THE OWEN GUN
By James O. Bardwell
HISTORY
The Owen gun was designed by an Australian inventor, Evelyn Owen, between 1938-41. It was the first submachine gun either designed or made in Australia, and came just in time for use in World War II. The production Owen gun was improved by design input from Gerard Wardell, an executive at Lysaght's Newcastle Works Pty. Ltd., the firm that oversaw the making of the gun, as well as making many of the components at their Port Kembla, New South Wales, facility. The story of how Lysaght's found Owen and his gun is rather colorful. Owen's family lived adjacent to Vincent Wardell, brother of Gerard and another executive at Lysaght's. In 1940 Vincent Wardell discovered a prototype gun in a sack behind the stairs at Owen's home, after Owen left it there for a moment. Owen got to talking to Wardell about the prototype, and his unsuccessful attempts to interest the military (Owen was then a private in the Army), and the project took off from there. Lysaght's got Owen assigned by the Army to assist them with his gun. Owen was discharged from the Army in 1942, and then left Lysaght's in 1943. He then ran a lumber mill and died in 1949, at age 33.
Lysaght's was a sheet steel fabricating company, and outside the Australian military procurement process. As the gun was designed and manufactured outside the regular channels, there was resistance to it on the part of the Australian military. The effect of this resistance, and how pronounced it was, is a matter of controversy even now, with two recent books on this subject. Gerard Wardell, together with his brother Vincent, worked hard to get the gun accepted by the military. They enlisted help from the press, to gain public support, as well as from friendly government employees, both military and civilian. Military officials favored the Austen, a locally modified version of the British Sten gun (see Machine Gun News, October 1993, page 20), despite the Austen's poorer performance in military trials of both guns.
In the end both were made, although the Owen was made in greater numbers (approximately 45,000, versus approximately 20,000 Austen's), and reportedly favored by troops over the Austen. Approximately 12,000 Owen guns were made with a solid trigger frame, and around 33,000 with a skeletonized trigger frame. The parts for both otherwise interchange, and both are marked Mk 1 on the gun, although the skeletonized ones are sometimes referred to as Mk 1* models. Most of the solid frame guns were made in 1942, and most of the skeletonized ones in 1943 and 1944, but production overlapped. The guns were marked with the last two digits of the year of production on the trigger frame, after the Mk 1 designation. Two hundred ten Mk 2 guns were also made and differ from the Mk 1 guns in the attachment of the buttstock, and the trigger group design, among other changes, all done to make the gun lighter.
Owen guns were used by Australia during World War II in battles with Japan in New Guinea, and throughout the Pacific theater. They served with the Australian military into the 1960's, and saw some use in Vietnam. They were replaced in the 1960's by the F1, which retained the Owen's top mounted magazine position, but took other features from the Patchett Sterling gun.
DESIGN & FUNCTION
The Owen is a select fire, open bolt design chambered for 9mm Parabellum. The firing pin is integral to the bolt face. It uses a 33 round double column, double feed magazine mounted on the top of the tube receiver, and ejects cases downward. Sighting is offset to the shooter's right, and the sights are not adjustable. One rather unique feature is the ejector, it is a tooth on the rear of the magazine. Owen thought that the ejector was a weak part of earlier submachine gun designs, and incorporating the ejector into the magazine meant that a faulty ejector was easily fixed by swapping out the offending magazine and trying another.
Such an arrangement also meant the bolt could be removed from the gun through the front of the receiver without interference from a fixed ejector. Having the bolt strip through the front of the receiver, instead of the rear, permitted a 1/2 inch thick metal ring at the rear of the receiver, separating the open slot for the cocking handle from the front portion of the receiver, where the bolt and spring are. The recoil spring guide shaft passes through a hole in this ring, and the cocking handle retains it on the other side of the ring. This arrangement effectively seals the part of the receiver where the bolt reciprocates, preventing the gun from being jammed by foreign material entering through the slot for the cocking handle. Dirt is kept from entering the area where the bolt moves at the front by tight fitting of the bolt to the receiver, in bands, in sort of the manner that piston rings function in an engine. This sealed receiver was a major reason why the Owen did so well in military trials as compared to its rivals. On an Austen or Sten, dirt or mud can enter the gun through the hole for the cocking handle, and jam the gun.
