use of Britain's cottage workshop industry expanded to a national scale. It was the right gun at the right time. And it did its job admirably. Also worth noting is that the quality of the Sten improved as the war went on. Better stocks were introduced, machining improved and the main springs lasted longer.

[@peterthepeter7523]

Not putting in any way to hold the gun and not setting the sights properly from factory and having no way to adjust them to hit the point of aim barely reduce the cost but defeat the point of even having a gun. It's just an utter failure on part of it's designers and government officials who tested it. Imagine making a hammer with no handle (let's imagine user can't make it on his own) and calling it pretty darn good and effective just because it's marginally cheaper.

[@PsilocybinCocktail]

@@peterthepeter7523 1) Hold by magazine well. 2) "Sights" on a close-quarter weapon that is not a rifle? 3) Lots of dead Germans shake their heads

[@Russinh0]

The 41-43 T-34 Tanks was made for "Wave Attacks" that you put more tanks than the enemy had and do a massive attack, this T-34 Tanks was really bad in Quality and big part was destroyed, in 43-44 the T-34 was upgrated to the T-34-85 with more quality and used specialy to Destroy enemy tanks so they're better

[@mikedunn7795]

Read somewhere that Stens produced in Canada were more reliable.

[@dylanwight5764]

@@Russinh0 The design philosophy behind the T-34 was that it is inappropriate wasting time, effort and material constructing a component that will last six months when the tank will be out of action in only five. Moreover, at the time the T-34 first entered service, Germany possessed little effective way to beat it. Hence the _emergency_ development of the 88mm AA gun into an anti-tank weapon. Like the Sten, it was the right weapon at the right time. Of _course_ it soon became outclassed as Russia's enemy geared up specifically to combat that tank. Don't confuse what I'm saying with thinking that I am not acknowledging the flaws in these weapons, but they were well designed for the _purpose_ they were required to fulfill. If something meets the presented criteria, it is a good design. The FG-42 was a complex and temperamental weapon but it was well designed considering the purpose(s) it had to fill.

[@timgosling3076]

I used to have a Sterling SMG as my personal weapon so I’m reasonably au fait with how it and the Sten behaved. First, neither the Thompson or the Sten were considered an alternative to the 303. The Sten was developed as a cheap, mass-producible, close-in weapon. It’s basically an automatic pistol with a longer barrel. Think of it that way and it makes more sense and going for single aimed shots at 50 metres was definitely not its intended use. House clearance at 5 to 10 metres was more it’s forte. Remember it only used a pistol round! The torque reaction on full automatic took some getting used to and the potential for stoppages and unintended discharge was as bad as you say. By the way, my memory may be faulty but the return spring on your weapon (originally manufactured by a bed spring company) looks like it’s allowing the moving parts to go a long way back. A stronger spring might improve things🙂

[@himoffthequakeroatbox4320]

They showed the design to a Triang, a company who made toysin peacetime. They asked why it was so complicated. The ministry had already simplified it (or so they thought).

[@alastairbarkley6572]

@@himoffthequakeroatbox4320 Triang - beloved of all post WW2 boys as a maker of electric model trainsets. I had a Triang variable voltage PSU/transformer with overload cut out - 1950s era - as part of my trains. It did sterling service in my home electronics workshop for more than 50 years!

[@Great_Sandwich]

I've also used the Sterling. FAR more accurate than the Sten, as it was a more finely crafted weapon. Consider it an upgraded Sten.

[@simononeill5300]

Bonkers mate. Makes you think though, even today the SA80 isn't what they call a reliable bull pup and it asks the question "Why does the British government not want to spend money on decent reliable weapons for the troops? " Fair do's ww2 was a different time and a foot soldiers weapon wasn't usually a sten.

[@ThamMalaysia]

Two rounds from a dropped UNCOCKED Sterling hit a soldier's neck. The Malaysian army dumped it after countless accidents.

[@TeHo672]

Thank you for the video. I've seen lots of photos of STEN guns over the years but never seen one stripped down before and had their mechanism explained. In the 60s I worked with German man who had been captured in North African, put in a pow camp in the UK and liked it so much he stayed on after the war ended. He told me a lot of stories about his wartime experiences but the best one was that because all of the German armaments were made to such tight tolerances they would jam as soon as any sand got in them. At every opportunity they would throw these away and use anything they captured from the Allies, including STENs, because the sand had no effect on them. I found this quite amusing, and it shows that high quality machined parts are not always the best.

[@georgiaoni6101]

“You wicked piece of vicious tin! Call you a gun? Don’t make me grin. You’re just a bloated piece of pipe. You couldn’t hit a hunk of tripe. But when you’re with me in the night, I’ll tell you, pal, you’re just alright!”

[@android4219]

A friend of mine used a Sten gun as his personal weapon from D+6 right through to the end of the war. His job was driving a Bren gun carrier, pulling a trailer carrying shells to the front areas for the Royal artillery. He was also a armourer. He told me that the Sten saved his life on numerous occasions. It was his favourite weapon. Sadly he’s no longer with us, but I remember fondly listening to his stories of the war..

[@snowflakemelter1172]

This never happened.

[@Finglesham]

@@snowflakemelter1172 People did actually take part in WW2. My father did. L/Bdr 13th Royal Horse Artillery. He never mentioned the sten but did the .303 rifle. But his regiment obviously used heavier weapons. I am 74 , he was 31 when called up. WW2 was not long ago you know., people have memories, accurate ones.

[@gordenrussell7266]

Please tell us all these stories.

[@iainansell5930]

@@snowflakemelter1172 it were only 15 years ago, i used to frequent a pub, where 2 airmen who flew hurricanes in the battle of britain, drank at the time..

[@twinsonic]

@@snowflakemelter1172 you never left your mother's basement. Come back when you achieved something in life.

[@langleyj8199]

The Sten like the Sterling had a purpose. It’s worked for its intended purpose. It’s blow back design of course caused in accurate single shots. But this use was rare. This smg like the Sterling was intended to be small, light, easy to clean, would fire when filled with mud, water, etc which are important points. It was taken on recce patrols where soldiers were trying not to be seen. If they were seen, the Sten was great for spraying many rounds to get away. There are other important points but I don’t want to write a book.

[@doogleticker5183]

MGs typical fire in bursts of 3 to 5 rounds.

[@martamatavka]

It was a piece of shit. End of discussion.

