Hello from Essex

The Sten usually will last a day on the standard battery. Best to have a spare though. The 110round King arms mags can sometimes have issues fitting into the Stens, if you are one of the unlucky few who have this issue it's easy to fix. They also hold 135ish rounds not the advertised 110.
The L42 is not a WW2 gun. It's a cold war era weapon. Nice looking gun though

The Sten usually will last a day on the standard battery. Best to have a spare though. The 110round King arms mags can sometimes have issues fitting into the Stens, if you are one of the unlucky few who have this issue it's easy to fix. They also hold 135ish rounds not the advertised 110.
The L42 is not a WW2 gun. It's a cold war era weapon. Nice looking gun though

I just assumed the SnS guns were ww2 era, thanks for putting me straight.

I'm starting to get a good idea of what will get me through a day of airsoft. I'll report back tomorrow with my experiences of my first game and how I found the kit.

I think most of this has been covered already, but it is always a good idea to at least have a spare battery. Batteries can be duff ones, especially the nasty cheap ones which come with Chinese AEGs. A minimal tool kit is also a good idea, I also find a roll of electrical tape can be useful.

Spare gun is also handy, you can always swap from one to another during the day if you get the chance. It is nice if your spare takes the same batteries/mags as the other one, but that is often not feasible.

If you are going to shell out on a Browning HP, you may as well buy another AEG, they aren't hugely more expensive and are vastly more useful.

Cheers
Martin

That's a point about just buying another AEG. The Sten doesn't fire semi-auto and my local Skirmish site has a cqb area where only semi-auto are allowed. I had thought about using the browning for this rather than trying to mod the sten itself. I'm not sure what other period specific weapons I'd be able to use. Maybe could get away with a Thompson?

I had a great first day skirmishing at Billericay and a lot of people were interested in my gear. The only thing that ruined it all was using a rented g36 but it'll do for now.

The Thompson is very versatile, full and semi auto, and used by many WW2 combatant nations. I've used mine with British, German and Russian impressions, my first WW2 Airsoft gun.

MP40 is also a good solid choice, with the bonus that it will take your Sten mags. The AGM/ASG ones have a fire selector so they can be used on semi. You may also want to consider a wood stocked M14, again very versatile, can be used as-is or easily mocked up into a G43 or SVT-40 (which is what I use mine for). Or possibly an ICS Garand, its a rifle, it shoots semi-auto.

Glad you enjoyed your day.

Cheers
Martin

The Sten is probably the best performing WW2 AEG. It is very accurate at good range. I personally use a Burst Wizard with mine so I can set it to single shot or 3 round burst when I plug the battery in. It helps prevent the urge to empty the mag every time you pull the trigger and also makes it useable where single shot only is required. This doesn't help if you really want to switch between full auto and semi auto quickly. The Thompson is probably the gun which will suit the largest range of WW2 impressions.

Looked up the burst wizard and it seems to be the thing I need for my sten. I'll only need semi auto for one short game and there's plenty of time to plug in the mosfet before hand.

I could try out the 3 round burst mode when I get my sten. Seems sensible with only mid cap magazines.

The Thompson looks like a nice gun too. It might be sensible to have a back up especially as I saw someone had to go home as his gun chrono'd too fast.

Looked up the burst wizard and it seems to be the thing I need for my sten. I'll only need semi auto for one short game and there's plenty of time to plug in the mosfet before hand.

I could try out the 3 round burst mode when I get my sten. Seems sensible with only mid cap magazines.

The Thompson looks like a nice gun too. It might be sensible to have a back up especially as I saw someone had to go home as his gun chrono'd too fast.

I had one of the earliest burst wizards programmed into my ICS grease gun and when i changed the burst count to "1" it would not fire 1 round consitantly. Every other shot was 1 round 2 rounds 1 round 2 rounds 1 round 2 rounds. Like i said it was one of the earlier versions so they may have fixed the issue. However there burst fire when changed too 2 - 7 rds worked perfectly. In the end i took it out and learnt that i could control the Greasegun to single shot just by timing the trigger pull.

