I've wanted one of these since I read my first book on Iwo Jima in 4th grade, almost 40yrs ago.   I finally found a whopped enough gun to modify and make it happen.







I'm at the 1000 round mark of T&E in my journey to learn what a "Stinger" was. I'm still learning how to use it and finding mistakes I made in my build. But mostly, I still have more questions about how the real ones were made.
I'm starting to think they all disappeared because after a month of fighting on Iwo Jima there weren't any still in one piece. Nobody can say they know how any of the accessories were attached, but I'm leaning more and more towards they welded most stuff in place.

The bi-pod which most agree was from a BAR is a mystery how it was attached. I don't think it was welded to the barrel shroud because the shroud is so thin. I also think all they used were the legs, which were welded in a fixed position - and welded to the heavy section of the shroud at the trunnion thus welding the shroud to the trunnion making it a permanent fixture. The issue is with the bipod attached directly to the shroud, you will knock the shroud loose. It's a 30lb gun, you drop to prone from standing and if one leg hits before the other, it's coming loose. Ask me how I know. Maybe they did what I did and attached the bipod to a sleeve that could freely move on the shroud. When carried, the sling tension holds it tight in place. But then the issue is going prone with a 100rds of .30-06 hanging off the right side requiring the shooter to apply much torque to the right side of the stock that's jerry rigged in place when trying to aim. I bet they welded the legs directly to the shroud and receiver.

My stock is attached pretty solid, but its showing signs of fatigue already. I'll have to revisit that. No way it would make it through a month long battle.

My only embarrassment so far was my looking at pics and not reading enough details and attaching the BAR carry handle. When the Stingers were assembled, there was no such a thing in any Marine's vocabulary as "BAR Carry Handle". They didn't exist. I swapped it out for an M1917 carry handle.

Can't say I'm not enjoying shooting it, but there is a reason the technique they used was to open on pill boxes from 20yds, because with all the dirt they kick up you can't see past 20 feet.

Whoa!

29lbs

You've seen pics of an original?!

In the Book,   Lions of Iwo Jima  Mel Grevich's(Stinger designer) tent mate talks about how it was his job to paint the guns with camo and write on a girls name to each gun.

These guns were built during the 4 months they spent in Hawaii at Camp Tarawa.  They had access to the material and a machine shop, but I doubt they had access to parkerizing/bluing equipment.  I'm thinking the only option they had to protect the welded and bolted on metal pieces was with OD Green  enamel paint.  They must have mixed in a few other colors to get camo.

I saw that video a while back.  Lots of Tony Stein blasting away at the hip. I'm pretty sure the Stinger was shot almost exclusively prone.  It's ridiculously hard to shoot from the hip. I made a few attempts, it wasn't pretty.  It's like carnival bet hard.  I only have 1 day of full function with it at the range, but I'll bet anyone $100 they cant shoot an 8rd belt at a B27 target 25' away and hit it with more than 1 bullet, if at all.
Prone, the harmonics make it a pretty smooth shooter. At 500yds we were keeping 4-5 bursts in an 5' area.

No body knows, but there is no proof it's one of the original 6 either.

What makes me think its a repo/fake is there is NO WAY anyone familiar with a real one would put his left hand where it is.

Exactly.  When building this and looking for advice from some old guards, we would talk about what they "wouldn't" do.  No one knows what exactly they did, but we could eliminate the obvious things that wouldn't work.

The location of the BAR carry handle.  They didn't mount it to the middle of the barrel shroud because it would obscure the sights.  They didn't mount it to the left side of the shroud because the shroud is attached with RH threads.  They must have attached to the barrel.   And no, they did not use 1919A6 carry handles because there weren't any around at the time to take the parts from.  IF they had access to 1919A6 parts, they wouldn't have used an M1 Stock.

Only used period correct tools to do the work. The tools I used to bend the cut in half ammo can had 1937 on the handle. And as a bonus surprise, we found a roll of real lead solder from the 40s to put it back together.

The ammo can was easier than expected.  Dedication was sawing away for 40 minutes on the 1919 front sight with a hack saw when a metabo was  within reach.  There was a lot of improvised tools.  The bipod leg was a perfect mandrel to bend the trigger guard!



Beyond that we used a 1917 dated band saw for a some parts, and a 1940 dated drill press.