sten after 70 years in the ground

Hey guys,

As my first post I would like to show you this find of last year.
It's a sten MK2 after 70 years buried at almost 1 metre in the soil.
It was found in the sector where the regina rifles regiment crossed the Leopold Canal the 6th of octobre 1944 and has left there
and been there ever since.
The gun must have ben greased up pretty wel if you see the interior parts.
I let the pics do the talking.

grtz



































Sten mk 2 for the careful reader

Awesome find!

That's a neat find !!!!!! Cheers Brian

That's in surprisingly good condition. It must have been very exciting to uncover such a great piece of history. I'm jealous of the Europeans who have the opportunity to search for historic items whether it be items from WW2 or Roman artifacts. The only thing that I can hunt for in my area is Native artifacts and they are predominately stone so they are very difficult to find.

Vondst van de maand   

nice find, always wish a word of caution of course when digging, a worker in Germany was killed recently when his bulldozer struck an unexploded bomb. I must admit I have a few relics and have been digging before when I was younger, my friend unearthed some amazing things but did once set a tree on fire from a British phosphorous grenade, glad I was not there

I kinda liked it before you cleaned it, but I can recommend oxalic acid on rusty painted stuff, like helmets, or an electrolysis bath on metal items. If you like cleaning stuff then these methods are a bit more gentle, else leave it as is, once out of the elements is not going to get in much worse condition  

Nice find and a great piece of history. I go to eastern Europe and go digging every time I am there and finds lots of good stuff, just not Canadian .....:)

Well done with the clean up, and be careful with the ammo.

Cheers   

Amazing find!!! Were you just digging out foxholes or did the detector pick it up?

Thks

Infanteer wrote:That's in surprisingly good condition. It must have been very exciting to uncover such a great piece of history. I'm jealous of the Europeans who have the opportunity to search for historic items whether it be items from WW2 or Roman artifacts. The only thing that I can hunt for in my area is Native artifacts and they are predominately stone so they are very difficult to find.

Man you said it. Be nice to go there and spend a few months and dig. Amazingly there is still lots of undiscovered areas. My next rip will include some detecting.

For me, a couple of weeks of searching for artifacts would be the ideal vacation... maybe one day if I can arrange it.

Unless you doing a solo trip, you will have to think of where to put the family for 2 weeks    My trip I stuck the wife in Paris where she ran up a nice shopping bill. Has to be a better way lol.

My wife would be happy to have me out of the house and my girls are adults now.... ya, it would definitely be a solo trip.

Hey guys , i'm glad you like it.

This find was restored with elektrolyse and it's an awesome method that does not require much work.
This was picked up by my metaldetector in a former trench.

I knew it, digging out old foxholes or trenches find the best stuff.  Cool sell it to me!!!!!  What will the RCMP think of a rusted war relic SMG from the ground after 74 years, same as a deact right lol?

Besides the C/l\ marked bolt, and the markings on the magwell which are of the Canadian pattern, another give-away that it is a Canadian produced sten is the "H" over the dovetail for the stock. The H is found on the early welded Canadian bodies from 42 and into early 43. During the 3L series of guns they went to spot welded bodies, and the little H would no longer be there.

Often there would be a property mark on the bottom of the trigger guard. Some had the C/i\ there, while some had the British /l\.

Love it!!! But as I like "relics" and have many relic badges ect in my collection, I would have left it the way it was

Dean O