Indians For Guns

A pistol gifted by a Raja to a British officer in 1920s found in an unclaimed locker of State Bank of India.

The Times of India reports that an antique (sic) pistol supposedly gifted to Lt A B Greenwood, sometime in the 1920s by an unknown Raja was found (along with 261 rounds of ammo) in an unclaimed locker of the State Bank of India's head office at Fort, Mumbai.

An interesting aside - as per receipts found with the pistol, the (highly engraved) custom made gun is supposed to have cost Rs. 300 at the time while the ammunition recovered is supposed to have cost Rs. 200. By the same measure, 261 rounds of .32 cal IOF (KF brand) ammo would cost less than Rs. 9,000 today... of course these days, there is little chance of purchasing any kind of pistol for a proportionate amount of around Rs. 13-14,000!!

Read the full article
here >>

Cheers!
Abhijeet

"But given that the weapon has lain peacefully in the locker for 83 years, the police have ruled out a possible conspiracy. The ISI has not been blamed".

Someone has a sense of humour there. Interesting article Abhijeet.Thanks.

Best-
Vikram

Yep! I had me a few laughs reading the last line too! I guess "The Slimes of India" ooops I meant The Times of India still have a few half way decent journos working for them

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Shame that handguns of this type are more or less banned in the U.K.. Assuming that wasn't the case, could a relation in the U.K., or India for that matter, make a claim on the pistol?

I knew a person by the name of Clive Greenwood in Bangalore who passed away last December but he has a son in the U.S. and two in Bangalore. Just wondering what can be if the India based Greenwoods are related to the Greenwood mentioned in the article.

Mack The Knife

BTW, any guesses as to what make the pistol is? The article gives no details of make or calibre...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

"The police believe that the Mauser pistol and the cartridges were placed in safe-keeping before Independence".

Ah, but is it a Mauser? In India, the name/ term Mauser seems to be used to describe all auto pistols... something like Jeep for 4WD utility vehicles and Xerox for photocopiers...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

If the photo is of the weapon recovered, then its definitely a Mauser Model 1914 in 7.65mm.

penpusher

yes seems to be a mauser 1914, it cost 45 reichsmark around 1926 in germany, in the 1925 Manton catalog its to have in 32 bore for 60 Rs, of course not engraved.
price for 32 auto pistol ammo was 13,8 Rs. per 100 in the Manton catalog.
think this pistol will find the way to a rich american collector.

pwm";p="4817 wrote:think this pistol will find the way to a rich american collector.

Not directly, it won't. Such items are supposed to be auctioned off by the authorities, but in practice are usually "issued" to influential people for throw away prices! Anyhow, whoever gets his/ her hands on it will have a hard time exporting it, as export of guns of "current and popular" calibre is NOT allowed. And the .32/ 7.65 is pretty much THE most popular centre fire cartridge for handguns in India...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

mundaire

I try to understand your gunlaw, its hard for me

I am not surprised that militäry and police caliber are forbidden for civilians, we have such laws here in europe in countrys liek france, belgium, italy, ( believe) spain. france is the best because all current and obsolet military calibers from all over the world are forbidden.
Such a situation creat most time new wildcat cartridges like the 9x21IMI in italy for replace the 9mm luger or the 8mm/348 for the 8x50R Lebel in France, all developt for easy rechamberings of " forbidden guns in alowed.
When your goverment dont like guns and you can import new ones from other country why cant you export them, any gun going over the border must be victory for the anti gun lobby in the authority's.