Irony... Brits copied the Germans, Brits become desperate and make a cheap version, Germany gets desperate and then copies the Brits.

You can also use MP-40 magazines in a Sten, but not Sten magazines in an MP-40. They doesn't fit, they are a little bit wider. I have tried, I own an MP-40 and 4 Sten's. The MP-40 is a BNZ-42 and the Sten's are two Mk2's, one Mk3 and one Mk5.

@@WhattAreYouSaying That's probably because the STEN was originally designed for resistance warfare... to allow using the enemies ammo in occupied territory.

@@WhattAreYouSaying I never knew that. STEN mags were always the Achilles heel. When I had malfunctions with my STEN they were always mag related. MP-40 mags are generally more reliable.

​@@babalonkie They probably had that in mind when the Sten was desgined. So they could use captured MP-38/40 magazines if necessary. The Sten magazine was derived from the Lanchester magazine, which was a clone of the German MP-28. It is very likely that MP-28 magazines can be used in a Sten also. Lanchester magazines can be used in a Sten, and the Lanchester is a copy of the MP-28, including the magazine.

He did mention it was a problem, and likewise with the MP40, although I always thought it was more of an issue for the STEN.

Basically any light engineering firms in Germany were making these; Schmeisser, Erma, Haenel, Steyr and Pfaff (who were - and still are - otherwise famous for making sewing machines)

Thank you! At last someone with some common sense. The sten was made to be quick, easy, and cheap to produce. It wasn't made to be a good gun. It couldn't be with the main focus of its design brief. Tbh it's a miracle it was as functional as it was considering the speed of its RnD.

​@@MrBeardedgelflingIt's basically the 'Lanchester lite', all the working parts are based on a tried and tested design, only the peripheral elements have been changed such as the deletion of wooden Furniture and wire but stock etc. Its flaws mainly centre around its double stack single feed magazine. The Mp 40 had the same issues for the same reasons, only the Sten gets the reputation because of its utilitarian looks, whilst the MP 40 doesn't because of its perception as a German gun, possessed of 'Krut magic' design and engineering etc. In truth both were as crap or as good as each other. If you're looking for the best shooting experience, then the MP 40 wins with its pistol grip and better sights. If you're looking to equip an army as quickly and cheaply as possible, whilst still being effective, then the Sten. Does a short range, pistol calibre gun really need fancy adjustable sights though, the trend there after,seems to have followed the Sten on that one.

@@christskingdomiscoming5964 I guess. Just from all reports of people who shot both, the MP40 pretty much wins unanimously as the better gun to shoot. Making it the better gun. When you start taking into account logistics and manufacturing times and easy, the sten is the clearer winner. And you see the sten get progressively upgrades in its fit n finish as the allies have time and money to do so. They knew it was a flawed gun compared to the MP40.

@@MrBeardedgelfling I agree with most of what you're saying, but you can't judge a guns performance based on 80 year old examples. The Sten was not meant to be gripped by the magazine it was meant to be gripped under the barrel. If you did this in the army you would get chewed out by the sergents. If you look at old photos no one ever fires or carries the Sten by the magazine. The reason being that by holding the gun by the mag it subjected it to all the vibrations of the bolt cycling, causing the mag to buckle slightly in the mag well, affecting the tolerances of the magazine. In a double stack single feed magazine this is not good. If you watch all the Hollywood movies and absolutely everyone on KZfaq who fires one, then you'll see everyone holding it by the mag. As a consequence todays examples suffer from decades of incorrect use, causing numerous malfunctions, this is then retroactively blamed on poor design/manufacturing. Because the Sten already has somewhat of a reputation in this direction, it is lazily assumed that it was always like this back in the day. At least with the MP 40 you get an actual pistol style grip and a folding stock, though that stock is wobbly by all accounts.

