I've done a couple of articles on submachine guns recently - the one on the Thompson has been published in Dillon's Blue Press, and I expect the one on the Uzi to be published sometime in the future. I've been looking around for another to write about, and I decided on one that might not be so well known, yet was an efficient "generation 2 1/2" gun that served the needs of the British well after they phased out the Sten gun which had been in use since the WWII days.

The Sterling was developed as a much improved Sten by G.W. Patchett at the Sterling Engineering Co. in Dagenham, Essex, Britain, in the closing days of WWII. The gun in its earliest form was known as the Patchett Machine Carbine. Its most recent iteration was the L2A3 submachinegun. A silenced version was labeled as the L34A1.

Basically, it's a more sophisticated Sten, with a very improved 34-round 9mm magazine. Instead of a stamped or cast follower, the mag features double rollers to push the rounds into the feed path. It maintains the Sten's side-mounted feed system to allow the user to hug the ground a lot better. The collapsible stock is a bit cumbersome to deploy, but it makes the weapon a whole lot more compact when needed; a point appreciated by the paras.

Here's a picture of an L2A3:



If any of you have had personal experience with this gun or variations of it, I'd sure like to hear about anything you'd like to comment on!

John

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I shall asked my friend and an knoledge about the gun. They own it.
It isnt a revolver, so I dont. Aldo I like it.

Great subgun, I very much enjoy shooting them. Both my son and I have shot one in subgun matches and have held our own against the HK Mp5's.

I have some limited experience with both types, the L2A3 and the L34A1. Simple, very well made, and ultra reliable. I've fired both the silenced Sterling and the MP5SD, and I think the Sterling is quieter

My local dealer sells a lot of them. Way to heavy for me. They are one chunk of steel.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I visited a friend in New Zealand; he had one. We fired it and a Sten; I didn't see much difference between them.

I don't know when these became the official British SMG, but Inspector Ian Henderson, GM, said in, "Man-Hunt in Kenya" that his Kenya police unit and the counter-terrorists they led used these in the Aberdares Forest in the 1953-1957 period.

An illustrated Bantam (?) edition of the book showed them, I think, and the Browning 9mm also issued. (The Browning was the Inglis version.)

I always thought the Sterling was a cool-looking gun, Someone will surely point out that some Stormtrooper weapons in Star Wars were based on the Sterling. I guess it may as well be me.

T-Star

My best friend carried a captured one for a while in Grenada. He was in charge of food relief, and was I believe, only issued an M1911A1.

At least some of them were similar looking prototypes from other manufacturers, like the BSA. They also used MG34s, Lewis Guns, etc.

Hi:
Is this the SMG that has a steel cable running from the trigger to the sear??

I had one in Iraq, among other guns.
It was OK, but "doubled" frequently on semi.

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John

I have one of the recently made semi autos. Since I can never own one of the originals where I live it is a fun substitute subgun. It works well and we all enjoy shooting it.
Bob Ray 1815

Hi John. I always read your stuff. Either here in the forum, or in the Blue Press. I always get about 3 to 4 months of the Blue Press delivered everytime "the mail" comes down through the Zeta Line. Then they are given away to friends to read, but sometimes I keep them if you happen to review something that interests me a lot. Many of your Classic Gun reviews just stay with me for reference later on.

Back 30 years ago in my I.P.S.C. days, I was coordinating a lot of matches in our Province, some with the local P.D., some with the local R.C.M.P. (who had a good bunch of competition shooters in those days, both groups) and the local Army Base. I ended up the V.P. of the Army Base gunclub a few years later (in my Post-I.P.S.C. days, bringing the modern technique to enquiring minds, but that's another story). During these early days, the Base gunclub was run by a Chief Warrant Officer named -- we'll call him Donny Steale, although anyone who knows him will know immediately of whom I speak. This guy was R. Lee Ermey before R. Lee Ermey had perfected being R. Lee Ermey. Warrant Steale was always interested in furthering the understanding of the common Canadian Soldier in the usage of his weaponry. At the time, the Canadian Infantry Rifle was the FN-C1A1, a Canadian Modified FAL. The pistol, as today, was the Hi-Power. And of course, we had the Sterling, which I think was called the C-4.

