About a month back I had an opportunity to play around with another bunch of Police weapons. I ended up mostly not having the time to cobble together a writeup.
Anyway here again , I take it as an honor to present to the gun community, the IOF 12 Bore Pump Action Gun. This is the official factory nomenclature of the shot gun. Owing to it's short appearance in the civilian market in the later half of the 90's....and its subsequent pull back to government and approved agencies only, the Indian Pump Action is a bit of an enigma....though with none of that 'holy-grail' aura around it.
First things first - Its description.
The rather tepid description below is not mine but a copy-paste from the IOF webpage... so don't laugh at me.
As per factory literature http://ofbindia.gov.in/products/data/weapons/wsc/6.htm
"The 12 Bore Pump Action Gun has been specially developed for use as a security weapon. It is a single barrel breach loading weapon superior to 12 Bore DBBL. It is provided with a tubular magazine, which holds 4 nos. of 12 Bore Cartridges and is placed parallel to and below the barrel. Extraction, loading and cocking of the cartridges take place in a single 'pump action' by operating handle, sliding along the magazine. Due to rapid reloading by pump action and spread of shots, it is an ideal weapon for counter ambush tactics"
Specifications:
Weapon - Single barrel breech Loading
Caliber- 12 Bore (12Ga to the more American oriented)
Chamber - 70mm (2 -3/4")
Length of barrel-
(i) civilian use - 510mm (20") NPB
(II) Military/Police - 478mm (18") PB
Ammunition - 12 Bore 2.5" OR 12 Bore 2.75"
Magazine capacity - 4 Rounds
Weight - 3.05kgs
APPLICATIONS :
# Banks security
# Anti insurgent applications
# Industrial security
# Personal security
# Sporting Arm
# Anti Riot role by use of Rubber Ball non-lethal ammunition
Well that, so far, is what the factory says.
For those who aren't aware, this weapon appeared in the mid 1990's in two versions- civilian NPB version (20" Barrel) and military/police PB version (18"Barrel). It was available at about Rs.25,000/- for government organizations (Police/Forest/Prisons etc) and approximately retailed at about Rs.40,000 in the civilian
market. It apparently sold well in the Bank Security guard niche. Then for inexplicable reasons, within a few years of its introduction, the gun was withdrawn from the civilian market. All kinds of stories abound about why, but the one that sticks the most is that a number of the 18"(PB) version, inadvertently ended up in the civilian market....it seems to have been a mistake... and rather than take the trouble to think and take corrective measures the bureaucrats simply and quite typically, closed the door... another story goes that some influential and whiny babus actually saw the weapon as too lethal to be in civilian hands... I don't know which is true but since then, the so called civilian version is available only for bank security guards, PSUs and empanelled private security agencies. The Military and Police versions continue to be available to appropriate market. Many State Prisons use these guns.
The version I'm presenting here is the 18" Barrel version in Police Service. It was manufactured at the GCF (Gun Carriage Factory) Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
I was in the middle of another mini-project so I didn't have the time to disassemble the gun to check its innards. So most of what I disseminate here-forth is based on external examination and peeking inside through all available ports. None of the armorers knew how to disassemble the thing and none had received any instruction/training in the same. No manuals were available as well. So presumably none of these guns had ever been disassembled for maintenance for the 4-5 years they've been in service!
To start with, as with any Indian 'designed' and manufactured firearm, one should seek to check on its pedigree. In the case of the IOF PAG, an external examination and some logical deductions derived from the positions of pins and other parts, the gun seems to be very closely based on the Mossberg 500 series.
The stock particularly the 'pistol' grip area bears some elements of some clumsy designing/copying. A close up of the stock below:
The stock is also rather skinny. Early versions appear to have had wooden stocks which progressed to fiber-glass/plastic permutations in that hideous and all too familiar brick-red/saffron. Currently, it is available only in a coarsely molded plastic matte black with stippled grip areas. IOF displays in various defense expos showed PAGs with pistol grips and side folding skeleton stocks. I've never seen them in actual use. They could have been simply fitted with parts from gunaccessory.com http://www.gunaccessory.com/accessories/default.htm
The fore grip is a generic cylindrical type with radial grooves. Very poorly mounted with rotational play of about 10-15 degrees in some of the well used guns.