@@christskingdomiscoming5964 but it is poor design, having that magazine side mounted was not a good choice. We KNOW this to be true, the Germany's knew this, the Americans knew this - both ahead of us in SMG production and R&D at the time (probably still are tbh lol). Don't get me wrong sten did the job it needed to do at the quickest and cheapest way it could but it was compromised because of this. It was not a good SMG it just was good enough, and that's all it had to be. Compare it to an MP40 or even the Thompson it was just lacking. We just copied an older German SMG design with a side magazine because it was better for trench warfare. But WW2 saw little of that compared to WW1. The sten was out of date before it was even made. Sure it was easier to fire from prone because of the side magazine, but a feature not all that useful in a gun made to quickly sweep though buildings and alike going prone with it would have limited use and function. At the ranges SMG were effective going prone really wouldn't have helped you all that much. Running to good hard cover would be often the better choice. Going prone and returning fire with a rifle at 200+ meters sure that could makes sense but at such ranges an SMG is all but useless, except for maybe suppression - getting people to duck n cover. But magazine capacity and accuracy would make it poor at that, that's what guns like the BAR and Bren were for. And the could reliability hit n kill at that range too which is why they were far better at it. All in all the sten was a good little gun in that very small and unique situation in history. Otherwise it's garbage.

Ok thanks let me know

You made that up though.

​@@snowflakemelter1172nah sounds about right. Sten was fucking shit SMG. BUT it did the job it needed to do with an insanely short RnD turn around, as well as speed and ease of production. That was the focus of the sten. Not to be a good gun, to be a quick, cheap and easy gun to make... because of this, it was NOT a good gun. It was good enough... just lol.

​@@snowflakemelter1172you mean you think he didn't just run into 3 people who fought with the sten in battle 😂

@@andymaciver1760 when people make up these stories they all read the same , post war myths they read online woven into a fake story to pretend it has authenticity.

the Sten will be forever know as the gun of the good that fought the evil that used the MP40

​@@DarrenMalin It's nothing but a silly piece of dirt cheap yet somewhat functional scrap...

That's why they carried grenades, and let the bastard expire slowly.

The sten could be produced in huge numbers like the Sherman tank and that's what was needed to win the war... " Never mind the quality feel the width"

@@lookandlisten5740 The Forgotten Weapons channel is analysing all 4 versions of the sten. Ian (gun Jesus) who presents the channel, has figures on production rate and order size. This is from memory (Could be mis-remembered). Contracts for 500,000 per order. Production of 1,000 per shift. That's a lot of Dakka. I'm awestruck by the quantities of ammo that must have followed.

Did you go rent them, or did you know someone? I been thinking about going to a rental place to shoot some of these historic guns.

@@deejayimm i knew a guy, i also knew another guy that had a tec9 and a uzi i got to play with that was fun as well but even back when ammo was cheep it got expensive rill fast

It looks cool but you know that baka lite was irreplaceable In action

false. There are some videos on youtube demonstarting it. The sten mag is much too wide for the mp40, but the mp40 mags might fit certain sten guns, I think.

Are you high. The sten is probably one of the worst SMG ever made. It was cheap, easy and quick to manufacture and was just good enough to be a functional SMG. As that's what this British need at the time. We did not have the time, money, or resources to make a good SMG after Dunkirk, we just needs a gun ASAP. The sten is what they came up with. It basically did the job, but not much else. Going prone at the ranges a sten gun is effectively, is almost completely pointless. It had about a 50 m effective range due to how inaccurate it was. Bad sights, heavy bolt, open fire bolt, dismal ergonomics meaning it was hard to aim and control. At the ranges this gun was effective going prone would be a last ditch move. You'd be looking for hard cover, moving quickly from building to building it's a CQB weapon not a battlefield weapon. MP 40 had the same issues but was easier to control and fire with vastly superior ergonomics, much better sights, and better balance due to the magazine feed from the bottom. The sten design almost exaggerated all the issues of an open bolt SMG, whereas the MP 40 seemed to try and mitigate them.

