Rhineland .45 ACP Carbine: fun conversions for surplus Enfields and Mausers

Guns Magazine, April, 2005 by Holt Bodinson

Hold on to your hat, Rhineland Arms of Lewisville, Texas, just put more fun into the fun of shooting milsurps. One of the mysterious guns of WWII that has always intrigued me is the British "De Lisle Commando Carbine." Apparently, it intrigues quite a few folks because, from time to time, some small shop will gear up and make a custom run of this impossible-to-find model.

The De Lisle carbine was designed by William De Lisle in 1942. The object was to place a short, light, silenced bolt-action carbine in the hands of the British special operations troops who were probing and raising Cain up and down the French coast in advance of the Allied landings. The primary purpose for fielding the carbine was to enable the commandos to eliminate sentries quietly at the beginning of a raid. The De Lisle design used a No. 1 Mk III Enfield that was rebarreled to the .45 ACP--a round that was not only ideally subsonic but packed a wallop on the receiving end. It was a clever conversion.

The .45 ACP barrel of the silenced De Lisle was only 7.25" long and was housed inside a 2" aluminum tube that served as the baffled expansion chamber or silencer. The tube extended approximately 16" beyond the front of the receiver and carried a set of sights zeroed for 50, 100, 150 and 200 yards, giving the overall carbine a length of 38.75". The Enfield magazine well was adapted to use a modified Model 1911 pistol magazine, and "silencing" of the piece went so far as to incorporate a Bakelite pad inletted under the bolt handle to eliminate the sound of metal-to-metal contact as the bolt was closed.

While only 200 or so were produced, the De Lisle carbine was apparently very effective, producing only two sounds--the whop of the 230-grain FMJ whacking its target and the snick of the action being opened and closed.

So when a recent ad appeared under the name of Rhineland Arms offering relatively simple and inexpensive .45 ACP conversion kits for the Enfield and the Mauser actions, I was all ears. Dreams of De Lisle carbines were dancing in my head already.

Thomas Seidel--Mr. Rhineland Arms--is the creative genius who prototyped and now produces the .45 ACP conversion kits as well as manufacturing a racy looking .22 LR/.17 Mach 2 target rifle. The .45ACP kits are offered for the Mauser and the Enfield actions. Seidel commented that his Enfield conversion, which will fit No. 1, No. 4, No. 5 and Indian models is easier, feeds better and is more flexible than the Mauser--except, that is, for the removal of the original Enfield barrel which he rates as a five-star gunsmithing gas pain because the barrel and receiver threads are almost cold welded together.

Since I tested a converted No. 4 Long Branch Enfield that Seidel sent along, I want to review the Enfield conversion in some detail. The Enfield kit consists of two basic units--a pre-threaded barrel with a barrel retaining nut and a 1911 magazine adapter. The barrel is 16.5" long and contoured along the lines of a No.4 barrel, ending with a muzzle O.D. of 0.710". It is short, stiff and proved exceedingly accurate. The 1911 magazine adapter looks just like an Enfield .303 magazine and incorporates a push button magazine release and an adjustable catch that locks the unit into place. Both units exhibit thoughtful engineering and close tolerances.

The Seidel rebarreling system utilizes the retaining nut system adopted by Savage to set and control headspace. Against a closed bolt minus an extractor and with a .45 ACP "GO" gauge or dummy round inserted in the chamber, the barrel with its retaining nut is screwed into the receiver ring until it stops. This should set headspace to a minimum. Seidel recommends backing the barrel off at this point 1/8 of a turn. Then, if the bolt refuses to close on a "NO-GO" gauge, the headspace is correct. To lock the barrel in position, the retaining or jam nut, touched with a bit of Loctite, is screwed up and tightened against the face of the receiver ring with a $5 spanner wrench (M16 stock tool) that Seidel sells. Voila, the Enfield rebarreling job is done, except for some clearances that must be ground into the extractor with a Dremel tool to assure a smooth controlled round feed of the rimless .45 ACP case.

The 1911 magazine adapter is a metal unit with the dimensions of an Enfield magazine. It is fitted to the individual rifle by adjusting a catch that is locked in place by the original Enfield magazine latch. The adapter accepts and positions a regular 1911 magazine for feeding and incorporates a little pin on the left side that serves as the new ejector.

What makes the Enfield conversion ideal is that there are no Mauser locking lug recesses that the stubby, little .45 ACP case has to skip over when being shoved from the magazine well to the chamber. When the rear-locking Enfield bolt picks up a .45 ACP round, the cartridge is already almost at the mouth of the chamber.

That's basically the essential elements of the Enfield conversion. Rhineland Arms' Web site (www.rhinelandarms.com) hosts pictures and instructions for the step-by-step process if you're interested.