[@michaelmcknight3639]

@@martamatavka OK

[@dante666jt]

@@martamatavka 🤣

[@GhostHacker55]

@@doogleticker5183 Belt feds and assault rifles absolutely. Gen 2 subguns had a different use. The point was to be a cheap bullet hose that you used to fill the air with lead at relatively close range.24moa single shot accuracy is acceptable when your engagement distance is 25yds (6in spread) and you're probably ripping off at least half a mag. Also these were frequently used by resistance forces. They can always use shitty guns in ambushes to steal better weapons from the enemy.

[@liampaterson3424]

We fired these along with SMLE Mk4s and Bren guns when I was a cadet in the 1970s. Pretty reliable and easy to use although the instructors always made the STENS safe after any firing in case we dropped them and discharged a round.

[@SingularNinjular]

You answered all the questions I'd had about the Sten. Thank you for the very in-depth and interesting video!

[@Dsdcain]

Nice to see you got them both back to firing condition. Very well done considering their age, and the condition you started with. Thanks for sharing this video.

[@alanmacification]

I was trained on the Sterling SMG. If you had to aim, the target was too far away. At 15 meters you could get a 6in group but on full auto from the hip the group was the size of a man's torso.

[@wyattnyfeler7270]

6 inch group at that range is terrible even for a submachine gun

[@m2kewl]

Hip fire was a nightmare! I remember experts advise me to press the weapon with my elbow and hip in counteracting directions to make it stable,, plus, the sling adjusted

[@m2kewl]

@@wyattnyfeler7270 That's the max u can achieve with the SMC

[@Genghis-Khan121]

Our Sargent said he was shot in the back of his neck with the sterling smg showed us the scars, it was useless, you couldn’t kill a fkn cow at 10 yards

[@thefreedomguyuk]

@@wyattnyfeler7270 Agree. Coffee mugs are the standard on that range

[@Lord.Kiltridge]

I was trained on the STEN successor, the Stirling. One of the things not mentioned here is how it uses Advanced Primer Ignition. Illustrated here at the 6:17 mark. (Best seen at 0.25X speed.) The cartridge is ignited before it is fully pushed into the chamber by the bolt. The generated gas not only has to push the bullet out of the barrel, it needs to stop the forward momentum of the bolt completely before it can push the bolt backwards. This means that the bolt and recoil spring can be much lighter than if it was using straight blowback.

[@SuperDkMode]

We confiscated many guns while in Baghdad. The one that always stuck with me was a Sten we picked during a traffic control point. We were pretty amazed because no one in the platoon had seen one in person. So we created a mock gun range and took turns firing it. It’s a horrible weapon, but I rather have a Sten than nothing.

[@mikeycraig8970]

Are you sure it wasn't a Sterling? I've seen lots about those turning up in Iraq.

[@SuperDkMode]

@@mikeycraig8970 100% certain.

[@MBkufel]

Look for chisel marks on the barrels (near the muzzle). When assembling, these should be pointing upwards. That was the british way of ensuring that the barrel is somewhat alligned and may help with accuracy.

[@edl617]

My uncle had one that he sold before the 1968 FEderal fairearms act. I remember watching it fired smooth as silk. My Uncle a gun smith had cleanup all the internal parts so the Sten gun worked flawlessly

[@alexanderhowarth6460]

What about the magazine?

[@mclaine33]

Damn what a shame he sold it. There was a true amnesty period and had he kept it and registered it, it would be fully transferable and worth a lot of money nowadays.

[@billblair3941]

I fired my friend's STEN on full automatic. He told me not to grip the magazine, like they do in the movies, and to grip the forepiece. The gun was in excellent condition and had Long Branch stamped on the receiver which refers to the Long Branch Factory where it was produced during WWII.

[@mvd4436]

Is it as comfortable as a bike without a seat ?

[@pe.bo.5038]

Canadian Stens and mags had a much better reputation!

[@alanmacification]

My mother worked at the Long Branch factory during the war. she worked on the draw bench putting the rifling in Bren barrels.

[@luxbeci2]

@@alanmacification Yours mother repaired and made sten maschine guns?

[@17MrLeon]

funny enough the holding magazine was the reason why it failed to fire in assasination of Reinhard Heydrich

[@shubhojitghosh69]

The scouts( specifically raised to fight in high altitude) of Indian army still use Sten due to its ruggedness and durability. In the western borders especially in swamp areas Sten is still in service.

[@kaliyuga1476]

Says a lot about how bad the indian army is

[@MsArjun1111]

These have been replaced completely.

[@cyrilsingh3465]

Sir, stens are no longer used by the forces. Some select units use the sterling 9 mm auto carbine. Perhaps you got confused between the two.

[@cyrilsingh3465]

@@kaliyuga1476 sir what is your nationality,if I may ask?

[@cyrilsingh3465]

Sir, I am an Indian.

[@integza]

That gun seems like something I would design #barelyworks

[@Backyard.Ballistics]

don't be so harsh on yourself🤣

[@phileas007]

I'd like to see you 3d-print one in 22lr

[@pa1855]

@@phileas007 good way to get canceled on twitter. It would be dope tho

[@ozdavemcgee2079]

@@phileas007 its been done in minituare in Taiwan preproduction proof of concept 25 or 32 maybe? Forgotton weapons. Forget 22. How about 12gauge lol

[@pebo8306]

Simplicity,that works takes ingenuity!!!! So,no,You could definitely not have designed that gun!!!!

[@grahamgottard]

I often fired one of these guns when in territorial army. They were light, easy to reload, surprisingly accurate over short range and not at all uncomfortable to fire. A very successful gun, and a popular gun with British soldiers.

[@joostprins3381]

2 meter I believe?

[@1stSwadla]

so popular, they threw it in the gutter the first time it came in.

[@panzerivausfg4062]

So successful that it jammed the exact second it had to kill Reinhard...

[@thepolishdinosaur9015]

@@panzerivausfg4062 that was because the dude put veggies for his pet rabbit in the same bag with the disassembled sten, probably the one case where it wasnt the guns fault

[@panzerivausfg4062]

@@thepolishdinosaur9015 Still, the STEN was not a good gun. It was of course the easy, cheap option for Britain during the war but it didn't prove itself. The original comment claims "it was popular amongst the British soldiers" Yeah, about that, it wasn't at all, they hated it, and they threw it away most of the times for Lee Enfields Imagine an SMG being so bad that the soldier replace it with a bolt action rifle...