Anyway, one day W/O Steale calls up the house and asks me if us I.P.S.C. guys had anything going on some given weekend. I told him no. He told me to "get all your guys that like the P.P.C., and call up the City Police Combat guys that shoot it, and the R.C.M.P. guys that do the P.P.C. and have them out at the base on such-and-such Saturday Morning and we're gonna do the P.P.C." He went on to tell me that NOBODY had to bring any firearms, as those would be provided, along with the ammo. I found this exciting. We had already been through one of W/O Steale's P.P.C. matches the summer before, where some Sergeant walked along the line with a burlap bag which one was to reach into without looking and pull out the Browning Hi-Power with which one was to shoot the match. Following the Sergeant was some Corporal handing out magazines. Ammo was provided in the .50 caliber ammo cans which came packed with 960 rounds of 9 m.m. Nato ammo loaded into fifteen 64-round cardboard boxes marked "For S.M.G. only" as the Canadian 9 m.m. Army ammo was packed, back from the Sten Gun days and as far as I know still is today.

I had several Sten guns at the time (amongst other stuff) and rather liked them. A friend of mine and I had bought 50 mags at a rock-bottom price out of SARCO and, uh, "imported" them into Canada on the midnight Shuttle. We found that not all the mags worked in all the guns, but SOME of the mags worked well in individual guns -- and might not actually work in OTHER Stens. I had 4 Stens at the time, 3 Mark II's and a Mark III. My friend had a Mark II and a British Sterling he wasn't actually supposed to have -- his Sten might not have been exactly Kosher either but it was 30 years ago and doesn't matter now. Anyway, we found out that Stens -- with a mag they like -- work as well as anything else. They worked better than my Uzi, which once dirty, bobbled from time-to-time. My Mark III happened to be dead-bang-on at 50 through the peep sight and dead-bang-on at 100 using the notch cut into the metal-L rear sight along the top. This using Canadian Service Ball of which I had a rather limitless supply at the time and for several years later. Anyway, back to the Sterlings, but the Stens had to be brought up not only because the Sterling is based on the Sten, but because part of the story references the Stens.

Photo; Some of my old stuff. All sold or in Museums now, but the Sten Mark III mentioned above and one of the Sten Mark II's appear in this photo.

So, we all show up. There were about 40+ guys there I guess. Along comes Warrant Steale, showman that he was and is to this day I hear, although he's long retired, followed by a Sergeant and a Corporal who are carrying burlap bags. "So, we're going to shoot the P.P.C. today. Most of you know what that is, and those who don't will find out when I go over each individual stage prior to firing yadda, yadda, yadda...". He had about a dozen guys lined up and the first guy reaches into the burlap bag and instead of pulling out the Browning Hi-Power we expected to see, he pulled out a Sterling. Well, uh, we all just sort of stood there in shock. Steale was explaining in his booming voice that we were going to shoot the P.P.C., we were going to do it with Sterlings held "at the ready", we were going to shoot the 6-round strings as required in the time-limits required, and there would be NO semi-auto or burst firing allowed. Just pull the trigger once, 6 rounds per pull.

He then went on the explain that safety was foremost in importance, that NO MORE than 6 rounds would be loaded into any individual mag, and that the muzzles would point downrange at all times or the wrath of the mighty W/O would crash down on whomsoever infracted upon this rule with a vengeance that would be better unseen and only believed.

