Which Would You Choose, Italy or India-made Repros?

[Oceans]

whew, what a blow up, I bet that smarted some. Now as to the quality of Indian firearms, yes the Indians can make acceptable weapons, don't forget, they made many a Lee-Enfield and Stens and Brens, but that was under strict British scurtiny. Who runs these muzzle loading outfits there? Would I buy an Indian musket, only if I knew it was made correctly to handle normal black powder loads. At the current time, the Italians make some fairly nice replicas, though, their steel is a bit soft too in some of their 1860s and 1858s. SASS members who buy Peacemaker replicas often have them worked over by the addition of properly heat treated parts too.

 

[Gambit88]

I have an indian made 2 band enfield. For 225 I knew I couldnt do much better for my confederate interpratation. NOW I havent shot it live yet but offhad I know the barrel is marked that its a 55 cal barrel and said something along the lines of max charge 2 and a half drams(could be wrong dont have the gun with me currently). It has all sorts of markings on it and is more historically correct then most Italian models. A few weeks back I shot at minimum 100 blanks at 60 grains a pop out of it, easially 50 or so without cleaning with no issues. I would buy another one at the right price. Will I ever shoot it live I dont know. I do know it has a pistol nipple on it though, And Ill have to replace that eventually so I stop loosing caps in the field.

My 2 cents

Gambit

 

[gizamo]

I've owned many Pedersoli's....mostly Sharps and one Mortimer...

My one Middlesex Village Trading Co's Indian made gun is the most accurate gun out of the box that I have owned. It's a Ketland and I managed to redo the lock, stock and barrel to make it more than acceptable to my standards...

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Post hoc ergo proctor hoc

Actually, it's Post hoc ergo proPtor hoc, but yes it's a fallacy, just as the previous ones that all muskets are unsafe when made in India, see cum hoc ergo propter hoc, . Neither assertion proves anything. Nore does proofing do more than give a buyer the feeling of safety. One can proof any barrel by one's self, by simply following the link that I provided. If one demand's proofing..., which would also include American made barrels as well.

LD

 

[BHP FAN]

I have had both.I had a very nice Indian made Enfield Cavalry carbine [different from the Musketoon, or Artillery Carbine] and it shot very nicely, indeed.I REALLY should never have got off of that carbine....

 

[DutchmanDick]

I have two of the India-made guns from Middlesex Village, a steel-barrelled blunderbuss (not the doglock, unfortunately, but alas, they were out of stock for a while), and the double-barrelled percussion howdah pistol.

I haven't had a chance to shoot the blunderbuss yet - I'm awaiting the arrival of a .311 ball mold so I can cast my own buckshot - but the lock sparks beautifully and the fit and finish, if not up to Pedersoli standards, is acceptable to me. The barrel walls seem quite thick - no tubing here, apparently.

I shot the howdah over the holidays. The right-hand lock needed some minor gunsmithing, as it had a tendency to get caught on half-cock on the way down. The tumbler had burrs and the sear nose was badly shaped, but I have the necessary skills to fix minor problems like that (took a course in gunsmithing from Penn Foster a few years ago). The nipples are oversized for #11 caps and undersized for regular musket caps (I have since been told that British musket caps tend to be a bit smaller than US musket caps), but musket caps will stay on if you pinch them and the nipples will eventually be replaced with "modern" machine-made ones. My load was 55 grains of FFg KIK powder, a pillow-ticking patch greased with "Bore Butter", and a .600 round ball. Recoil was not unpleasant, gun didn't blow up, no problems (once the lock was fixed).

So far, I'm happy with both guns.

I also have a P-1853 I bought in "as found, uncleaned condition" from IMA a couple of years ago, and which I had reworked by Todd Watts at The Blockade Runner (refinished, British marks added, etc) so I can use it as a reenactment gun. I pulled the breechplug to clean and inspect the bore (some pitting, as expected, but not to an unsafe level), and test-fired it, and it, too, is safe to shoot with live rounds. These were made under British supervision, IIRC, so I'm not really surprised.

No, I would not hesitate to buy more India-made guns from a reputable importer like Loyalist Arms or MVTCo. The Indian guns tend to come in more varieties than Italian or Japanese guns, and the real rarities (wheel-locks, English locks, and matchlocks) tend to be more affordable than the alternative - which seems to be custom guns for most of these ancient lock mechanisms (Loyalist sells a wheel-lock for about $700.00. Try to get Pedersoli to make one for that price - I dare you!).

 

[DutchmanDick]

Here's a link to the report done on the one musket that is known to have blown up, and which seems to have started the whole flap about India-made guns being "pipe bombs":

http://www.middlesexvillagetrading.com/special/HPWhiteReportWithPersonalInfoBlocked.pdf