[@normmcrae1140]

My Dad was with the Canadian Army in Italy, but he was a Tanker - but he did use the Sten. He told me that the accuracy was about the same as a 3-year old with a slingshot - and the best way to hit a target was to hold the trigger and wave it in the general direction of what you want to hit. NO accuracy at all! But it could clear a room in a few seconds! The Canadians Famously used them for "Mouseholing" - room to room and house to house clearing in urban areas - especially in Ortona in Italy.

[@thefreedomguyuk]

Tell your dad that he really ought to have learned to shoot his weapon. Because his story is BS.

[@normmcrae1140]

@@thefreedomguyuk Stuff it yourself - I've heard the same thing from MULTIPLE WW2 Vets, and found basically the same thing when I fired the Stirling - they are NOT made for accuracy. BTW - My Dad had a MUCH more accurate weapon that wasn't his sidearm - the gun of a Sherman tank.

[@pe.bo.5038]

@@normmcrae1140 If YOU had the same problem with the Sterling,it's clearly a genetic disorder within your family!

[@VillageTechnologies]

@@normmcrae1140 When I was 17 I was a reservist with the 7th Toronto Artillery. I remember we spent an afternoon at the range at Borden and we got to use a Sten. The paper target was 15 feet away. I think a few of us hit it. We were all pretty young but then again, your dad and his colleagues would have been young as well. The gun was fabulous for what it was designed to do and the conditions under which it was designed.

[@ryanrodrigues5355]

I gotta give this channel credit. I love the content, I love the information and how EFFICIENT the narration is given that it's probably his second language. But one thing that probably flies under the radar is how slick his transitions to the sponsor are! 🤣 You keep making them, I'll keep watching them!

[@91zaap]

I really enjoy the gun restoration videos. They're awesome. My grandfather was in the resistance and had a sten as well. After the war he hid the weapon inside of a wall and forgot about it. One day he and my grandma were going to church and my (about 8-10 y.o) father and my uncle stayed at home. When my grandpa came back he found the boys playing with the sten outside. They had no idea wat they were playing with lol

[@Nerobyrne]

Damn, in just 2 generations the kids didn't even recognize a gun when they saw one. Brings a tear to my eye

[@intelchip_x86]

@@Nerobyrne it IS a shit gun, after all

[@doronstauber7285]

With all due respect, function over form = Sten. For what it cost, for how quickly they could be mass produced, I think the Sten was an absolute marvel.

[@Angrybogan]

Like the T34 tank

[@acosorimaxconto5610]

unless your life depends on it... it was rubbish up against German sub-machine guns, and retarded compared to American and Russian SMGs. Some marvel!

[@oceanhome2023]

The Italians had a wide range of barely functional SMGs , the first one used to kill Mussolini jammed after some Italian cuss words another one worked just fine

[@donaldgoodinson7550]

My uncle who fought in Burma would beg to differ.Said it was the worst gun ever made.

[@SlavicCelery]

@@oceanhome2023 The Italian forces had some of the best and worst SMG/MG designs simultaneously.

[@SouthOfSanity79]

Thank you for the video. Very informative. I would love to get my hands on one of those to add to my collection of Cheerios and relics. Now I see why they call it the grease gun. Definitely would never want that as my primary weapon unless I had no choice. I mean I guess it's better than no gun.. but not by much.

[@toshsimpkin4386]

You could've mentioned the sling; where it attached near the barrel, you could grip that instead of resting the stock on your forward hand. You could also adjust the sling length so it was tight around your left elbow; the grip and the sling around the elbow allowed you to pull the gun tighter into the shoulder.

[@PsyVen]

Excellent presentation. I've always been interested in this weapon, and learned a lot from your video.

[@cranegantry868]

Excellent and thorough description of the weapon. Thank you.

[@allegrofantasy]

Very well presented video with lots of useful and practical information. Tx.

[@lupusdeum3894]

Before my father joined the Canadian 1st Parachute Battalion in 1943, he worked at Long Branch Arsenal, then just outside of Toronto, Ontario where he lived. One thing he told me was the barrel had a tendency to work itself loose while firing. That did not stop him from the collecting parts to assemble his own gun to practice with before he went into actual military training.

[@GhastlyH]

You can see a lot of interesting similarities and differences between the Sten and the Sterling SMG that replaced it (and I carried when I served as an artillery command post technician in the Canadian Forces in the 80s).

[@BigLisaFan]

L,oved the Sterling. Never got a chance to try a Sten what with them having been out of service for many years.

[@ThamMalaysia]

That's why a dropped UNCOCKED Sterling fired two rounds into man's neck. The Malaysian army dumped it.

[@Rudeljaeger]

Oh wow the MALAYSIAN army. Did they also drop donkeys and moved on to cars? Did the drop smoke signals and moved on to telephones?

[@thefreedomguyuk]

Similar mechanisms indeed.

[@ThamMalaysia]

@@Rudeljaeger Go back to IRC chatrooms and chat Pokemon with kindergarten kids.

[@DissidentB]

Dude, you're aware that most Sten guns have a tiny little dimple or mark on the barrel to help you align it with the sights on the receiver and barrel nut, right? They were all sighted in and marked accordingly at the factory so that the barrel can be twisted to the correct alignment with the sights and produce a somewhat consistent zero for the iron sights, Bloke On The Range goes into great detail about this and demonstrates the procedure on his video about the Sten, go check it out!

[@BobSmith-dk8nw]

9x19mm STEN Mk.2 machine carbine / SMG at a rather optimistic 100m kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3uXk6aQnLGCb9U .

[@chrheca]

btw, the seatless bikjes shown @5:10, are bikes used for stunts. The seat is removed so the rider has an uninpeded space between the legs so they can freely move and lock in different positions to help balance the bike during the stunts. Also when doing stunts you generally don't sit anyway as standing up on the pedals gives you more accuracy with your movements

[@hrxy1]

excellent vid, very well explained with excellent descriptive concise English, ty

[@rogerthomson9461]

Really good video. My uncle ( armourer British army ww2 ) said the sten was partly invented because the British captured literally millions of rounds of 9mm from the Italians in North Africa in 1940 and put that together with a mass produced gun as a doomsday weapon in case the Germans invaded. Literally if one German soldier was killed for every sten it would be a win . Desperate days

[@ethelmini]

That's a point particularly worth making on this video. Italy "gifted" the ammo it was designed to fire, which made it even more suitable for dropping to the resistance as the Germans were able to donate even more.

[@christopher8022]

Correct at the commencement of hostilities there was no strategy to field a sub machine for British soldiers. However as the war progressed and the nature of engagement became obviously different to that envisaged, an SMG became a topic. at about the same time some 10 million 9mm rounds were captured in north africa from an italian logistics depot. the rest is history.

