Sterling is a relatively simple, but wery well made, blowback operated gun. The receiver and the barrel heat shield was made from steel tube, the bolt was machined, with fixed firing pin and four special ribs, designed to gather and remove the dust and fouling from the receiver. The curved magazine is inserted from the left side, spent cases are ejected to the right. The folding butt is made from stamped steel. Silenced version of the Sterling, officially labelled as L34A1, replaced in service the older STEN Mark 6 silenced.

The Sterling SMG deserved vvery high reputation along the troops due to extreme reliability and good accuracy.