So, we shot the P.P.C. with Sterlings, right back to 50 yards. For the 50 yard stage, each shooter had to have 4 mags. Each mag was loaded with 6 rounds, and the method of firing was full-auto, one burst. It was a lot of fun! As I recall, the guns worked pretty good. If there was an occassional stopppage I remember W/O Steale there with his can of WD-40 spraying the bolt. A Canadian Army Captain who was there that day explained to me that the S.M.G.'s were kept in the lockup with the bolts removed. When they were taken out for use, bolts were issued although it would probably NOT be the original bolt. "Does that work?" I asked. "Because I have various Sten guns and it sure wouldn't work with them. Heck, you have to tailor each magazine to each Sten and some interchange and some don't, it's the nature of the beast." The Captain shrugged and said that THIS was the way it is done and that they had not had much problem with it. "These guns have been shot so much, " he said, "that there ARE no tight tolerances left." As I recall, the Sterlings worked okay. I don't recall having any stoppages myself, although I do remember than my particular Sterling did not print to point-of-aim but shot rather to the right hand side of the target from anything other than the 7 yard line. I was used to shooting Stens (rather quite a bit) and especially my Sten Mark III which was dead-on for me.

Needless to say, I did not win the match, and no longer remember who did although the next time I talk to someone who was there that day I will inquire because I am sure it was someone I knew. I remember grousing to a friend that "If I had my Sten Mark III here, I would have won!"

"Well," the growling voice of Warrant Steale from behind me boomed out, "you DON'T have your Sten gun here today! You're shooting pot-luck, just like the rest of us, so don't cry about it!"

Suitable chastised, I immediately responded "Yes, sir, sorry sir." Warrant Steale stopped cold, looked at me, and in the silence that seemed to have descended on the shooting range said in a voice that was loud enough for everyone to hear; "Sonny, my parents were married. Don't call ME sir!" I always thought that was a neat come-back and tried it out myself several years later at a training clinic I was throwing on the same base to some self-propelled gun drivers on the Browning Hi-Power when some troopie called ME sir. Unfortunately, I did it with a good number of people standing behind me who really were wearing brass or silver tabs so it was rather embarrassing although the troopies had their eyes bulged out trying not to laugh. I still get razzed about that one from time-to-time.

The Sterling may still be in use with the Military Police in Canada, I do not know. After the M-16/A2 was adopted in Canada, there was a short time between when the FN's had all been moth-balled and the M-16's (C-7's) were in use when it was discovered that the Canadian M-16's suffered horrible double-feed jams. Was it the switching bolts (which they still did) or something else? During the frantic one to two or three months that working out this problem took, Sterlings were issued to Embassy Personel overseas and had a short unpublicized heyday once again. I was in the room that day when it was discovered that the problem with the M-16's were a too-short/too-weak extractor and ejector spring combination in the bolt-head that once switched out with normal U.S. Mil-spec parts solved the problem. The Sterlings fell back to M.P. use and may or may not still be used as such to this day.

We used the Sterlings a few more times in the Club events over the years, and in my memory, they always worked well enough considering that nobody was pre-checking out the mags and had to use stuff as it came out of a burlap bag. You wouldn't have wanted to do that with any of my Sten guns, although they sure worked well enough if you did precheck the mags. My dad landed at Normandy and used a Bren gun himself, but he told me and my friends a few times that he remembered friends of his "checking out" Sten gun mags before the invasion and trading around with each other to make sure that the mags they had worked in the guns they had. I have always thought that perhaps the guys who tried to kill Heydrich might have failed to do that?

We had one guy we used to shoot with who is still alive (but getting up there now) who had grown up in Europe. As a boy, he was sent with his family to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and he lost his family there. He survived the war and would often show us his tatoo when we were drinking. We called him "Uncle". He later became the President of the Canadian Full-Auto collector's association and had one of the biggest M.G. collections I ever saw in Canada. At one-or-another of the old gunclub parties, some young Corporal told Uncle that "the Uzi is waaaay better than the Sterling."

The room fell silent the same way the darned range had fallen silent when I called Warrent Steale "sir" (and as I remember it, this party was being held in Steale's basement although he was retired by then).

"Vell," replied Uncle. "I haff zem both, and I like very much ze Sterling."

None of this rambling will help you much with your article I suppose. But I can say that I witnessed (several times over a period of years) a dozen or so Sterlings pulled out of burlap bags with bolts just thrown in mish-mash and magazines loaded either with only 6 rounds or full-up that worked quite well considering. And any bobbles appeared to be nothing that a little WD-40 didn't fix. My Stens wouldn't do that.

