The Austen'a mag is a beefy thing too! Yeah they are like a MkI/MkII and have an actual casing that replicates the magazine housing/well complete with mag release!
The loader I use the most on my Sten is a loader similar to a grease gun magazine loader that came with my Sten when I bought it. I also use the spoon type loaders.
Thanks Thomas, lots more on the Sten and others to come. As for the loaders, I'm not sure, they work on the same principle as these earlier Sten loaders but it'll be a matter of finding one that fits the dimensions of the Sten mag really.
Great question and that’s something we’re hoping to cover with Rich in the future too. But typically I believe it was between 5 and 7 depending on branch, role and what tasks were being carried out.
I have never loaded a Sten mag, but I have loaded 15 round 9mm pistol mags and found them not too difficult. Would it be any faster to load the Sten mag by hand until it becomes too hard, and only THEN use the loading tool?
Maybe, but it becomes very quickly hard to load a sten mag without a loading tool. Its quite an effort to load more than only 6 or 7 rounds... its not really comparable to modern handgun magazines for whatever reason
I can generally get around 10-15 rounds into a 32rd sten mag before it gets to hard to do by hand easily. After that a loading tool is needed. The other commenter is totally correct in that the sten mag while being similar in design to a modern pistol mag is a whole different experience to load (fill?). However the modified 20 round sten magazines are actually a lot easier to load and those I can generally do by hand, I think it has something to do with the single stack arrangement of those magazines.
The longer the mag the faster the curve of the pressure from the spring increases. Because at full load the spring is overcoming a significant increase of weight and friction. So pistol mags around the 15-17 round count usually are still pretty loadable entirely by hand. Especially after the mag spring has taken it's initial set. With those STEN mags, they're coming in without an initial set on the spring as well, so even harder still. Unless they're mags you've used and carried for a length of time.
Possibly. The 19-round conversion of the magazine (brass wires down each side inside) can be loaded by hand I remember rightly. I could have been quicker with the mag loader though. First time in a while and trying to explain so, as Matt says in the video, I’m a bit slower than I should be.
