Help! IhsaPore Jungle Carbine

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USBP1969

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Howdy,
I recently obtained a very nice Ishapore Jungle Carbine in .308 Winchester chambering. It really needs some TLC cleaning, but so far I have not been able to remove the bolt. I tried a method I saw on YouTube, but it was for another model Enfield and the method does not work for this rifle. I am hoping that someone out there knows how to do this.

Thanks,
-kent
 
Is it a rework from Golden State Arms? Enfield Jungle carbines were made in .303British.

They sporterized ( or Bubba'd) a lot of Enfields. On some of them they removed the spring loaded bolt catch and replaced it with a (screwed in) piece of metal. In order to take it out you need to removed the fore stock to get at the retaining screw.
 
Is it a rework from Golden State Arms? Enfield Jungle carbines were made in .303British.

They sporterized ( or Bubba'd) a lot of Enfields. On some of them they removed the spring loaded bolt catch and replaced it with a (screwed in) piece of metal. In order to take it out you need to removed the fore stock to get at the retaining screw.

They sure did....I am not sure how they got so popular back then.....but a bunch of them got "faked". Never really understood it. The 308 versions (german as well) are pretty popular with reenactors as the blanks are much cheaper then the 303 or 8mm versions.
 
Bolt removal should be the same as for the No. 4 MkI .
That would be incorrect. The Ishapore 2A & 2A1are based on the No.1 MkIII.
The bolt is removed by pulling the bolt to the rear. Once the bolt head is behind the charging bridge it can be pushed up on the right side. Then the bolt can be removed.
Your rifle was most likely done by Gibbs Rifle Co.
https://www.gibbsrifle.com/
 
The reason the jungle carbine was so popular "back then" was it was priced at $29.99 in Popular Mechanics and Gun Magazines.
 
I had one of the Ishpore Jungle 2A1 guns back in the 90's.

The bolt removal is as Gunny described.

I would also suggest having the headspace checked. Mine was so far off, that I was getting case head separations with the first reload of new brass. I looked for replacement bolt heads at the time, but they seemed to be nonexistent.

My rifle came with a poorly fitted mag, which I replaced (about $45), and that helped with feeding and extraction, but that was always a problem with my gun.

Extraction and ejection was a big problem, even after changing out those parts.

My gun had the typical crappy paint job you usually see with some of the Indian stuff. Wood was decent though, and the gun actually shot well. It just didnt function the best.

It was my understanding that these jungle guns were not .303 conversions, but purposely built to fire 7.62x51 NATO. Not sure who was turning them into "jungle guns here though.
 
The Gibbs No7 Jungle Carbines were made by the Gibbs Rifle Co. from Ishapore 2A and 2A1 rifles.
The only difference in the 2A and 2A1 rifles is the rear sight. The 2A has a No1 MkIII sight that goes up to 2000 meters and the 2A1 has a new sight that goes up to 800 Meters.
Here’s what the 2A looked like.
3BDD843A-AF10-460A-BD2F-9CEC995A750F.jpeg

Here’s what they looked like after being made into a carbine.
95D04002-4F11-4CEC-BC2D-5B21005A5C50.jpeg

Here is an Enfield No5 Jungle Carbine.
81F46076-0FAE-480E-9A26-75E5259B4837.jpeg

The easy way to tell the Carbines apart is by the magazine, buttplate and handguard.

Some will ask why did Gibbs make these Carbines. That’s an easy answer if you know a little background on the Enfields and the 80’s. Back in the 80’s an Enfield in excellent shape sold for an average of $80. The Ishapore Enfields were looked down upon and sold for half the price. When the 2A rifles hit the market, they were also slow sellers.
Gibbs started making carbines out of the 2A rifle and marketed them to hunters as a handy field rifle. They also converted some to 45-70.
They ran adds in most of the gun rags and these carbines ended up being pretty good sealers.
 
I had one of the Ishpore Jungle 2A1 guns back in the 90's.

The bolt removal is as Gunny described.

I would also suggest having the headspace checked. Mine was so far off, that I was getting case head separations with the first reload of new brass. I looked for replacement bolt heads at the time, but they seemed to be nonexistent.

My rifle came with a poorly fitted mag, which I replaced (about $45), and that helped with feeding and extraction, but that was always a problem with my gun.

Extraction and ejection was a big problem, even after changing out those parts.

My gun had the typical crappy paint job you usually see with some of the Indian stuff. Wood was decent though, and the gun actually shot well. It just didnt function the best.

It was my understanding that these jungle guns were not .303 conversions, but purposely built to fire 7.62x51 NATO. Not sure who was turning them into "jungle guns here though.
Headspace was off on mine as well. Had a case head separation that filled my face with powder. If not for shooting glasses, I could be blind. Sold it to a buddy with full disclosure, and he found a bolt that properly headspaced.
 
Yeah I know but they were pretty cool. IIRC Navy Arms also had some of the carbines. No.5 and the Aussie model that I think Gibbs copied. I have a Santa Fe No 5 copy. Not bad for 75.00 bucks and a good shooter but not correct.
 
seems they were a crap shoot - mine worked (and still does) just fine..
it became my favorite truck gun.
Yea, unfortunately, Ive had my share of the "not so good" over the years. :confused:

I really wanted to like mine. It was handy and shooting wise, shot well. Would have made a great truck gun.
 
Another of the "all these are crappy" like Century import/kits that I had which worked great for me. Paid $129 for one of these back in the late 90s off the rack without knowing anything about it except that it was way too cheap to be original. Worked perfectly, and was clearly a purpose-built .308. Do not recall the RC value (friend worked in a shop with the proper gear for this) but very hard receiver, and rather good barrel, with the original Ishapore marks indicating it was not a conversion from 303. Headspace was good, never had any issues, could run the bolt fast, etc.

I could get good hits to carbine ranges, but it was best at say 100, 150. Short radius and sling attachments made it hard to shoot better than minute-of-man to 300.

Stout! Needed a rubber buttpad. Not sure why I never added one. None of my friends would shoot more than a few rounds. Do not recall why I sold it but I know that by the time I did they had dried up so I made a profit off it.
 
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