Indians For Guns

Hi Vinay,
Warm wishes
Are you interested in selling your baretta .38 pistol ? Would you please post us pictures of your masterpiece.

regards
Tbe

grewal wrote:

xl_target wrote:

It is a testament to the futility of protectionism that today in the year 2011, the IOF handguns are some of the worst in the world. Substandard materials, substandard fit and finish and non-existent quality control and a totally obsolete design. Darra built guns seem to have better fit and finish than IOF products. It says something about a protected industry when it can't even produce a decent copy of a 50+ year old gun.

Well I tend to disagree . I have a .32 IOF revolver which has a very good fit and finish. Looks very neat and fires without any " I mean any" problem . It costed me 84K and is always there in the standby mode " when ever I need it". You seem to have really exaggerated about the poor quality control. Most of the Webleys available in the market are either refurbished or repaired . The gun dealers do not disclose this cause they have to sell that secondhand material by tagging them as NIB stuff.

What will happen if there is no option available in the form of IOF revolver/pistol . Half of the people(license holders) in India would not be able to possess a weapon cause of the unrealistic prices of the so called imported weapons.

james wrote: i would love to have webley in good condiction than IOF brand new revolver my confidence is totally shaken after such experience.

Well James It could be an isolated case where the poor revolver could have been a victim of dry firing. Most of the people who buy IOF revolver take it for granted and due to lack of proper knowledge of handling weapons , they themself damage the weapons by extensively dry firing them .

Grewal, You certainly have every right to disagree, especially if you are satisfied with your current purchase. However, take any common or garden Smith & Wesson or Ruger and set them beside the IOF revolver and you will see what I am saying. There will be very few or no machine marks on the "phoren" guns. All parts will fit and the gun will not rattle if you shake it.

As far as dry firing, most modern guns can be dry fired with impunity. Certainly any of the Rugers and the S&W revolvers with frame mounted firing pins can be dry fired with impunity. Apart from a .22 rimfire, one shouldn't have to be worried about dry-firing any modern revolver. I would humbly submit that the very fact that the firing pin on an IOF revolver would be damaged or break off, while dry firing, tells you volumes about the quality of the materials used.

"A" series Webley has dull matt finish in metal grey colour in contrast to the shining blue finish of later series. They are available in 4 inch and 6 inch barrel and were only meant for police service use. Heat treatment is excellent.

I find this info to be factually incorrect.

Please give a reference as to where you have seen this.

hks2056 wrote:
Tolerances were factory tight. I tried very hard to get one in 32 calibre at Meerut market from 1987 to 1989.There was a chap there who had one with 6 inch barrel. It was in 99 percent condition.Alas he would not sell it.There is a genre of fire arm owners who never ever fire their weapon.They handle their weapons so gingerly as if they are made of fragile glass.This chap was even loathe to put even ammo in the chamber.Such owners are buyers` dream.Eventually I had to settle for H &R all steel revolver in 98 percent condition.

hks
I understand where you are coming from....this afternoon I picked one in the condition you describe,except that it has a 4 " barrel...not a round ever fired....it makes most other handguns look like toys in front off it....guess just got lucky
cheers

Sanjay wrote:this afternoon I picked one in the condition you describe,except that it has a 4 " barrel...not a round ever fired....it makes most other handguns look like toys in front off it....

How about some pictures Sanjay ?

best,
Rp.

Sanjay wrote:hks
I understand where you are coming from....this afternoon I picked one in the condition you describe,except that it has a 4 " barrel...not a round ever fired....it makes most other handguns look like toys in front off it....guess just got lucky
cheers

Dear Sanjay
I am delighted for you. I am an avid gun buff. Even to the point of being obtrusive i never miss an opportunity to physically see the weapon of any person who i come in contact with. I am bit shameless in that. Those of you who are crazy about guns would understand what i mean when say this. Since last 32 years when i acquired my arms license i have seen a large number of webley & scott revolvers. I know from my personal knowledge and from anecdotal evidence here in India that A series of webley & scott revolvers in metal grey colour are the toughest and best made webleys. Even after firing hundreds of rounds their barrel groves do not show any signs of wearing off. In B series the barrel wear is very prominent. It could be because of use of softer alloy of lack of proper heat treatment. I congratulate you for acquiring a very fine firearm.
hks

HKS2056, pardon my saying so but your information regarding the relative merits of A series vs. B series seems somewhat off the mark. Please consider this:

The ammunition used (.32 S&W Long) is a relatively low pressure round loaded with (the softer) lead alloy bullets, not (harder) jacketed ones, therefore it would take a sizeable number of rounds through the (steel) barrel to wear out the rifling and "hundreds of rounds" is no where near being considered a sizeable number for the purposes of discussing barrel wear.

What is much more likely is that the barrel(s) seen by you could have serious lead fouling, making it seem as if the rifling (barrel grooves) has/ have worn out. Proper cleaning should solve the problem, lead fouling can be a real pain to clean out...

If you are keen to research your own Webley revolver, you can get the details of the year of production/ sale/ original buyer etc. by using the following service: http://tinyurl.com/5uufzpx They have acquired the company archives and sell the information to individuals for a small fee.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Abhijeet and hks2056,

I do not know the exact reason, but as an "ex" owner of a Webley, Mk IV, 'B'-series, small frame revolver I must confess that I have found a difference between the barrels of 'A' and 'B' series. I have seen a few revolvers of both series and the difference was almost constant. The grooves and lands are more distinct ( ? deeper rifling) and the shine is better in a 'A' series barrel. There was no lead fouling in the 'B' series revolver owned by me .

Another thought is that someone might be refurbishing the revolvers with old beat up barrels and making the outer appearance look as if in excellent condition and selling them. The Webley 'B' series, small frame is one of the commonest available revolvers at the dealers in Punjab and most of them are in similar excellent condition with similar "dull" appearing barrels !! Makes me wonder why ........

best,
Rp.

Shucks Doc, I just remembered I had to send you something!

mundaire wrote:Shucks Doc, I just remembered I had to send you something!