[@vgnlda]

This seems a little improbable to me. I'm Italian and I happen to know a little about our weapons in WW2. Italians at the time had just one rare and very coveted 9mm weapon in line in the Africa colonies, the MAB 38 submachine gun, which was destined to the Colonial Police, because the 9mm caliber was deemed not usable in infantry fights (silly, I know, that's why we lost - morons in command). All the colonial police ordered only 2000 MAB 38 from Beretta, so it wasn't so common. In the Army, Navy and Air Force, 9mm use was confined to elite units. Italian service pistols were in 9mm short and 7,65mm (Beretta 34 and 35 guns), so incompatible with 9mm rounds. Another thing is that the italian round, being used only in submachine guns, was loaded really hot and had higher chamber pressure than the usual 9mm round issued for the other countries (m1938 9mm round). BTW, the MAB38, in his version MAB38A, is a serious contestant for the title of best SMG of the WWII.

[@Peorhum]

@@vgnlda yeah, I have my doubts to that too. You don't put a gun into mass production to be used in home defence and with plans to retake France, because of captured ammo in North Africa.

[@davidcollishaw2771]

It was German ww1 luger ammo, they had about four million rounds of it if memory serves.

[@corey8420]

Very much doubt Italy realized they were fighting on the wrong side in WWII, but rather they got their ass kicked and their big brother, Germany, was certainly going to loose the war. I'd be willing to venture if Italy had success in Africa, were able to defeat Greece and Germany were winning the war Italy would not have switched sides.

[@francocorrezzola4993]

A successful campaign in North Africa was almost impracticable... We always forgot that the top brass in the Italian army (specially the Italian royal Navy) were willing informants for the English intelligence Service... The highest ranks were 90 percent free masons (the Italian king included) and not favorable for Germans. Mussolini's son in law (Galeazzo Ciano) was really well introduced to London's high society and as soon he could (in 1943) he forced Mussolini to resign. The last was arrested but the Germans paratroopers and lt. Skorzeny helped him to evade from the mountain's prison on the gran Sasso... The rest of the story is well know... Galeazzo was killed by order of Hitler itself.. Rommel was well aware of it...

[@alganhar1]

@@francocorrezzola4993 Actually the top Italian Generals and Admirals were almost to a man criminally incompetent, most being political appointees. There were a few exceptions but most of them died early in the war. The impracticality of the war in North Africa however was not down to the things you mentioned but the cruel realities of Logistics and Economy. Italy had neither the logistics to sustain the effort, nor did it have the Industrial capacity to adequately equip their military with good quality modern weapons that were a match for those used by their opponents, and this is bearing in mind the somewhat iffy tank designs the British fielded early war! While Italy did design some good tanks and aircraft during the war they simply could not build them in the quantities they required. Rommel himself noted that the Italian soldier if given adequate equipment was as good as any German soldier, but their officers were almost all terrible.

[@corey8420]

@@francocorrezzola4993 that is an excuse for incompetence, Rommel himself said the Italian leadership were incompetent, but the troops showed a strong fighting spirit.

[@ToddSauve]

Malta fighter ace George Beurling said the Italian fighter pilots stuck around to fight while the Germans exited much sooner.

[@DrWhom]

if you learn to spell lose correctly, I might one day take you seriously

[@charlesflint9048]

Perhaps this gun could be described as a ‘spray gun’. At boarding school in the UK in the late ‘60s we had quite a good arsenal (I was on the school shooting team so we were shown the interesting stuff). One of the items we had was a Sten gun, sadly we never were given the opportunity to try it out. We were informed that it cost ten shillings to produce in the 1940s.

[@n0tk0sher]

All I know is it was one of my 'go to' guns in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Especially in clan matches.

[@mikehawk120]

Loved that game. Just like blood rein

[@vladib.6834]

same here

[@Erikcleric]

Yeah! I usually like mp40's in games more but in RtCW it felt a bit clunky. Sten was just awesome and that extra damage per bullet is a godsend! *Pjupp pjupp pjupp, psssschhh*

[@n0tk0sher]

@@Erikcleric lol. Love the sound effects. God I miss that.

[@craigfranklin5611]

I was deadly on top of beach bunker with it. Popping snipers on the left hand mountain with it, such fun. DSB. MightyMo

[@Mancada100]

It is funny how KZbin "gun experts" keep trying to apply peace-time-modern standards to WWII material, disregarding context and circunstances. The Sten was a gun designed to win a war not an exhibition contest. It was simple, cheap and fast to manufacture, easy to maintain and quite reliable. That is a winner for me. Even the US army got fed up with the overexpensive and overcomplicated Thompson and adopted the simpler and cheaper M3 Grease gun.

[@johnvannewhouse]

Yeah, fine sentiment, that....but IT AIN'T A GLOCK!

[@Peorhum]

@hognoxious considering both the sten and grease gun were used into the Korean war says it all. Both guns worked and did the job in trained hands, If not the commonwealth and US army would have dropped them like hot potatoes before the Korean war started.

[@robertmaybeth3434]

The Stench gun (what some squaddies called it) was everything you said except it was NOT reliable. It was known for stoppages at the worst possible time, that were only aggravated by dirt and the heat of operation. The magazine was single stack, which caused excessive friction (every sub-gun you see today uses double stack design for that reason, they are far more reliable!). And a squaddie armed with a Sten, that got involved in any fire-fight that lasted longer than a minute was in big trouble. Being it was all metal, you got maybe one full magazine to fire through a Sten then it's going to be literally too hot to hold (the MP38/40 and the MP44 had the same problem).

[@roosterbooster6238]

They covered the historical context.

[@mattsmedley.onehandedgamin9029]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qoGqm6ifj7mogaM

[@billytheearthworm573]

I remember training with the M3 45cal ACP Machine gun in the US Army, we had as Tank crewmen. Simple engineering, simple operation, very practical! It was called "Grease-Gun", probably because our tool to grease our Tanks had that similar shape, and metal construction? I served eight years MOS's 11e, 19e, 11b during the so-called cold War days. Normally only 1911 45ACP Pistol re-familiarity training once every year was arranged at Battalion levels. Training on Greese Guns, LAW'S, and Hand Grenades were up to the training Budget. In my service days I was assigned to five different unit groups. And out of those 5, only two of those units had more concerns for the units readiness using these type of weapons, other than practice with the 1911 45acp, and annual tank main vehicle weaponry. I imagine back in WW2 it was OJT, you think! Spray & Pray is not practical with machine Guns! Inexperienced gunners WASTE alot of Cartridges without hitting enough numbers of their intended targets to JUSTIFY using it, unless their targets are within close range. There is a TACTICAL purpose for Suppressive Fire, like a special group trying to DD out of the hot zone. But, unless you are trained up fully on automatic weaponry, when a individual is put in the pucker-factor situation... well, Panicked stricken individuals, will go ape on the trigger!

