Help identifying Pneumatic Mares Sten

[Wideawake]

Hello all. Thank goodness I found a forum I can ask this sort of question. Googling is proving very difficult.

I’m looking for any help to identify this Mares Sten pneumatic spear gun. Length is 70cm I believe. Blue and yellow. Logo looks to say “lono” or “long” it’s hard to read as you can see in the photos.

No idea of age or background. I’ve found it at a pawn shop and I’m thinking of purchasing but need more info first as it’s missing a pump.

Any help is appreciated. I’m based in Australia if that makes any difference on model name.

 

[popgun pete]

It is a Medisten, the next version of the Sten series that started with the Competition Line models. These were charcoal grey with fluoro green highlights and had a trigger that could be adjusted in fore-aft length with a sliding 3 position leading edge. Mares got rid of that trigger and went back to a single piece trigger. Over the years Mares changed the colour scheme to blue and a red safety slide, but it is still the same gun. The hand pump is the Mares screw in model which is still used today. The gun uses an 8 mm shaft, such shafts can still be purchased today.

 

[Wideawake]

It is a Medisten, the next version of the Sten series that started with the Competition Line models. These were charcoal grey with fluoro green highlights and had a trigger that could be adjusted in fore-aft length with a sliding 3 position leading edge. Mares got rid of that trigger and went back to a single piece trigger. Over the years Mares changed the colour scheme to blue and a red safety slide, but it is still the same gun. The hand pump is the Mares screw in model which is still used today. The gun uses an 8 mm shaft, such shafts can still be purchased today.

Thanks Pete for the detail. Is there a particular model number or “size” hand pump I need to look out for are is the screw in a generic type by Mares?

 

[popgun pete]

The Mares hand pumps are the same for all the guns made by Mares. When the Sten first came out the pumps used a bayonet twist connection, but they were abandoned well before the Sten 87 came out. You can see the original version of that gun here.

Sten Competition Line or Sten 87 Model

Here are some brochure photos of the USA models of the "Sten" family with their different name stickers.Note the metal triggers in the above guns. The Long Tom is wearing its plastic muzzle cap which is only there for storage.The "Sawed Off" is a "Ministen" and was available as a power...

forums.deeperblue.com

Mares still use parts of this gun in their Jet model.

 

[popgun pete]

The Mares hand pump is on the right in this photo.

 

[Wideawake]

The Mares hand pumps are the same for all the guns made by Mares. When the Sten first came out the pumps used a bayonet twist connection, but they were abandoned well before the Sten 87 came out. You can see the original version of that gun here.

Sten Competition Line or Sten 87 Model

Here are some brochure photos of the USA models of the "Sten" family with their different name stickers.Note the metal triggers in the above guns. The Long Tom is wearing its plastic muzzle cap which is only there for storage.The "Sawed Off" is a "Ministen" and was available as a power...

forums.deeperblue.com

Mares still use parts of this gun in their Jet model.

Fantastic. Thanks for all your help

 

[popgun pete]

This is the gun as it is sold these days under the name "Jet".

Mares Jet 410 580 NP pneumatic air Spearfishing Spear Gun | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Mares Jet 410 580 NP pneumatic air Spearfishing Spear Gun at the best online prices at eBay!

www.ebay.com.au

 

[popgun pete]

Looking through my thousands of old colour prints in my storeroom after pushing aside the Ark of the Covenant and the barrel of hen’s teeth I found some of my old gun dismantling photos. All Kodak print film back then, probably was using my Nikonos III, no personal computers, no internet and no digital mobile phones. The Sten, serial number 40093, has yet to receive its “invasion stripes”.

 

[popgun pete]

My Sten with its “invasion stripes”, mainly to distinguish it from the guns of others who also used Stens, but it had a silvery tank as against a greyish colour tank that marked the first series guns. The early trigger has no fine adjustment screw, that came later and I never use it in the guns that have it, except for the Cyrano 1.3. This was Mares’ biggest mistake with its predecessor the Mares Cyrano Evo, a 1.1 inner barrel, a line release lever snapper unless you wound the trigger sensitivity screw right out. Tilting a see-saw sear lever in the ready to shoot position is a big no-no.

And this is why Mares switched their line release lever to the side of the trigger finger guard in the next Sten minor revision, if you are a complete moron and grab the cocked to shoot gun around the tank and the strung shooting line the resulting line tension can fire the gun as the line release lever acts as a secondary trigger.

 

[popgun pete]

The Sten 87, aka the “Competition Line” model, and from then onwards all have the side mounted line release using the trigger’s toe. Mares even took out a patent on it. The early handle shape also used this layout as can be seen from the patent diagram, not sure when the changeover occurred as the local distributor sold all their old stock before they let any new models out, so a new version would be on sale overseas but we just had the previous version in our stores.

 

[popgun pete]

Here is a US market Sharpshooter with its nice carry bag, here we just got a clear polythene bag with Manes printed on it in light blue script, then we moved onto bright orange vinyl carry bags that broke down if left anywhere in the sunlight. These are best thrown away and replaced with a towelling bag which can sop up all the saltwater droplets on the gun and stop you rusting out the trunk of your car if you throw the gun in there for transport.

Mares routinely rename their guns for the US market, nearly everywhere else they are, in ascending length order, the "Miniministen", "Ministen", "Medisten", "Sten" and "Supersten". For the USA these same guns are the "Snub Nose", "Shortie", "Frontiersman", "Californian" and "Long Tom", the changes are just the different tank stickers.

Mares also sell a "Sharpshooter" in the USA which is just another version of the "Frontiersman", but it has a capillary type depth gauge added to the top of the rear handgrip and was finished in all-black, ditto for the similarly equipped "Long Tom". A white rubber handle cover was also available so a dropped loaded gun would be easier to find on the bottom, especially a seaweed strewn one.

 

[popgun pete]

This is the range of Sten guns in 1979, the guns have their markings for the US Market. Note the Sharpshooter and Frontiersman are both Medistens.

 

[popgun pete]

Scan of old colour print showing main parts of the original Sten (this one is number 93) less the tank tube, muzzle and handle butt cap which is secured by a metal rod that has also been screwed out along with its cylindrical end nut. On the early guns the hollow grip handle was sealed as a buoyancy element which meant that the Sten guns all floated on their side at the surface and even the shortest models floated after the shot, including the “Miniministen”. In later models Mares left the pistol grip handle’s butt open to the sea so that the short guns are not the floaters that they once were.