Owen Machine Carbine imitation

This is my Owen Machine  Carbine replica, or more correctly under Australian definition Imitation Firearm.
The Owen Gun was a locally designed and built Submachine gun developed by Evelyn Owen in Australia .
It was adopted by the Australian Army and continued in service until the early stages of Australian deployment in Vietnam .
The gun was popular with Australian allies and developed a reputation for reliability and usability in close country ( jungle).
These models were batch built by a small team in extremely limited numbers. The early versions were visually accurate but crudely constructed with a moving bolt and trigger but no sears, the magazines were friction fitted  . They had a metal skeleton stock and painted finish . This is the later run that have a nicer blued finish and working sear and magazine catch .

Nicely done. Make sure that Plod doesn't catch you out with it.

Thank you for presenting this nice model.
I have heard of this submachinegun before. It had the reputation of being a reliable and easy to use gun.

I have heard about this gun before and i think there is mixed feelings about it, at least from what i have read. That said i know little about it but always thought it was based on the sten and that might of been cheap and cheerful but it served well.

lampwick wrote:

Nicely done.  Make sure that Plod doesn't catch you out with it.

These replicas were built in consultation with Firearms Branch and are legal in this state, the builder is actually “detuned” them to ensure that they were compliant . They aren’t field strippable and the stock is not detachable.

claymore wrote:

I have heard about this gun before and i think there is mixed feelings about it, at least from what i have read. That said i know little about it but always thought it was based on the sten and that might of been cheap and cheerful but it served well.

They were popular with users, more so than the the Sten and even the Thompson , due to their weight , reliability and handling. You may be thinking of the contemporary Austen ( Australian Sten) which was based on the Sten but was decidedly not as popular and actively disliked . Post war the Owens continued in service through Korea, Malaya and Timor and early deployment in Vietnam were let down by old war stock ammunition , they were replaced in service by tne F1 SMG.
They were definately in use at the battle of Long Tan by medics and Sigs .

These were preferred over the Sten as the vertical magazine didn't catch on the jungle foliage.

Fantastic, I'd love to get some dimensions for working on my own replica. Was this built acurately to original dimensions?