De Lisle .45 ACP Reproduction

The De Lisle carbine was designed by William Godfrey De Lisle and was a superbly quiet rifle for commando raids. It shot a .45 ACP pistol round through a converted SMLE-actioned rifle that was fitted with a 7.25” Thompson SMG barrel. This was within an outer steel shroud and a series of baffles reduced the noise level. The 230-grain FMJ bullet was intrinsically stable at subsonic velocities and offered deep penetration, so was deemed suitable for up to 200 yards!

This De Lisle reproduction rifle on test from TW Chambers is an accurate rendition of the Sterling Arms De Lisle made at Dagenham during the war.
What have we got?

First impressions are very good indeed, as the quality and finish are first class. An original SMLE Mk 3 action has been used and has been heavily modified. The bolt has been shortened and the bolt head recessed to take the .45 ACP round. A new extractor has been fashioned to fit the .45 case for reliable and positive extraction, with an ejector set into the left side of the action. The bolt handle even has the original Tufnol material inlet into its underside, preventing any noise when it touches the action. Amazing detail!

The underside of the action has been modified with a housing for the Colt 1911 magazine. Standard ones offered seven rounds, but during WW2, there were special ones available that provided eleven. The woodwork is the original and it has a beautiful grain and colour, with the correct metal, and trap door butt plate.

Due to the shortened bolt, the barrel is recessed back into the action body, and for legal reasons, it is 12.75” long, not the original 7.25”. The chrome-moly tube is made by Walther with a 1:16” left-hand twist, so is much better quality.

At the front of the action is the new forend retaining strap and a very authentic and shallow walnut forend piece. This attaches directly to the moderator shroud. The suppressor body is steel and has a chunky 2” diameter. It is 16” long and shows a satin/matte blue finish. On top are open sights, just like the Sterling model originals. The tapered post foresight includes protective ears and is windage adjustable, while the ramp-style rear sight shows four pre-determined ranges - 50, 75, 150 and 200 yards.

The magic

Inside the shroud is where the magic happens. To get inside, you need to remove the front cap, which is retained by two Allen nuts. The outer casing will slide off, revealing another inner aluminium shroud and the baffle stack in situ. Two further nuts are removed from the threaded baffle stack rods, and the eight baffles can be removed along with the 14 individual spacers.

There are seven 1mm thick split-topped baffles with a bullet hole measuring 0.600”. There is one 2mm thick baffle with a non-split top and this is the first blast baffle. It must be re-fitted in front of the muzzle.

With the baffles removed, you can slide off that aluminium shroud to reveal the barrel. At the end is a ‘German nozzle’, which redirects the initial gases from the powder ignition rearward from the ported barrel at the muzzle. TW Chambers makes sure that the ports are cut into the grooves of the rifling to maximise accuracy where possible.

The rifle is lovely and compact at 36” long, and although it weighs 9.4 lbs, the handling makes it feel a lot lighter.
Setting the sights

The open sights are a bit crude and quite wide, meaning the foresight does cover a lot of the target as the range extends. However, when the double-pull military trigger is overcome, accuracy becomes very consistent. With the sights set to 50 yards, I found that at 25 yards we had a slightly high group pattern from the factory PPU ammo, while Magtech was spot on.

At 50 yards, both factory loads basically impacted point of aim. At 75 yards, with the sights set accordingly, the Magtech group was 1.5” high, while PPU was over 3” high. At 100 yards, with the sights set at 75 yards, the Magtech was bang on, whilst the PPU was still 3” high.

Let’s go!

Shooting the De Lisle was fun and addictive, plus the noise reduction was superb. The .45 ACP is subsonic anyway, so the baffles in front of the ported barrel were sufficient to suppress the muzzle report to a ‘thut’ with the PPU and Magtech. However, the speedier 185-grain Z-Max I used, were just over the speed of sound. In fact, the nosiest part of the firing cycle was the bullet hitting the target board!

Considering the .45 ACP round is short and stumpy, the magazine fed with no problems, unless I hesitated on the bolt throw. The trigger pressure was a double pull affair and needed learning, with the first weight being 3 lbs 7 oz with a definite stop, then a final pull of 5 lbs and 3 oz.

Velocities were interesting, as I was expecting the manufacturer’s claimed velocity (850 fps) to increase more in the longer barrel, despite the ported section of the bore. However, it seemed the muzzle velocity was very similar to that tested in pre-war trials. In fact, at approximately 800 fps at 100 yards, you could see the 230-grain FMJ bullets in flight, with a corresponding delay in bullet strike. Down range, the muzzle report was inaudible and only the bullet strike was evident. All very impressive, and hence its use by the Commandoes of WW2.

Accuracy was as expected, as the .45 ACP was never a stunningly accurate round. It was developed as more of a ‘man stopper’ and as such the accuracy on test was very good in my opinion. All factory ammo shot 2 to 2.5” groups at 25 yards, and due to its unique, slow stability at range with its non-turbulent subsonic velocity, it kept this accuracy out to 75 yards. At 100 yards, the open sights were the limiting factor, with the foresight covering most of the figure 11 target head. However, we had good accuracy with the Magtech, achieving 4” groups, while the PPU put two shots into 2.5” before the third round opened it up to 6”. At the end of the day, my son managed a 5-shot group measuring just over 3” with the PPU ammo. Young eyes and open sights win here!

More detail

Interestingly, and common with many fully suppressed rifles, you often get two shots very close and then the third off, as tested, due to the harmonic shift of the barrel within the suppressor shroud. We did shoot some 5-shot groups at 50 yards, with the Magtech producing some 2.5 to 3.0” groups, and the PPU having four shots in 2.5 to 3.0”, with the fifth making a group of 5.0”.

Reloads are always a good idea, so I checked the OAL length of the Walther barrel’s chamber. It was found that the throat was quite long, as expected, at 1.3950”, whereas a standard .45 ACP round is loaded to 1.2665”. Therefore, I did experiment with longer reloads out to an OAL of 1.3565”, but these proved too long to feed correctly through the magazine. 1.3040” was okay.

I decided to load a variety of rounds with some faster pistol and shotgun powder to ascertain if I could increase the accuracy potential of the De Lisle. The 4.6-grains of Tite Group and the 230-grain FMJ was too slow at 510 fps, and only just got out of the barrel! However, the 6.2-grains of Unique and the same bullet shot 810 fps/335 ft/lbs with 2.5 - 3.0” groups. Using the same bullet again, a load of 7.0-grains of Longshot powder produced 1.5” groups, 818 fps, and 342 ft/lbs of energy. Using the lighter 185-grain Z Max bullets, with a load of 6.0-grains of Tite Group, these reloads managed 1005 fps and 415 ft/lbs. They were still subsonic and achieved 1.5” groups. The PPU factory ammo was used as the control and achieved higher velocities at higher temperatures (870 fps and 387 ft/lbs).

Conclusions

I have tested a lot of rifles over the years, and this De Lisle repro from TW Chambers is just so much fun to shoot. It is something a bit different, yet it still embodies the authentic design of the original. The build quality is excellent, and every part is made to be as true to the original as possible, apart from the barrel length, sensibly.

Accuracy with the crude open sights was as expected. The original De Lisle was not accurate, but this Repro shot a lot better, and from 25 to 100 yards, the accuracy was very consistent and only limited by the sights. I would love to fit a retro sniper scope, like an Aldis, to one of these rifles, as it would help with better sighting. Reloads also shrunk the groups and I would definitely go this route to achieve a blend of accuracy and noise reduction that is indicative of this marque.

So, if you want a true-to-life repro of this very famous rifle, then the TW Chambers model is worth every penny of the asking price.