Thread: Pump Action STEN MKII

Originally Posted by gundoc

If such a useless piece of equipment was made in NZ it would have to be a locked breech 10 shot repeater, either turn bolt or other form of locking. It would have to be striker or hammer fired, and be over 762mm long. In short it would not remotely resemble a Sten, apart from cheap and flimsy manufacture. Legally (at present), no problem to manufacture as an individual for their own use, or by a dealer for resale but that would all change if the current bill in parliament is passed. A 9mm carbine would be a reasonably useful short-range item for small to medium game, but something built like a Sten would be false economy. Having owned all models of Sten from the Mk I to the Mk V, plus a few other clones and adaptations, I can assure you none of them were ever anything better than 'adequate'!

Suppose in dire 1941 when fighting for survival 'adequate' made you feel really good.

The adequate design is part of a bigger picture of how the British did things. I read about the "boffin" technological warfare in WW2, suitcase radios etc. The British had a policy of "You have 3 months to develop it, and what you can come up with is what we'll produce!" On the other side, Germans took too long perfecting their designs with top brass also keeping on "improving" specifications .... so most of their otherwise brilliant developments were of zero to limited use as they did not enter mass production. An obvious example are the many Volkssturm simplified rifles made which cost a lot in R&D and tooling setup, but which all used StuGw-44 magazines. Ian 'Gun Jesus' at Forgotten Weapons pointed out that it would have been far more effective just to make more StuGw-44s.

Anyway, I digress. I'm interested in your take on the Patchett/Sterling SMG versus the Sten, they being of similar vintage.