Stu

Looked up the burst wizard and it seems to be the thing I need for my sten. I'll only need semi auto for one short game and there's plenty of time to plug in the mosfet before hand.

I could try out the 3 round burst mode when I get my sten. Seems sensible with only mid cap magazines.

The Thompson looks like a nice gun too. It might be sensible to have a back up especially as I saw someone had to go home as his gun chrono'd too fast.

I had one of the earliest burst wizards programmed into my ICS grease gun and when i changed the burst count to "1" it would not fire 1 round consitantly. Every other shot was 1 round 2 rounds 1 round 2 rounds 1 round 2 rounds. Like i said it was one of the earlier versions so they may have fixed the issue. However there burst fire when changed too 2 - 7 rds worked perfectly. In the end i took it out and learnt that i could control the Greasegun to single shot just by timing the trigger pull.

Stu

That's a worry as if you're caught firing more than 1 round a time you can be kicked off the site. I've read reviews for the WE browning and some have said it doesn't hold up as a skirmishing gun but looks like the real thing.

I may just shell out for a TM Thompson as a back up gun. Could always get a commando jumper and cap comforter to keep it all historically accurate. Besides, the Thompson is a gorgeous looking weapon.

Ask your site about the burst wizard. I have never had issues if I explain to the site that it may do 2 shots occasionally. With an 8.4v battery it seems to be fairly reliable, but less reliable with a 9.6V battery.

My site are ok with the use of mosfets so I'll stick to getting a sten rather than a Thompson.

Something I wanted to ask was about the lipo battery. I've read several guides on lipos but I'm still a bit confused on whether to just stock with the stock battery or upgrade it to an 11.1v. Is it worth upgrading at all?

This any help? viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11963&p=194284#p194284

With a Sten, the battery space is limited. You can fit an 8.4 or 9.6V NiMh stick battery inside the tube of the stock or a 7.4V LiPo inside the back of the main body behind the piston. I'm not sure and 11.1V Lipo would fit inside the gun and tbh the trigger response of the Sten is already exceedingly good so it would be overkill. An 11.1V lipo would require the Mosfet to be permanently wired into the trigger of the gun as well.

To replace the battery if you use a NiMh stick battery requires removing the stock, which is held on with a large allen screw. Replacing the battery with a LiPo also requires removing the rear of the main tube (where the rear sight is), this is held on with a very small screw. I would recommend that a 9.6V NiMh is the best bet as I would not want to change a LiPo in the field as the tiny screw would be very easy to lose.

11.1 totally not needed for the Sten. Mine has a few upgrades and still the 7.4 keeps a good rate of fire and last for atleast half a game (3-4 hours). The switch for the trigger is really the weak part for the Sten, and might need replacing at some point in my experience. I would not recommend getting NiCd- or NiMH-batteries at this point, since they are so far behind the curve compared to LiPos. Most of the kinks have been worked out of LiPos and their use is not really that hard. If used correctly they are as well. Done the battery I think once in the field, can be done but you can prob eliminate the need for field-changes by planning ahead and changing it if you're in the respawn/where-ever and you know you're gonna have to change in the next hour or so.

Also echoing those before me, accuracy is really incredible considering it's short barrel and ACM hop up. Though I suggest changing the part that pushes the rubber itself down towards the bb (the name escapes me), mine was a screw (not optimal since it's hard metal), to a piece of wire cover or something rubber/plastic.

Thanks all the advice. I've stuck with the 7.4 lipo and have found an old thread from this forum recommending lipo batteries for the sten which was helpful.

I'll have an opportunity to change batteries and load magazines between games so field changes aren't really a worry for me.

I've read reviews that recommend changing the bushings to metal and getting some good grease for the gear box.