[@Backyard.Ballistics]

Thanks for sharing your story!😉

[@mikewebber7553]

The barrels when not always hardened, they where often issued a with cheaper easier to make " soft " barrels designed to last only 1 magazine. Get the serial, number of this one and check its history.

[@Gameprojordan]

Your last statement is exactly why the m16a2 went to semi and burst unlike the m16a1 being full auto and semi: GIs with little training would extinguish their entire ammo reserve in a few minutes when firing haphazardly in full auto into the vietnamese jungle with their m16a1s

[@sergeantbigmac]

​@@Gameprojordan FYI that was the M16A3 and it was a short lived experiment because mainly A) Weirdly enough the 3 round burst sear had a 'memory' of sorts. Meaning each round stacked and if you let off the trigger before the full burst fired an unexpected number of rounds would fire on the next burst. Theres a deeper explanation of the mechanics but thats basically what happened. Its not good feeling like youre not in control of your firearm. And B) it was simply a poor subpar replacement to actually properly training soldiers in the use of full auto to begin with.

[@Gameprojordan]

@@sergeantbigmac nah dude the m16a3 was a full auto variant of the a2 that was used in small numbers for a short time by the navy (notably the Seabee and SEALs units). They wanted to upgrade their m16a1s to m16a2s to make use of the improved 5.56 ammunition that was released alongside the improved A2, but also wanted to keep the full auto firing mode of the A1 for the ability to pump rounds down range as fast as possible at enemy boats and such out in the waters, so they modified the a2 to have full auto instead of burst, which became the a3. It was never really an official replacement to the a2, moreso a sub variant of it only issued in small numbers to specific units within the navy branch. The m16a4 officially replaced the m16a2 in the mid 1990s as the standard issue rifle and kept the burst fire. Only recently with the m4a1 carbine becoming standard issue did the US military finally ditch the burst fire mode and replace it with full auto for their standard issue service rifle

[@JAVTROOPER]

This is the most educational weapon video I've ever watched. Thanks

[@tasmedic]

With open sights you get a clearer sight picture if you keep both eyes open when aiming, as this helps the pupil to constrict and give a better depth of focus. It also means you get a fighting chance of spotting anyone approaching you. Screwing your eyes up isn't as much of a problem with telescopic sights, but it's still a good idea to try and maintain as much awareness of your environment as possible. I got the opportunity to fire a sten in the 1970's. It felt like I was holding a metal tube with a 2 pound ball bearing bouncing around inside it. Impossible to aim, and probably pretty useless unless you have 3 or 4 mates with you doing the same thing at the same time!

[@pe.bo.5038]

Thousands of dead Germans would tend to disagree!🤔

[@Selfency]

The iron sights for the Sten in particular is notoriously terrible, I can understand this man closing one eye- a lot of focus is required to see through and center it.

[@richdetlaff-5983]

typical English garbage... did the British make anything in WW2 that wasn't garbage.. of course united states supplied them with everything... including men to die for a war they started

[@Nooziterp1]

It wasn't meant to be accurate. It was a close-quarter weapon as submachine guns were meant to be. If you want accuracy use a rifle.

[@modelnutty6503]

yup, short range little lawnmower.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

And yet the most successful SMG is considered by many to be the MP5, precisely because of its smooth delayed action and accurate closed bolt firing. Something not meant to be accurate benefits greatly from being accurate anyway. Cheap tube SMGs have been outclassed while the MP5 still lives on even in the age of short barreled rifles.

[@alexrobertson1472]

@@ChucksSEADnDEAD an expensive smg released 25 years later was better? well i never.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

@@alexrobertson1472 Thanks for misrepresenting what I said. My point isn't that the MP5 is better, my point is that when better SMGs became possible thanks to technology, almost everyone ditched the tube SMGs. So the claim that SMGs are meant to be garbage is obviously wrong. They were just a product of their time. When something better came along, suddenly dozens of countries wanted to adopt this quality product. And even when HK themselves tried to make a cheaper replacement, the UMP, it wasn't as successful as the MP5 and many countries ordered new batches of MP5s to replace the old stocks rather than newer designs. I love how people on the internet always manage to make up a new argument nobody was trying to make and then argue against it and do a victory dance. Thanks bud, but that's not where the conversation was going.

[@PsilocybinCocktail]

@@ChucksSEADnDEAD Not sure I follow here. " My point isn't that the MP5 is better," "And yet the most successful SMG is considered by many to be the MP5". What am I missing? Not being snarky, genuinely puzzled.

[@EricDaMAJ]

The Brits were sensible to want “gangster guns” and the US before the Pearl Harbor attack was a willing seller. The real problem was the Thompson Submachine Gun was insanely expensive, costing about $10,000 in today’s money. You had to be a gangster to afford one. The Sten was garbage by comparison but could be made at a fraction of the price. Even the US adjusted Thompson Gun manufacturing to make it cheaper then went to the Sten analog Grease Gun as soon as it could.

[@flavortown3781]

I'd much rather a sten to a Thompson, soley for the weight, I can carry more 9mm than 45, the sten is also 3lbs lighter itself

[@aaronkuminski3743]

They didn't want Thompsons at first because they were ganster guns until Germany laid the smg smack down in 1940

[@jamesguitar7384]

The Stens after the first ones which had to be rushed were most certainly not garbage by comparison to the Thompson which also had it's own problems sometimes and genuinely cost the price of a house , each .

[@billynomates920]

or get the drop on a gangster who could afford one 🙂

[@aaronkuminski3743]

@@billynomates920 id love to see that 1st what weapon would attack a mobster who has a full auto smg with 1st and the best part is when his friends find you later trust me and they will pay for that info to find you after all id love to be at that show

[@alextv293]

Great Video, I’ve always been interested in the Sten

[@davidkurau7079]

Sten kits were sold through Shotgun News until fairly recently for about 50.00 with three mags. The receiver tube (needed cuts following a template) cost another $20.00. I went under how many folks completed them.

