Pocket pistols have an interesting evolution. Some of the earliest guns declared as pocket pistols, like the Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless, would be too large for our current pockets. The demand for smaller guns stemmed from a more civilized era. You could carry a gun, but we do not want to see it. In the 1970s, guns like the Sterling 302 emphasized concealment over everything else.
The Sterling 302 is not the smallest pocket pistol. Pocket pistols have gotten extremely small in an era of the LCP, the P32, the Bodyguard, and so on and so forth. The Sterling 302 is smaller, but fairly thick and quite heavy. It would not sell all that well today in the face of the Ruger LCP 2 LiteRack. In the 1970s, it was micro-sized and good competition for the bulkier .38 Special snub noses.
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Most gun people will hear Sterling and think of the British company and WWII submachine guns. This is not that Sterling. The American Sterling made some odd little weapons, including a .380 ACP of the High Standard HDM with a super short barrel. The 302s seem to be their most common pistol, and they remain cheap because, well, they are not collector’s guns.
What Is a Sterling 302?
The Sterling 302 is a pocket-sized, blowback-operated .22LR semi-auto pistol. You might see this gun and mistake it for the classic Saturday night special. The Sterling 302 is no pot metal piece of crap. It is steel, looks, and feels well-made. There is also a Sterling 300, which is a .25 ACP variant.
With that said, Sterling was able to swing in and capture the same market at those later American Saturday Night Special companies. The 1968 Gun Control Act effectively banned the import of small foreign pistols via a ridiculous points system. The Sterling 302 and 300 filled the gap for an affordable, micro-sized pistol.
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The 302 weighs 13 ounces, putting it well above current offerings. Total length is 4.75 inches, and it is 3.5 inches in height. The gun uses a barrel just north of 2 inches. They were produced in matte black, chrome, and stainless finishes. They came with either black plastic grips or white plastic grips, doing their best impression of ivory.
We get a six-round magazine, making the capacity pitiful for a .22LR. We get a heel magazine release, which is fairly standard for pocket pistols of the era. The gun has a safety positioned in front of the trigger that pivots up for safe and down for fire. There is nothing really remarkable about these guns.
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Shooting the Sterling 302
Ah, trench sights. The sights from the era where snagging meant certain death. The Sterling 302 features a trench sight over the top of the gun. It is good enough for this little gun at close ranges, but accuracy falls off hard at the 10-yard mark. I consistently hit low.
Good enough to hit someone, but not good enough to ensure proper shot placement. If I “aimed” high, then I could make hits on a man-sized target out to 25 yards, but it looks more like a shotgun pattern than a group.
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The trigger is stiff, but short. It is nothing special, but serviceable. I have seen a lot of folks talk badly about the reliability of these guns, but I found mine worked perfectly with Federal Automatch. Rimfire pistols used to be notoriously finicky about ammo, so you have to use those hotter loads to get reliability.
With other ammo types, I had decent reliability but occasionally had an issue with the last round failing to feed. This did not occur with the Automatch, so I guess that is the ammo to use. It ran fine without any failures for about 200 rounds. Not quite a torture test, but loading a six-round magazine over and over took forever.
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The little Sterling 302 has the recoil you expect from a small .22LR handgun. That means barely any. It jumps a hair, but its bark is worse than its bite. It is loud, but easy to handle. The grip does not quite fill my hand, but a hanging pinky does not quite matter with this gun.
Surprisingly, the grip is designed to prevent slide bite. A smart move that was often overlooked in this era. Overall, it is comfortable and easy to shoot.
Is the Sterling 302 Worth It?
I paid all of $80 for this gun. That is not a princely sum. As such, it is worth it to me. I read a few horror stories calling these guns junk, and while this one has issues, it works fine with at least one load. For an $80 gun, that is not bad. It is not perfect, but if you can find a Sterling 302 for a low price point and want a plinker, grab one.
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