All my stuff was sold before I moved down here, although my Uzi and Sten Mark III were donated to the Base Museum and should still be there. The 1928/A1 Thompson is in the Trotter Machinegun Museum in Belmont, Manitoba. A little slice of Heaven right up there on the frozen prairies. I hope you excuse my long rambling story here about the Sterling experience, and thank-you John for all the entertainment and knowledge you've given me.

They're nice shooting guns, very smooth shooting. I'm embarrassed to say I've had mine probably 6-7 years and have only run about 500 rounds or so through it.

I rented a Sterling along with several other subguns a few summers ago. I'd rate the MP5 as tops, but the Sterling was a strong second. It was a surprising easy gun to shoot despite looking like something cobbled together in a third-world blacksmith shop.

Texas Star says, "I don't know when these became the official British SMG, but Inspector Ian Henderson, GM, said in, "Man-Hunt in Kenya" that his Kenya police unit and the counter-terrorists they led used these in the Aberdares Forest in the 1953-1957 period."

I read that book when I was in high school in Texas from 1968 to 1971. It was in the school library and I read it at least once a year. It had pictures I think of the units and the guns.

Victor Mature, I think, made a movie about the Mau-Maus and he used a Sten or a Sterling in it.

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

Great thread!!
Thanks, John, for introducing it, and thanks to calmex fora
real-world adventure. The only sub-gun I've ever shot was the
M3 "grease-gun", hardly worth mentioning in this atmosphere.
TACC1

John,

My first exposure to the Sterling was in Kenya in 86'. We were training with their Para's out in the bush doing patrolling and airborne ops. My job was as a 18C-SF Eng but did do quite abit of shooting with their guns and mortars. Never experience any problems with them. Did see what a elephant looks thru a sight of XM16E1 rifle sights at dusk.

Later during my years in Iraq have come across them yearly in large numbers over there. As during my last year we had a range set up on our SF compound on Balad and every Wednesday night I would run a foreign weapon famialiarization fire (I was the Range NCOIC, 75m flat range with a 485 yd KD range to include 81mm mortar pit). The Sterling was also used and never stuttered. Been told that you can use STEN mags in them and have found Sterlings with STEN mags in them but I've never fired that combo. Haven't come accross any here in Afghanistan however.

Me firing the Sterling, Balad Iraq in 05'

My collection of SMGs in Iraq 08'

Iraqi 08' confiscation


The gun is very controllable and just gives a "pop,pop" One of the most enjoyable SMGs in my experience and would love to have one chambered in 10mm if possible.

CD

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De Oppresso Liber

No. The Sterling's fire control group is made of stainless steel and is a compact "en bloc" assembly that is easily changed out of a given weapon in a matter of seconds. Maybe 30-45 seconds, with practice.

Movie trivia: "Sandy Young", the "RSM" character in "The Wild Geese" played by British charactor actor Jack Watson caries a Sterling in the film, and when the group is exfiltrating to the airstrip ahead of attacking rebels in one scene he is shown trying to take hold of the Sterling around the buttstock frame instead of the pistol grip, a "tell" that gives away his muscle memory from the Jack Watson's actual experience with a Sten during WWII.


PALADIN: Sent you a PM; I own a Sterling Mk4 SMG and have a TON of reference material.

My transferable Mk4:





Sterling ad in a "British Defence Equipment catalogue" from the mid 80s, showing the semi-auto Sterling carbine:



Noah

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Calmex,

Great yarn! I enjoyed reading it - many thanks for the insight on the Canuck stuff! You told the story well!

Noah,

I appreciated your PM with plenty of interesting data on the Sterling! I have a Wise Lite Arms-made Sterling semiauto, made from Mark 4 and American parts. It's identical to the Sterling Mark 6 U.S. export model with a 16" barrel. Even the barrel nut is the same as illustrated in the Sterling catalog you posted.

I have plenty of respect for the Sterling SMGs - they are generally acknowledged to be one of the most reliable subguns, if not THE most reliable subgun. Full auto or semiauto, they are formidable and fun!

John

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Looking forward to reading the article!

Noah

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