[@recycled3654]

I knew of one, they had purchased 10 kits with demilled receivers at $20 ea. They just wielded the receivers together and re-cut the safety notch. I got to fire it, great ammo burner. I couldn't hit much. Needed a lot more practice, but was a lot of fun.

[@johnhodges8264]

You seem to have a weakened spring as the bolt travels much further back than I have seen in other videos of the sten firing, I think it even hits the back of the slot which mankes it recoil more than usual, as for accuracy see Hick45 shooting one on his utube channel and he does pretty good with it.

[@loquat44-40]

That also may depend on what loading the 9x19 parabellum cartridge is being used. The most dangerous load in an open bolt slam fire design is a load that does not drive the bolt past the sear. With those you get a run away gun that can only be stopped by dropping the mag or securing the bolt. At home for my glock I have loadings that for the 115 bullet that vary between about 1000 fps to about 1300 fps: standard, +P, and +P+. The 9mm nato load is said to be close to the +P is what I have read. Italy did at one time have a 9mm gilsenti cartridge that might not be capable of driving a sten gun bolt to the rear. The 9mm Glisenti is based on and is dimensionally identical to the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. However, the 9mm Glisenti has a smaller powder charge (reduced by 25% compared to the Parabellum), making it much decidedly less poweful. Fiocchi Munizioni occasionally produces batches

[@iainansell5930]

a bulged barrel is not going to do wonder for accuracy either..

[@TheCatBilbo]

When newer, properly maintained & with a trained user, the Sten was an excellent 'stop-gap' weapon. Later versions were better still. Many Allied troops & Resistance fighters valued it highly. Many engagements are at shorter range against a fleeting target, so rounds at target area are important: you just don't get the opportunity to carefully aim that often. Even misses have a suppressing effect & enough rounds might result in a hit.

[@gnpsbm]

Because they had very few alternatives

[@28pbtkh23]

@hognoxious - your comment deserves a thumbs up for humour.

[@Peorhum]

@hognoxious not sure many call it brilliant...just not calling it crap or a bad gun. It was designed for mass war time production when material and trained labour were in short supply, and it was designed to be easily made and maintained and used in less then ideal wartime conditions.

[@kennicholson388]

The Sten was my personal weapon in the Suez Canal Zone in 1953/4. Was easily taken to bits to get rid of the sand, which got everywhere, but you could easily damage your left hand fingers if you got hold of it wrongly and there were often accidents when someone had the butt on the floor of a truck and it fired, fortunately upwards as the truck went over a bump

[@BrutusAlbion]

how old are you?

[@SonofKiernan]

Fascinating. How did you like it? Did you wish you had something else?

[@TeddyBear-ii4yc]

That's a bit dangerous. Did the guys around him have a word?

[@MusMasi]

@@BrutusAlbion sounds like mid 80s at least

[@BrutusAlbion]

@@MusMasi He said and I quote ''The Sten was my personal weapon in the Suez Canal Zone in 1953/4'' 1953/4 indicates his time period when he used the sten ... bro that's nearly 70 years ago. Even considering that this guy had to have been 18 to do military service, he must be close to 90 years old by now. Somehow I don't think a grandpa of 90 is here on youtubez talking about his suez canal days using a sten gun. I could be wrong ... but ... ya know ... this sounds like a troll who played a video game and is recalling his glory days.

[@ArmadaAsesino]

I only just found this video but I really like the mix of history and technical information

[@Paladin1873]

You did a good job reviewing the STEN. It's been years since I last disassembled one, but one thing I recall, which might save some wear and tear on the barrel ratchet, is to rotate the magazine housing before you remove or install the barrel assembly. This should lift the ratchet off the threads while you screw or unscrew the barrel assembly. I used to own postwar STEN MK II that was built from a new tube and surplus parts. I found it to be light and controllable at 25 yards or less. A range of 50 meters would have been pushing it if fired from the shoulder, but every gun is different. I later acquired a short threaded barrel and mounted a silencer on it, but I had to use subsonic ammo to avoid a sonic crack. I briefly had a Lanchester SMG which was much heavier and more rugged. It was extremely soft shooting, but I would not want to lug one around all day.

[@terryjacob8169]

During his time in the LRDG, my old Dad's personal weapon of choice was either a Thompson or a 'liberated' Afrika Korps MP38

[@biggusdickus5986]

The German Schmiessers weren't bad either.

[@philiph6456]

@@biggusdickus5986 MP-40's were not Schmeissers......that was the marking on the magazines. The predecessor to the MP-38 and MP-40 was a "Schmeisser " designed by good old Hugo for Theodor Bergmann in 1918.

[@PeterCampbell-ce3um]

The follow on Sterling SMG was an awesome weapon. I cleaned these which were in the armoury collection but never fired one.

[@ColinH1973]

Excellent work. Thank you.

[@Nooziterp1]

Going back to this video I noticed there was one thing not mentioned - the double stack single feed magazine causing jams. Some users in WW2 used to get round this by loading 30 or 28 (the full capacity is 32) thus reducing the pressure on the top round. The German MP40 also used this type of magazine and had the same problem.

[@thomasforsyth4462]

The Indian Army modified the magazine, so it was a 19 round, single stack magazine. This was easier to load and did not jam.

[@Nooziterp1]

@@thomasforsyth4462 It may have been easier to load and less prone to jamming but 19 rounds wouldn't last long in combat.

[@thomasforsyth4462]

@@Nooziterp1 My M-16 in Vietnam used 20 round magazines. When the 30 round magazines arrived, they too used to jam. Have a good day, and let's recall all those who served but did not return.

[@Nooziterp1]

@@thomasforsyth4462 As with the dead in all wars.

[@reedwischhusen5376]

Yes, even the vigneron submachine gun had the same issues, 32 rounds but was loaded at 28 to stop jammings. as the mags are copies of the MP40.

[@dany1441]

I have fired the Sten and found it surprisingly easy to handle and shoot well.

[@201hastings]

Yeah but when you shoot it full auto and compare it to almost every single other smg ever made it really shows how bad it is

[@jetsons101]

Learn something new every day....... Short, sweet and to the point.....

[@milkapeismilky5464]

I've seen photos of interesting field expedient foregrips. My favorite was a box wrench simply bent to confirm to the rear of a STEN barrel shroud!

[@scammicus7110]

Excellent combination of technical weapons knowledge and historical context. Very engaging narrative style, and the visuals really enhance the points being made. Learned a lot from this. I used a Sterling as my personal weapon for a long time back in the 80's, you can really see the lineage. Well earned "Subscribe"!

