Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.Com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am up here at the James D. Julia Auction House in Maine
taking a look at some of the guns that are going to be coming up for sale in their ... spring of 2018 Firearms Auction.
And one of the ones that they have is a registered, suppressed Sten gun.
Now the British actually didn't make all that many silenced or supressed Sten guns.
And the requirement for them originally actually came out of the need to drop sneakier guns to resistance agents in Europe.
So in 1942 they started doing some testing of different models.
And ultimately it wasn't until early in 1944 that they actually formally adopted a model of the supressed Sten.
And in total they would actually have two different variations that were manufactured in quantity.
They had the Mark IIS, and that S was for actually "Special Purpose", not silenced or suppressed.
And then they also had the ... Mark VI, which was basically a suppressed version of the Mark V.
Now the suppressors on these were removable, but the British had ... tested a whole bunch of models
including some with integral permanently attached suppressors like on this gun.
Now this one is actually a re-creation, fully functional obviously, ... of one of those rare experimental models
that was manufactured by a guy back in the '70s.
So this isn't really quite the look that you would get with the standard suppressed Stens that saw British service,
but it will give us a very good idea for how this thing handles.
So I figure we'll start it off with a couple of rounds in semi-auto mode.
It is interesting to note that the suppressors on these guns were not really expected to perform in full-auto.
The suppressed Sten was there for shooting sentries or dogs, not for actual like combat fighting.
And what was recorded at the time was that firing in full-auto through the suppressor would both
damage the suppressor rather quickly. These had removable baffles
but if you did too much full-auto shooting, it became very difficult to get the baffles out to replace and repair them.
And also the British testing found that if you were firing in full-auto the suppression effect
dropped off through the burst, because too much gas got built up inside the suppressor
and that ... made the gun louder with each shot.
So a large number of these that were actually fielded by the British had their selector switches
fixed on semi-auto only. And that's how they were supposed to be used.
That's not to say that they didn't get used in full-auto, because I'm sure they did, but that wasn't the intent.
So, we will start with some semi-auto.
These are still open-bolt guns, despite being suppressed.
That doesn't appear to have been semi-auto.
Also, I'll be honest, that was loud enough for me right here at the breech, that I'm going to go ahead and put my ears in.
I should also point out that I am using super-sonic ammunition,
so the sound of the gun is going to be louder than it would be with proper sub-sonic ammo.
And the British did in fact issue and use sub-sonic ammo with their suppressed Stens.
So, let's put a few more rounds through it.
It's a pretty darn controllable gun because of course it's got a lot of weight out front, it's only in 9mm Parabellum,
easy to control. That said the actual handling is just like a Sten, which is to say
not the greatest. The length of pull is fairly short.
This thing is a really sorry excuse for a pistol grip.
But that's simply how they did the early Mark II and Mark III Sten guns.
Now, the Mark VI Sten was the other military suppressed version,
and the Mark VI was basically a Mark V Sten gun, which was the best by far of the Stens.
That had a vertical pistol grip on it, which is really the main thing, and a solid wood buttstock. It was much better handling.
The problem was that they couldn't put a removable, or an easily detachable suppressor on the Mark V
because in addition to the improved handling back here,
those guns also had basically Lee-Enfield front sights on them.
And with that front sight in place, if you screwed on a suppressor you didn't have sights.
So guns like this ... pattern of experimental one had sights raised up higher,
and some ... like the Mark II guns had sights that were mounted on the receiver tube and thus higher up than on a Mark V.
So they could get away with suppressors in a way that the [Mark] VI couldn't.
So the Mark VI was a dedicated suppressor only Sten.
I should also point out the Sten is not really a gun all that well suited for left-handers like me.
The proper way to shoot this (right-handed of course) is to have an underside, or palm up, grip
on the magazine well like this.
Of course, occasionally you hold the magazine instead and get malfunctions.
There we go.
One of the other issues with the Sten is if you put ... much pressure on the magazine and cause it to tilt back and forth
depending on the ammo and the magazines you can cause malfunctions like I got.
So, couple fingers on the mag well, don't touch the mag.
And that is the suppressed Sten gun.
If you guys have been looking for something like this, make sure to take a look at the link in the description text below.
That'll take you to the James Julia catalogue page on this particular gun.
You can see their pictures, all of their details and
place a bid on it yourself if you'd like to add it to your own collection.
Thanks for watching.
[ cc by sk cn2 ]