All major parts of the gun were stamped with at least the last three digits of the serial number, the full number is usually on the barrel, receiver, bolt components, and sometimes the trigger frame. Bolts and barrels were fitted to the gun, and interchangability without fitting may not be possible.
The trigger group is designed such that each movement of the selector allows more movement of the trigger. Thus the trigger is blocked in safe, has partial movement in semi auto (repetition in the Australian parlance) and full movement in full auto. The full auto position is all that is really needed to fire the gun. A partial depression of the trigger will trip the sear and allow semi auto fire, and a full depression will hold the sear out of engagement with the bolt and allow full auto fire. The gun was designed so that it would still fire full auto if one of the three springs used in the trigger assembly were broken or lost. The one that comes out the easiest is the trigger return spring, which is a flat steel spring, the others are coil springs. If this spring is missing or improperly installed the gun will fire full auto only.
All Owen guns originally had a blued finish, and all I have seen showed traces of green camouflage paint on the metal parts, applied over the bluing. A black and white picture from the factory shows a World War II era gun as having contrasting light and dark camouflage paint on it. After the war the guns still held by Australia were Factory Thorough Repaired (F.T.R.) at S.A.F. Lithgow, and had their paint removed and were phosphated. They also had a sliding safety piece fitted, that blocked the cocking handle from moving, by sliding either in front of, or behind the cocking handle, blocking the handle's movement in its slot.
Nearly all Owen guns were fitted with Bakelite type plastic grips, although the gun in the J. Curtis Earl Automatic Weapons Collection at the Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa, AZ has wood grips. Lysaght's made a number of presentation guns, this may be one of them.
There were several buttstocks made, all work on any Mk 1 gun. There are skeletonized steel ones, with and without an SMLE oiler clip, as well as wood ones, both with lightening cuts and without, and with butt-traps and without.
Some guns were fitted with bayonet mount brackets on the barrel. The Owen had a bayonet designed expressly for it; some Austen guns were also fitted to accept it. The overall construction of the Owen is extremely durable, and rather heavy, around 9 lbs unloaded.
The receiver is tapered on the inside at the front to accept the interchangeable barrels, as well as having a shoulder at the rear to hold the 1/2 inch ring separating the open cocking handle slot from the rest of the receiver. Both this shoulder and the tapered barrel fitting meant the gun required more machine work than a straight tube design. The barrel removal feature was meant for cleaning, not exchanging barrels during use.
STRIPPING
The Owen was designed with ease of stripping, and as few small, easily lost parts as possible. No tools are needed for basic stripping. The barrel comes off the receiver by lifting up on the barrel catch, located in front of the mag well, and pulling the barrel off the front of the receiver. The bolt and recoil spring then come out of the front of the receiver by pulling straight out on the brass catch on the operating handle until it can be turned 90 degrees, and rested on the shelf in front of it. The barrel catch will have to be lifted for the bolt to clear. Further disassembly was not recommended for ordinary cleaning, but is easily done.
The end cap may be removed by prying it off, and the operating handle be removed from the butt end of the receiver. The trigger frame is removed from the receiver by unscrewing the large flat head screw on the underside of the trigger frame. The trigger assembly may be disassembled by sliding the retaining plate on the shooter's right side of the assembly up and off the pins. The selector can then be pushed out of the frame toward the shooter's left. The pins retaining the sear and trigger can then also be pushed out to the left, and the sear and spring can be lifted out of the top opening of the trigger frame. The trigger is still held in the frame by the trigger spring, the other end is retained by a screw in the side of the grip. This may be removed by removing the screw, and lifting out. This is not necessary except to repair a broken spring, and can be difficult to reassemble. The extractor and spring are retained by a pin through the bolt. The recoil spring guide shaft is held into the bolt by a pin retained by a spring steel ring around the center of the bolt.
