Description
The De Lisle was based on a Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield Mk III* converted to .45 ACP by modifying the receiver, altering the bolt/bolthead, replacing the barrel with a modified Thompson submachine gun barrel, and using modified magazines from the M1911 pistol. The primary feature of the De Lisle was its extremely effective suppressor, which made it very quiet in action. So quiet, in fact, that working the bolt to chamber the next round makes a louder noise than firing a round.
The .45 ACP was selected as its velocity was subsonic, it could therefore retain its full lethality when used with a suppressor (supersonic rounds fired with suppressors generally have their power reduced, to avoid the crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier). The Thompson gun barrel was ported (i.e. drilled with holes) to provide a slow release of high pressure gas into the suppressor that surrounded it. The suppressor, 2 inches (5.1 cm) in diameter, went all the way from the back of the barrel to well beyond the muzzle, making up half the overall length of the rifle. The suppressor provided a very large volume to contain the gases produced by firing, this was one of the keys to its effectiveness.
The Lee-Enfield bolt was modified to feed the .45 ACP rounds, and the Lee-Enfield's magazine assembly was replaced with a new assembly that held a modified M1911 magazine. The single-shot, bolt operation offered an advantage in that the shooter could refrain from chambering the next round if absolute silence was required after shooting. A Semi-automatic weapon would not have offered this option as the cycling of the bolt coupled with rearward escaping propellant gas would produce a noise with each shot. It was accurate to 250 metres (820 ft).
De Lislie's own .22 prototype rifle was given to the National Army Museum in London, by was subsequently lost and its present whereabouts are unknown. A reproduction of the carbine is manufactured by the American companies, Valkyrie Arms. Another company, Special Interest Arms, has announced limited production of a De Lisle replica which incorporates an improved magazine adapter system that allows the use of unmodified M1911 magazines and also fully supports the barrel chamber in the action.
Read more about this topic: De Lisle Carbine
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)