I am going to PISS a lot of online auction sellers off by writing this, but frankly I DONT CARE! Plain and simple here, if they want to Bullshit you as a buyer they deserve to get their bluff called.
I finally am fed up with the crap I am seeing at the online auction places like Ebay , Auction Arms and Gun Broker. There are a lot of miss guided truths that need to be exposed and I am going to do just that! If you are a seller and dont like what you are reading, then maybe it is the time to start being upfront and honest with potential bidders.
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The first and biggest online auction hoax I have recently seen is the "STEN CARRYING CASE" I have watched a couple of these sell for over $100.00 US and regret not being able to "legally" be able to e mail the bidder and let them know what a mistake they are making. There is NO SUCH THING as a Sten Carrying Case or anything even remotely similar to it. What these sellers are doing is selling you a BREN SPARE BARREL BAG. Yes, during WWII the Airborne troops were in dire need of some sort of way to carry the MKII, it is my understanding that some shall we say borrowed the BREN spare barrel bags and discovered that by removing the "T" stock or loop stock that it indeed would fit inside of the BREN bag. However the outside pockets WILL NOT hold the 32 round magazines as everyone states. The large center pocket was designed to hold the spares bag and cleaning kit for the BREN. Look for a BREN spare barrel bag and then you will have what everyone claims is a STEN carrying case. As far as other options for the STEN, you must remember that these were built as cheaply as possible and so called accessories were NOT even thought of, They were lucky to even get slings for these.
MAGAZINE LOADERS: There are a couple of different types of loaders floating around out there, one covers the top of the magazine and has a little push lever at the top, this can be used for the STEN, but it was really never designed for the STEN magazine. From what I have found out over the years is that the one that fits on the side of the magazine and has a brass hoop is the correct STEN loader, if someone can provide me with evidence that I am wrong I will gladly correct this post.
BOLT THAT FITS MKI, MKII, MKIII, MKIV, and MKV: YEAH RIGHT! Sorry but that is another line of COMPLETE Bull Malarkey..... As hard as it may be to believe they actually did indeed make two different bolts for the STEN, The MKV bolt is entirely different. Looking at the bolt, look at the rear, there will be a cut out section.... If this cut out section is present BOTH AT THE BACK AND THE FRONT then it is a TRUE MKV bolt.... It will "supposedly" work in a MKII, but will NOT work in a MKIII. To top that off there was NEVER a MKIV made.. It was a pistol design that never made it to mass production. And if you have a MKI STEN, I envy you because you are one of only 10 or 15 people that own them, as they were never brought into the US except for possibly 10 to 15 of them.
"AUTHENTIC" Brittish surplus rivits: "We bought the last of the authentic Brittish Surplus rivits used in the construction of the STEN" Sorry gang..... Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but DO NOT fall for that sales pitch! I have the correct button head solid steel rivits, Luna and Diablos Den has them, Vic Benson has them as well as many other reputable sellers do.... DONT fall for this "authentic" Brittish surplus crap! And DONT go buying a FLAT HEAD rivit if you want to keep the original look of your display, there is another line of total crap when they tell you a flat head rivit is stronger...... Think about it for a second, the flat head and the button head rivits have a solid steel shank, that is what holds the part together.. The flat head and the button head are mearly cosmetic depending on the look the manufacturer was going for, there is NO added strength in either design.
ORIGINAL PARKERIZED FINISH ON A PARTS KIT: Parkerizing was not even invented at the time of manufacture, therefore a parkerized finish would be impossible to have on a kit unless it was something done recently. The correct finishes would either be black paint, phosphate or even a rare example of a low luster bluing.
TEMPLATES: Frankly I could care less where you buy your templates from, but I will tell you that I DO NOT believe in these bullshit XEROX copies that are floating around. And I also will tell you that if you buy a template and xerox it to sell you are only making matters worse. A xerox machine is a great invention, but one must also realize that a copy of a copy of a copy is going to loose any type of accuracy there is. Do yourself a favor and buy a template that is printed off a CAD printer and is NOT a xerox..... Nothing is worse than using Billy Bob's xerox copy because you bought it off Ebay for $1.00 and making all of the cuts in your receiver tube and finding out that it won't correctly go together because the xerox is .006 off and nothing lines up correctly.
ORIGINAL SURPLUS BOLT EXTENSIONS IMPORTED FROM BRITTIAN: Same story here as with the rivits..... I have them, Luna and Diablos Den has em and so does Vic Benson..... Nothing special about them and they sure as hell were not imported from Brittian. And NO it is NOT a way to build a "LEGAL" semi auto STEN. This will make the STEN semi auto and yes they do work, however the design IS NOT BATF APPROVED and you can get in a lot of trouble building a "LIVE" STEN with only this alteration.
My last Buyer Beware may sound like a pool of tears to you...... Maybe it is, but I am only letting the truth be known..... There is a guy selling a Tube/Template/Sight blade combo..... I have said nothing for well over 8 months about it until I recently looked at one of his auctions and now see he is adding "WE ARE THE ORIGINATORS OF THIS SIGHT BLADE ASSEMBLY" Well friends, this guy is so full od SHIT, it is pouring out of his ears. This guy contacted me a while back and wanted to know if I could help him with his display and he wanted a sight blade. I was kind enough to send him all sorts of drawings and dimensions so he could make a sight blade that would work. And now he claims he originated it? He might have mass produced the design, and to top that off he sure did not pay any attention to my dimensions because if you look at his photo the sight rail runs the entire length of the tube! If you are going to steal my design, at least keep the dimensions correct and give credit where it is due. Or maybe he would like it if I posted all of his original e mails along with my e mails and drawings so you could see the truth?
I hope I have pointed out a few things that may be of some help to you, I can only tell you that there are a lot of people out there that are doing a get rich quick scheme and you will get burned by them. Buy your templates, rivits, and tubes from a place you feel comfortable dealing with, watch what you are buying and just because it is on an online auction or web page does not really mean it is a deal. Luna and Diablos Den, Vic Benson and myself have been doing this because we have a passion for these and we firmly believe we offer a VERY GOOD product for a reasonable price. I only left this web sight back in September because of my work schedule and I was not able to devote the time to the sight that was needed. It was just getting to be too much for me to put the hours I was in and come home and try to keep the sight up to par as well as fufilling orders, and I wanted to back out so I would not lose customer respect. I am adding SEVERAL new items and templates as well as receiver blanks in January of 2003. I will continue to only sell blanks and refer you to Luna and Diablos Den for QUALITY 60%, 70% and 80% CORRECT receivers, and I will continue to direct you to Vic Benson for spare parts you may need. I doubt you will ever see Vic refference me in his sight, and we may not always see eye to eye on everything, but he does have the parts you might be looking for, and he does keep his word when he tells you an item is being shipped. I DO NOT get any type of kick back from either place, I do however believe that they offer a QUALITY part for a fair price, and that both places do what they can to make things right to the buyer. Luna and Diablos Den offers quality templates, blanks and semi completed receivers and ALL of their templates are done on CAD equipment and held to very stringent specifications. My templates are also done on CAD equipment and like Luna and Diablos we include dimensional specifications so you can MEASURE as you cut to make sure everything is correct.
-------HAVE A SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON AND I WILL SEE YOU ALL IN JANUARY OF 2003--------