[@georgegoodyear9631]

In regards to the inexpensive production costs of the Sten Gun, I remember being told at school in the mid-1960s that its price, in the 1940s, came to “thirty shillings” ( i.e. £1.50 or around 1.80 Euros). The probable lesson being: “You get what you pay for”.

[@LS1LE]

Fascinating gun! Great video! The gun looks like a bike without a seat!!

[@m2kewl]

I've used and fired the SMC (Sten Machine Carbine) till as late as 3years ago! Of course, it was modified to have a pistol grip,, but I distinctly remember having fired a Sten very similar to the ones featured around 25 yrs ago

[@thamirivonjaahri6378]

If anyone is interested in practical shooting of Sten or wants something for a cross-ref, I'd recommend to watch a video about Sten, or Brit SMGs from forgotten weps a.k.a. Gun Jesus.

[@Backyard.Ballistics]

His will be done

[@randallreed9048]

When judging the effectiveness of a weapon system, historian have learned to look towards logistics as the key indicator of utility and value to the military. In the world of AFVs, we now talk about the over-engineering of the German Pzkw-V and -VI. Most German panzers suffered from high cost, low production rates, and low MTBF. The Soviets, by contrast, were driving T-34/76 AFVs right out of the factory and into battle (Stalingrad). No smooth finishing, no pretty welds, no complex fire control systems. BUT, they had superior MTBF numbers and they could be repaired by peasant-soldiers IN THE FIELD. The German, meanwhile, were hobbled by major component failures and a shortage of spare parts (engines and trannys) that required panzers on the Eastern Front to ship disabled vehicles all the way back to Germany for depot-level repairs while the Russians were doing comparable repairs in the field. The Sten gun had many failings, but its one salient saving grace was its simplicity, low cost, availability, and its ability to be efficiently serviced by untrained partisans in the dark in some cold, wet cellar in France.

[@jameslukaszewicz2029]

The T34 straight from the factory fighting is a myth. Along with the welding story. Stalin demanded T34s be built. Problem was not a lot of Russians could weld such things. So welds were at important points. The tanks leaked water into the hulls. This affected ammo. The fuel tank had no protective bulkhead between it and the crews. It was actually an unreliable tank. 57,000 T34s were made. Only 12,000 tanks of all makes were left in the Soviet arsenal at the end of WW2. What you see in photos, films and what you are told, is not true. The Soviet myth of the T34. Looked good on paper. Like today, reality was somewhat different.

[@aaabbb7734]

GOOD/Thanks for the accuracy, its unusual for weapon tests

[@kjamison5951]

I’ve never fired a STEN but I did get to fire a Sterling SMG on full auto before the practice was stopped by the MoD. I was always fascinated by the simplicity of the design and operation of these SMGs.

[@giantmanice]

Great video man, can't wait to see full auto

[@Backyard.Ballistics]

Coming soon!

[@jamesjanson6129]

@@Backyard.Ballistics Nice to see that in Italy you can actually still shoot as"a mere civillian" and restore war relics.They would be immediately be confiscated and destroyed by the authorthies,up here in Ireland[which has worse gun laws than the UK]

[@ethan6952]

@@jamesjanson6129 weird that a country that got independence from civilians with guns does not want their civilians to have guns.

[@DarrenMalin]

My Grandfather used a Sten gun throughout his WWII service. He liked it he said it was a basic killing machine that kept him alive.

[@jonathanferguson1211]

Is the correct answer :)

[@modelnutty6503]

I wouldn't choose it, but if I had nothing else I'd sure use it. its a situation/tactical firearm that can clear a large room in a hurry.

[@johnsheppard1476]

@@modelnutty6503 and I would add that right after clearing the room I would have most likely ditched this POS and especially so if one of the dead enemies would have been armed with an MP-40!Dang, even some failed stuff like German G-41(both versions) would have been preferred by me personally! Honestly I am looking at this Sten gun and it literally looks nowhere near how the factory built state issued firearms are supposed to look like!I can actually remember a bunch of craft produced and/or even improvised firearms that were made by just a single guy in his garage that are better quality and involved much more steps to make than the Stan!I myself successfully made two guns as of now and both are comparing to Sten gun about the same way as half a million dollar hand-fitted Maybach or Rolls Royce would have compared to an old Soviet Niva or something like the cheapest Kia! And this is to the point where I am wondering if there were many instances of these cringe worthy welds on one just failing after a few magazines and the gun just disintegrating in this way right in the middle of the battle?That thing would have concerned crap out of me even on the range or in the woods during peace time let alone trusting my life on this cheap POS in a battle!

[@DarrenMalin]

@@johnsheppard1476 it was a desperate weapon for a desperate time. But it did serve us well.

[@joe125ful]

Cool,simply and effective gun,what more you need.

[@lindenhoch8396]

I love the simplicity of the Sten gun. Also, it reminds me of my days in the service, there was actually a small number of Husquarna late 40'ies submachineguns issued to certain units up until the early 90'ies in the danish armed forces. Good fun to shoot, I guess luckily in peacetime only.

[@Great_Sandwich]

Outstanding video. Thank you.

[@heikopanzlaff3789]

Try it with subsonic . Was issued with a similar- functioning UZI during my days with the GAF but that one`s accuracy was good up to 100 m. There was a training exercise where I had to hit 2 targets with one burst, even managed that ...

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

They need full powered rounds or you risk a runaway, only the suppressed versions had a weaker recoil spring that was designed for the lower powered round. The British 9mm for the sten and Sterling is more like a +p round and is much hotter than a standard pistol round. At one point the Brotish bought a shit ton of 9mm from India and had real issues with the poor quality.

[@paulyuppiefenwick3088]

My Father was Special Investigation Branch of the British Military Police in WW11 and had to investigate numerous cases of dropped Sten guns wounding and Killing Biritsh soldiers, especially among Tank crew. He hated the Sten because of this.

[@thesayxx]

my grandfather had the same experience. A guy in his company was accidentally killed when a NCO bumped his Sten next to the bunk bed he was sleeping on. Shot him trough the heart a month before they got discharged.

[@PeterSt1954]

My father told me that he was sitting in the guard room when someone returning from patrol dropped his Sten gun on the table and it went off - rotating itself until it was directly pointing at him. It did not fire again but he was not amused. Another friend of mine told me that he was once watching a convoy of lorries going over a dip in the road and time after time, when the lorries hit the dip, the jarring set off the Sten gun carried pointing upwards by the guard sitting next to the driver. It was very common for soldiers to carry the gun with the bolt in the forward position when it should be in the rear position in the safety notch. I've read elsewhere that this bad habit resulted in quite a few soldiers being accidentally shop as troops passed through jungle.