SHOOTING
My Owen gun is a joy to shoot. In over 800 rounds so far, there have been no malfunctions of any kind, even when using grungy Egyptian surplus. The gun performs as it should when set on semi auto, only firing one shot, instead of two or three, as some open bolt guns do. With the selector set for full auto, the operator can easily squeeze the trigger part way and fire single shots, or depress the trigger for bursts. The hole in the rear sight is too large for accurate aiming; the gun was apparently meant to be fired from the hip. However, despite a rather pitted barrel, and crude sights, it is accurate, allowing the shooter to hold all 33 shots on a man sized silhouette at 25 yards. Muzzle rise is minimal, and emptying a whole magazine in one burst is controllable, due in part to the weight of the gun, as well as its dual grip design. The downward ejection makes for easy collection of spent brass. The one irritating aspect of shooting the Owen is that the bolt does not lock back on an empty magazine; there is no bolt lock.
The gun also functions without problem when held sideways, or upside down. The ejection was not very vigorous upside down, but the tooth on the mag, in combination with the next round in the mag (or the magazine follower on the last round) kicked each empty out and to the right and left, alternately. This test was more for fun than demonstrating any tactical feature, but it was interesting to see that the cases did not fall back into the action.
The magazine is very easy to load, no tool is needed, in contrast to the single feed design of the Sten magazine, also used on the Austen.
The Owen is an excellent submachine gun. Its weight and length may make it obsolete now, but considering controllability, durability, and function it is the equal of any submachine gun. The Owen does everything you could ask of one. And keeps on doing it. Certainly no better submachine gun was fielded during World War II. Although the gun seems to be rather rare in the U.S., an Owen is also an ideal civilian sport submachine gun, as it fires many rounds in a session without jams or excessive heating, is easy to maintain, and very durable.
Thanks to Chris Lares at the Champlin Fighter Museum, Mesa, AZ for permitting me to examine and photograph the Owen gun in their collection.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Skennerton, Ian. Small Arms Identification Series 9mm Austen Mk 1 & 9mm Owen Mk 1 Sub-machine Guns, Self published, 1994. North American distributor, I.D.S.A. Books, Piqua, OH.
Smith, Kevin. Owen Gun Files, The - An Australian Wartime Controversy, Turton & Armstrong, Sydney, Australia, 1994.
Wardman, Wayne. The Owen Gun, self published, 1991.
CAPTIONS
Figure 1: Bill Bardwell firing an Owen Mk1.
Figure 2: Owen Mk 1 disassembled into its major components.
Figure 3: Owen Mk 1 left side view.
Figure 4: Owen Mk 1 right side view.
Figure 5: Detail of the Owen magazine. The metal projection on the rear wall, between the feed lips, is the ejector.
Figure 6: Detail of an Owen trigger frame, with the selector removed, to show "S", "R", and "A" markings. Not all trigger frames are so marked.
Figure 7: Detail of the Owen bolt. The ejector rides in the milled slot above the integral firing pin.
Figure 8: An Owen gun with a finned barrel. This gun, made in 1942, is in the J. Curtis Earl Automatic Weapons Collection at the Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa, AZ. Also note the wood grip.
Figure 9: Markings on the trigger frame of the Owen gun at the Champlin Fighter Museum. It reads, "OWEN 9MM MK1.42 LYSAGHT PK. AUSTRALIA PAT. PENDING." The bottom line is the serial number. PK stands for Port Kembla. The Owen gun's tube body, considered the receiver by the B.A.T.F., is unmarked except for the serial number.
Credit: All photos by the author.
