Destroyer carbine
Encyclopedia
Carbine
A carbine , from French carabine, is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length....
(usually) chambered for the 9 x 23 mm Largo
9 mm Largo
The 9×23mm Largo centerfire pistol cartridge was developed in 1901 for the Bergmann Mars pistol. The round was considered powerful for the day, producing a muzzle energy of between 330 and 430 foot-pounds depending on the loading...
cartridge. It was used by Spanish police and prison services, including the Guardia Civil from the mid 1930s until the late 1960s, replacing the El Tigre Rifle
El Tigre Rifle
The El Tigre rifle was a Spanish copy of the Winchester Model 1892 made by Garate, Anitua y Cia., an Eibar based arms manufacturer between 1915 and 1938.-Background:...
.
It is essentially a scaled down Model 1893 Mauser
Mauser
Mauser was a German arms manufacturer of a line of bolt-action rifles and pistols from the 1870s to 1995. Mauser designs were built for the German armed forces...
with two rear-mounted locking lugs and a Mauser-style two-position flip safety. The Destroyer fired the same ammunition as the standard-issue police handgun and took the same magazines, however the longer rifle barrel resulted in greater muzzle velocity and accuracy, and subsequently range. It continued the tradition, started in the 1890s, of issuing police units with a short, handy, repeating carbine in pistol ammunition calibre.
While no longer in government service, the Destroyer Carbine is highly prized as a collectors item due to its comparative rarity, as well as a desirable target rifle due to favorable shooting characteristics such as minimal recoil and relatively inexpensive ammunition.
While all rimless 9 mm diameter pistol cartridges will chamber in a Destroyer Carbine, and consequently will fire, it is extremely unsafe to use ammunition other than 9 x 23 mm Largo due to the dangers of excessive pressure. Some late-production experimental Destroyer Carbines were produced in other calibers such as .38 Auto or 9 mm Para
9 mm Luger Parabellum
The 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge was designed by Georg Luger and introduced in 1902 by the German weapons manufacturer Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken for their Luger semi-automatic pistol...
and are even more highly sought after.