[@bhut1571]

Used its descendent, the Sterling in the Canadian Army. One could get amazing accuracy firing from the hip.

[@russcattell955i]

My wife served in the British Army, her main weapon was Sterling SMG. Not a front line soldier, she was trained to protect the depot (urban warfare) where the SMG excelled. As a NCO she had a Browning Hi power as backup. A short scouser gal thus equipped would be scary.

[@WildBillCox13]

Most interesting. Thanks for posting.

[@philipsquire9056]

I have photos of my father with a Sten during his service in Malaya during the "Emergency". It was an updated version of this. He didn't have a good word to say about it. "Terrible bloody thing". As an end user I doubt he appreciated the necessities behind it's origins. He became a Bren-gunner, a weapon that he loved.

[@atankie71]

I saw a photo on FB of British troops in Malaya during the "Emergency" armed with Australian Owen Sub Machine guns. Maybe only used in theater.

[@kingsford73]

My grandfather was a Royal Marine commando in WW2. He was issued a Sten gun, they trained with the .45 Thompson SMG, was promised Thompson's but got shafted with the Sten gun. The disappointment was huge, he described it as " Bit's of tubes with an old bloody bed spring in it" Not surprisingly he got a captured German MP40 and used that throughout the war.

[@EchoLeague2]

“Shafted with the sten gun” 🤣

[@snowflakemelter1172]

Except you made that up.

[@TheJustinhcase]

Infantry Training Volume II skill at arms(Personal Weapons) Sub Machine Gun. It gives advice on what to do when you can not take a proper aim it is "Fired by a sense of direction" when fired from the shoulder but goes into great detail about firing from the hip which seems to have been the preferred method right the way up to the Sterling submachine gun service.

[@williamfincher5200]

Brilliant review!

[@danielcurtis1434]

I love how the bike without a seat also has only a font wheel brake!!! So I get to either crash into what’s ahead or go flying over my handlebars becoming a human projectile!!! Yeah great engineering!!!

[@thomasforsyth4462]

Being such a cheap bike, it also does not have freewheeling, so you simply pedal slower to stop.

[@alnbaba]

I fired a full auto sten in Texas a few years ago very awkward to hold compared to the thompson its a sling shot.

[@phineascampbell3103]

Ooh you segued into that sponsor ad so smooth! I bet you whisk eggs so sublime, such blend skills! Also, your accent, the sten is mostly made from "sheeet metal," never truer words, very cheap, very sheet metal!

[@therealfinn1839]

this was a really good vid loved it

[@dickgenitalia1506]

You need to try to rotate the barrel. The best of these had a reference line stamped into the barrel to line up with the sights.

[@Pippins666]

When I was a Royal Navy apprentice in the mid 60's, at HMS Collingwood in Fareham, weekly gunnery drill meant marching about the parade ground with a Lee Enfield. Seriously boring stuff. Then one day, to our surprise, the Chief GI (called "Wingnuts" on account of his big ears) too us to the gunnery range, and introduced us to the Sterling sub machine gun ("Sten"), "The Sterling sub machine gun. Produced during the war for 3 main reasons: It was cheap, inexpensive, and doesn't cost very much". (A succinct phrase that I regularly bring out on various subjects)" "Accuracy is terrible, range is very short, but that is not its purpose. It is designed to be used from the waist, spraying bullets as the troops advance, to make the enemy keep their heads down. That is its sole purpose. If it kills anyone that is a bonus" The targets on the range were cardboard heads sticking out of foxholes, and Wingnuts demonstrated, firing short bursts from the waist position, from only 5 to 10 yards Please bear this in mind when watching this video. If it's range and accuracy you want - then the Bren gun is the answer, said to be too accurate, in that the bullets did not spray around, but followed an accurate trajectory. There's no point putting 50 bullets through the same bullet hole, you want them to spray a bit to take out other targets too. The same Chief GI also demonstrated the Bren - another escape from that damned parade ground!

[@DrWhom]

These three reasons are what the English live by in general. Isn't most weapons fire in combat interdictory, though? We have special names for the individuals who actually manage to hit a target with a side arm.

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

The Sterling 1. Wasnt produced during the war, 2. Was a different weapon in quite a few places. The Sterling had a double stack double feed mag for one. The Sterling is the Stens successor and didn't appear till the '50s.

[@fintherebel5000]

The resistance movements during ww2 favorited the sten cause it could be taking apart and hidden very well

[@bodombeastmode]

Like the Heydrich assassins. And their Sten jammed up.

[@tikitavi7120]

A Sten was used in the Reinhard Heydrich assassination. It failed and they had to use a bomb, which almost cost them their lives.

[@nigelfelangue2295]

The two SOE agents used a hand grenade !

[@awg9dog]

The two agents Used a modified anti tank canister in operation anthropoid . hydritch had to go

[@radimblaha2989]

@@nigelfelangue2295 Yes, but immediately after failing of this unreliable piece of shit...

[@humanity_moment.]

I wonder how much they hated the weapon after that.

[@redtobertshateshandles]

All the bullets probably went right over Heydrich. He said, "Gee, that was close."

[@fragiadakis]

2 great advantages 1)magazine at the side and you can shoot from ground all other submachineguns can not do that and when you are on the ground you give a big target to the enemy and 2) angle hold on the back that means the barrel was at the exact line of your hand no heir and not lower that give you minimum upper recoil and you can point at the target without any effort to find the target again

[@gazhandrail]

Ah you forgot that the Australian Owen Gun was easy to use lying down, with it's magazine mounted on top.

[@notthebeaver1532]

What Always needs to be remembered about Sten guns is that they we Designed to be fabricated (if necessary) out of a garage or barn in an extreme resistance scenario. And they were just supposed to be bullet hoses. Point, Burst, point Burst, point Burst

[@thomasforsyth4462]

And they did NOT jam if you used 19 round, single stack, Indian Army magazines.

[@gazhandrail]

The Sten Gun was mass produced in Garages and Small engineering factories in England to help re-arm it's army after Dunkirk. It's a close-quarter weapon for street fighting and such. It wasn't made to use in longer distance fighting. Also, it was used to arm various Resistance groups. Plus I wouldn't stand opposite a person armed with one 10-15 feet away, confident that I wouldn't be hit by it.