Chugging is my personal terminology for the rocking that occurs between shots when firing weapons with a slow cyclic rate on full-auto. While acceptable by military standards, I find that slow cyclic rates cause what I refer to as “chugging”. The standard British Sten MK II, firing 9mm-service ammunition has a cyclic rate of approximately 550 rpm. The speed bolt is routinely used by today’s shooters to raise the cyclic rate of their Stens. As a result, the concept of the modern Sten “speed” bolt was conceived. It didn’t take long for an unknown, enterprising modern-day machine gun enthusiast to take note of the lightened Sten bolt, and its affect on the Sten’s cyclic rate. While the lightened bolt was successful in operating the subsonic suppressed Sten, using such a bolt in an unsuppressed weapon, although strictly forbidden by the British Army, would naturally raise the cyclic rate of fire. The standard Sten steel bolt is quite hard and very difficult to cut.
The cast bronze-aluminum bolts were reportedly used for the MK II-S Stens because they were easier to machine down in order to reduce their weight. As a result, the weights of the MK II-S bolts often varied and were not intended to be switched between weapons.
#STEN MK II GFL GAMPRESS SERIAL NUMBER#
The bolt was then engraved with the serial number of the host weapon. The nomenclature of a modified bolt was, bolt, breech, MK 3.
Each individual bolt was reportedly machined down until it worked in a particular weapon. The bolt’s recoil spring was also reduced in length by two to three coils if necessary. This was performed by machining away metal from the center of the bolt’s mass between the two bearing surfaces. Reducing the weight of the Sten bolt to a degree that it could successfully operate the weapon solved the functioning problem. The suppressor was also prone to rapid overheating after a limited number of shots had been fired. Since some of the propellant gases were bled off, there was not enough blowback force to allow the heavy Sten bolt to retract far enough to properly operate the weapon, resulting in short cycling with consequent runways and feeding problems. Although the method was successful in eliminating the sonic “crack” other problems arose. The engineers designed the Sten suppressor to bleed off enough of the round’s propellant gases to slow down the projectile to subsonic speeds. Although this was not normally a problem in standard issue non-sound-suppressed firearms, it will produce a loud “cracking” sound when fired from a sound suppressed weapon. The speed of the projectile would break the sound barrier when fired. When developing the sound suppressor for the Sten, the designers were faced with the problem of the 9mm Parabellum cartridge’s projectile being inherently supersonic. The SOE was a group involved in many surreptitious actions behind enemy lines. The silenced Sten was issued to British Commandos and the Special Operation Executive (SOE). The suppressed Sten MK II was known as the Sten MK II-S model (S for special purpose). A suppressed version was quickly developed and fielded. The handy and readily concealable Sten made an ideal weapon for such covert activities. As a result, the British concentrated on sabotage and other clandestine activities against the Germans behind their lines. There were several versions of the Sten manufactured, but the MK II model was the most prolific, making up over half of the approximately 4 million total production of all Marks in the series.ĭuring the early months of World War II, the British Army was not sufficiently up to strength to directly engage the formidable German Wehrmacht. One of the reasons for the development of this crude, but effective, 9mm submachine gun was to allow Great Britain to defend herself from an impending German land invasion from across the English Channel.Īfter evolving from the more complicated MK I Sten, the simplified Sten MK II soon became the standard British submachine gun, gradually replacing the Thompson submachine guns that were obtained from the United States early in the war. The World War II Sten submachine gun, known to the British as the Sten machine carbine, originated as an expedient personal weapon in 1941.
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