Picked it up at Bisley last Friday. I know its not a 'true' reproduction as the barrel length is different - but I'm pretty sure it's the closest I'll get to owning a real one! This one is one from Shandwick / TW Chambers in Scotland.
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Picked it up at Bisley last Friday. I know its not a 'true' reproduction as the barrel length is different - but I'm pretty sure it's the closest I'll get to owning a real one! This one is one from Shandwick / TW Chambers in Scotland.
One of the most ingenious firearms ever concieved.
I'd describe it as enigmatic, one that has gone into firearns folklore but, alas, not a quiet as its successor, the Mk2 Sten gun
Very nice example...looks great.
They've also made this beauty - apparently likely to be sold at an auction at some point...
I remember them coming and photographing ours for that project and their standard gun project too. It was said that the folding butt version (there was only ever one, regardless of what has been written elsewhere) was not a de-Lisle made variant, but an end-of-war era modified by Patchett. It was an early Patchett butt that was used while he was head of the design team at Sterling. And later used on his Patchett SMG's
I could never get the butt to work properly on the original! I wasn't game to strip it as it wasn't what you'd call 'robust'. Certainly not your average crunchie proof.
This' a cross post from CGN/Canadiangunnutz, but since info is so limited I figured it wouldn't hurt to post here in case some members here don't go on there:
This is by no means an advertisement, just figured I'd share as there's almost no information online about these guns.
Recently I came across the Shandwick Supply DeLisle and was pretty impressed by its quality. Seeing as there's next to no info I decided to contact the company and had quite a nice conversation with Dave McLaughlin, the Managing Director. Quite a nice guy to chat with, and found out some interesting bits about their product, as well as Ross rifles, since they are quite close to Sir Charles Ross' family home, Balnagown Castle.
Interestingly enough, their website shows only that they're a specialty machining firm, but from talking to Dave, it sounds like they do a lot of neat small arms and field gun projects as well as museum work on specialty items like Maxims and the like.
Anyways, info and pictures of the DeLisle:
- All standard builds have a 13” barrel, to comply with UK law, but are still fully supressed. They are considering making non-suppressed reproductions so they can sell to markets like Canada. I talked with him about our gun laws, so he's at least aware of the rough way it works here.
- The price of the standard UK version for export is £2,500 + shipping costs and for UK clients is £3,000 including VAT. Currently building a small batch that will be completed within the next 2 months and some of these are still available to buy.
- In terms of sound: " We have never carried out a sound level test but what I can say is the rifle is exceptionally quiet. A number of years ago we tried one firing vertically and the noise level was very low with only a muffled “poof” sound. When firing on a range it is difficult to be clear what noise is being created as the bullet striking the back stop tends to confuse. We have reduced the number of baffles to accommodate the longer barrel, but the barrel is ported per the original, and much of the gas is deflected rearwards into the larger expansion chamber. I think the net result is a sound level very similar to the original while the longer barrel probably makes it more accurate. I hesitate to be absolute as there are so many factors that come into play and we have never carried out comparative tests for sound or accuracy."
- The Airborne version is only No2 in the world with No 1, the prototype, being held by the School of Infantry at Warminster. It is planned to go to auction later in the year.
-They also do restoration of artillery and build field guns. They have one of the largest capacity firearms machine shops in the UK being able to handle pieces up to 10 Tonnes. Their gunmaker is Hamish Christie and was trained at James Purdey in London.
In regards to the rosses, a fun historical tidbit:
"A steel target Ross used is still on the estate and a friend has timber, with bullet holes, he rescued from the bell tower during the demolition of Logie Easter church. The story goes that Ross was fond of shooting the bell from the castle and certainly the timber supports this."
Very nice looks like high quality workmanship, I always wanted to take a crack at building one.
It looks excellent Nick, I toyed with the idea sometime back regarding a build and due to our laws regarding the barrel etc, decided to give it a miss, have had a few ideas since, I've said it few times regarding building one you have to do it to the letter after all its the suppressor/silencer that makes it a De-Lisle..... for us here we have no choice to have a longer one but adding the 4" to the original 8" then still adding more to take it to 24" ............
I knew someone - in a roundabout way - who built one from a deactivated No1 rifle. Yep, STILL deactivated but now a deactivated deLisle! That's when the sxxx hit the fan.............. According to an over zealous cop decided that he had fundamentally altered what it originally was and NOW possessed a real deLisle - albeit 'deactivated' and still totally unable to load, fire or discharge a real round. To cut a long story short it came to the MoD (who had some originals for comparison and expert witnesses on hand) for an opinion at his suggestion plus that of a Barrister who was narrowly involved in the increasingly absolutely farcical situation before it cost even more and more from the public purse and his private finances. Common sense and '....the bleedin obvious won the day.
After shooting it the other day I had a bit of correspondence with the gunsmith at Shandwick re cleaning it. (As in how often & how!)
The answer was after every shoot and carefully!
They sent through some instructional photos for me, so I had a go this evening...
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...djpgraw1-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...rjpgraw1-1.jpg
There are a lot of parts to clean!!! :move eek:
Thank you for posting the photos of it stripped form cleaning. I would love to have a go at building one.
Is it in .45 calibre?
Thanks for the heads up on this one Nick I have just ordered my own, now the wait begins......
I should think that would work at least until you burned it off with shooting...but that would take quite a bit. Would also serve to cool the gasses I would think?
In my admittedly very limited experience with L34's ans Mk2S Stens I would keep to the internal coppa-slip regime because it really does prevent the rods and other associated parts sticking and occasionally jambing up solid - which they WILL, as sure as god made little green apples. And when they do............. It will give a bit of smoke but when you're showing your mates (I can only presume that you won't be using it in anger anywhere.....) it the NOISE that you're going to impress them with. Not the puffs of oily smoke.
It's a lovely looking rifle and it would be great if someone was manufacturing them in a non-suppressed version for export - a .45ACP rifle would be rather popular, I expect!
Very easy to do, I've done 3 in the past, I imported three .45 kits that Rhineland Arms made (they still make them for the Mauser), the kit included the barrel, lock nut and magazine adapter......... at the time it was a very cheap kit and I couldn't even get a barrel blank for that price.........
I used old sporterized Enfield's which were around £50 at the time, Head spacing was so simple due to the lock nut like Savage use, only thing to source or adapt was the extractor, use an Indian 7.62mm or convert a .303 one.
There was some fettling here and there but nothing too taxing, the fore-end required some meat to be taken out.... and bobs your uncle.
I was gearing up to make and supply the kits, but at the time a company in the UK had produced a 9mm Lever release...... I did have a few enquiries but not enough to justify the outlay......
Like the Blue Peter saying here s one I did earlier, (this one I produced from a barrel blank)
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ture1541-1.jpg
http://www.milsurps.com/images/impor...ture1571-1.jpg
http://www.milsurps.com/images/impor...ture1631-1.jpg
Very cool little carbine Geoff:super: How did she shoot mate?
John, They shoot fine, really good groups etc and the .45 is easy to load..... My own one I sold a good few years back...... interesting was the guy who bought it didn't really want it for much shooting but needed a .45 on his ticket, as he shot a 1911 (somewhere in the EU) so wanted to load at home for it.
Wish we could get the mag block fillers here. I've done about tree I think, they all ended up singles. I made a mag replica from wood and grooved the top so it fed easily as single shot. Drop it in and scoop it into the chamber. Now with red dot optics things are different, at the time a simple 2.5 optic, crosshairs....45 has no recoil and you can load enough to blow primers without fear.