Absolutely right. I had a lot of time on the range with both, and the sten is as you describe it. A very close range weapon with high probability of mechanical failure. The MP40 is much better designed, of very much higher quality, much more accurate, an excellent submachinegun. Having them both on a table and discussing them is not comparing them. Try them on the range and see the real difference. Compared to an MP40 a Sten is a piece of junk.

Exactly, and a damned ugly thing it is too! Makes it even better! 🎉

They build quality firearms 👍

As an "ex" army armourer, I was told years ago... early 1950's that the Sten Gun was originally manufactured to supply the resiistance troops in Europe, cheap to make supplied to the resistance by air drop, and also could use the German P38 and P40 magazines which were available from captured German weapons... Cdn army armourer

How was the .303 Enfield obsolete during ww2. When, like the British, most of the German army used bolt action rifles. The K98. Your talking nonsense. .303 is 7.69mm with a bigger cartridge than 7.62 NATO - That round hit fucking hard. Performance is almost identical to 30-06 Springfield and only slightly less powerful than the modern 7.62 NATO dispute the NATO round being smaller... Advancement of technology n all. Sure the 8mm Mauser was a more modern cartridge that things like later 7.62 NATO round utilize, but performance wise in a bolt action rifle .303 performance was on par with it. .303 was rimmed so bad for automatic weapons but in a bolt action rimmed or rimless made very little difference and bolt action rifles made up the vast bulk of guns used by both the British and German forces.

@@MrBeardedgelfling The 303 Enfield was obsolete even before WW1. the British knew this and intended to replace it, but moved to slow and were interrupted by the start of WW1. same thing happened before WW2. The US army at least replaced its bolt action rifle with a semi auto. The initial design intended to use a 7mm cartridge, but Douglas McArthur intervened and insisted we keep the 30.06 that was way too powerful for a semi automatic rifle. Both the US and Great Britain were stuck with military leaders who were pretty ignorant of small arms. The Germans were stuck with Hitler, which was why their infantry continued to use bolt action rifles.

The Enfield rifles obsolete, no way. The rate of fire incredible. 1000 yards target fantastic. At army Base. Sterling not sten, clear a room in seconds.Practice other bases

@@johnturner8383 Don't be a dick you wouldn't clear a room with a AWM it's also a bolt action rifle and went into service in 1996. The right tool for the right job. Would be like me saying pistols are obsolete because they can't hit and kill a target out to 1000m like the AWM or Lee Enfield can. Obsolete literally means out of production, no longer used. In the case of the SMLE this is wrong on both counts. The gun is still made and still used. Sure it is out dated, but it still works like any other bolt action rifle and performance is more than adequate to easily kill someone at 1000m with good optics and a trained shooter.

No, definitely Enfield.

Your totally confused & didn’t hear the history facts the MP-18 was the first Submachine Gun built & used in combat

Also the German Gun & Rifle designs were so good that many guns even today took design ideas from German Rifle designs into building other weapons say like the flap on M-16’s that came from the Stg-44 and anyone who tries to not admit that many weapons today got some inspiration from the designs of the German WW2 weapons is misled simply

​​@@illuminateBeats1He is right though, the Germans copied the Sten as an emergency weapon, though they put the magazine on the underside. The MP 3008. See Forgotten Weapons " German Sten Copy:MP 3008 As a type , the SMG , you'd be right but as a specific model this holds true.

Imagine a 1000 rnds with broken baka lite...hands be all to h*ll.

I never had any problem with the electrics on Brit cars, or with the Sten.

The STEN was designed to be mass produced In a hurry in order to win a war, " fit and finish" was never even considered, they worked and thats what mattered.

Yank cars are a joke. Their motorcycles are no better. Harleys are loud, underpowered crude things that go round corners like container ships and take a week to stop. Better off forgetting the brakes and just put your feet down. Classic US - BS, image and appearance over function.😂