Pren Gun
- Category
- Submachine Gun
- Barrel
- Not recorded
- Weight, empty
- Not recorded
- Introduced
- 1948
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Pren Gun is an Indonesian submachine gun, a locally manufactured copy of the British Sten Mk II built by student combat-engineer forces during the Indonesian National Revolution (1945-1949). Produced at a clandestine small-arms workshop in Tirtomoyo, Wonogiri Regency, by the Surakarta-based Tentara Genie Pelajar (TGP, 'Student Soldiers Combat Engineers'), it retained the Sten's simple blowback, open-bolt action and side-mounted 32-round magazine feeding the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge, while adding a wire skeleton stock and an additional flash hider. Its name is a portmanteau of its designer, a student named Pranggono, and the Sten gun on which it was based. The same facility also produced grenades, mortars and incendiary devices for republican fighters.
The Pren Gun was born in a hidden workshop in the hills of Tirtomoyo, where teenaged engineering students of the Tentara Genie Pelajar hand-built Sten copies to arm the republican resistance against returning Dutch forces. Its name fuses that of its student designer, Pranggono, with the Sten it imitated.
Exact physical dimensions of the Pren Gun are undocumented; the weapon closely followed the Sten Mk II pattern. The Tirtomoyo workshop was one of several improvised Indonesian arms shops operating during the 1945-1949 independence struggle.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Tentara Genie Pelajar (TGP)
- Category
- Submachine Gun
- Country
- Indonesia
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1948 to 1949
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Blowback
- Firing mechanism
- Open bolt
- Trigger
- Single action
- Capacity
- 32
- Magazine
- Detachable box
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Steel
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 365 m/s
- Effective range
- 100 m
- Rate of fire
- 500 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Side mounted magazine
Wire skeleton stock
Flash hider
Open bolt operation
Clandestine manufacture
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magazine capacityAmong 204 9x19mm Parabellum submachine guns | 32 | 32 | Holds more rounds than about 60% |
Answers
Questions about the Pren Gun
What caliber is the Pren Gun?
The Pren Gun is chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum.
How many rounds does the Pren Gun hold?
The Pren Gun holds 32 rounds, fed from a detachable box magazine.
Who makes the Pren Gun?
The Pren Gun is made by Tentara Genie Pelajar (TGP) (Indonesia). It was designed by Pranggono.
When was the Pren Gun introduced?
The Pren Gun was introduced in 1948 and discontinued in 1949.
How does the Pren Gun operate?
The Pren Gun uses a blowback action, and its firing mechanism is open bolt.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- Tentara Genie Pelajar
- 1948
Provenance
Confidence in this record
60%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/pren-gun' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "pren-gun", "name": "Pren Gun", "manufacturer": { "id": "tentara-genie-pelajar", "name": "Tentara Genie Pelajar (TGP)", "countryCode": "ID", "foundedYear": 1946, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-07-19 22:59:14", "updatedAt": "2026-07-19 22:59:14", "version": "eb882ae2f4a9ba81f5cb716a1f34a84b8fd56e86f0647667572bec68d453dd03" }, "category": { "id": "submachine-gun", "name": "Submachine Gun", "description": "Automatic firearms chambered in pistol calibers" }, "country_of_origin": "ID", "year_introduced": 1948, "barrel_length_mm": null, "weight_empty_g": null, "action_type": "blowback"}