The receiver is made of some aluminium alloy that's either investment cast or entirely machined from billets - I did not have the time to examine this aspect but my assumption is that it's the former as it involves lesser wastage of material and also means lesser machining time and effort... which suits the work ethics of a governmental setup. The trigger guard module appears to be die-cast alloy.
The safety catch, like on the Mossberg 500, is mounted on the top rear slope of the receiver and can be easily accessed and operated by either thumb. It is neither serrated nor checkered but simply has four flat 'steps' on either end to pronounce its taper and looks to have been face-milled on a simple lathe. To operate, its simply forward for safe and back for fire. The Safety catch is illustrated below:
Operation of the action is no different from any other pump action shotgun. Like on the Mossberg 500, an automatic action lock keeps the action and the slide locked until the chambered round has been fired. The action lock projects downward every the action is cycled and cocked. It is located on the left hand side just behind the trigger guard (Red Circle in the picture)
To eject the unfired round/dud or operate the slide action without firing, one has to depress this projection upwards into the receiver. This unlatches the action and frees it up for cycling.
Very similar to the Mossberg 500, the breech is locked by a pivoted locking piece or 'wedge' that swings on the vertical plane. It locks upwards into a recess in the upper part of the barrel extension. Sliding the fore-grip rearwards causes the locking piece to pivot downwards by way of angled surfaces and unlocks the breech for extraction. The picture below shows the action in the rearmost position:
The barrel is obviously steel and is fairly substantial. It is very poorly finished with deep machine marks in several places. The barrel below:
The muzzle, on close inspection, almost looks like it was cut to length with a hack saw and left at that.... no finishing. The muzzle end of the 18" Military/Police version has an additional collar about an inch in length. Two length wise bayonet-lock slots are machined on this collar and is positioned at approximately 45 degrees, the other being diametrically opposite. Take a look at the picture.
This is obviously for some kind of muzzle attachment like grenade launching cups, line throwers, or large baton type projectiles... No one seems to be aware of any attachment supplied by the factory for such a use. There is no such product on the IOFB website as well. Perhaps it is again an export oriented feature
Curiously, the PAG is equipped with both front and rear sights. The rear is a "v" notch type on a small "L" stepped block that appears to have been both dovetailed and soldered on to the barrel close to the breech. Check out the rear sight in the picture and not that the "V" notch has been cut way off center to the right.
The front sight is a squarish block that has a simple ramped post with a total height of about half inch. This is also attached by way of a shallow dovetail and some apparent soldering.
Like I mentioned earlier, I didn't have the time to actually disassemble the thing but on careful inspection of its construction and arrangement of parts, I assume it wouldn't differ much from the Mossberg 500.
Cycle the action and visually inspect the gun to make sure its safely unloaded and holds no cartridge/s within its tubular magazine or cartridge lifter or chamber. I'm assuming you leave the action in the rear most position and proceed to take it apart. Like the Mossberg, you need to unscrew the end cap (also called take down screw) in the forward extremity of the tube magazine (red circle)
Here one will face a minor problem as this end cap screw is again secured and kept in place by a tiny grub screw... and I mean tiny.... ridiculously tiny. Poorly counter-sunk and fitted at that.(Blue Arrow) It tends to be very tight and with a shallow slot, a careless screwdriver and a horrendous burr is not far away... not to mention the weapon is mostly un-strippable until that little beast is somehow driven out. Not something that's welcome in the field. Anyway, that little annoyance aside, you unscrew the end cap, pull the barrel forward and out it comes with the breech extension and magazine tube support pillar. That being done, you then proceed to slide the fore-grip forward and the breech block, locking piece, action bars fore grip assemblies, all come off the front of the receiver. This is the basic take down for the field and one shouldn't attempt taking it apart further outside the armory or home. Driving the cross pins on the receiver gets the trigger/feed control module out.
Below is the bottom view that clearly shows the sheet metal cartridge elevator.
The metal parts all come painted with black enamel from the factory. I don't know if this is baked enamel or simply hardware store variety enamel but it flakes off rapidly Take a look at the pictures.
I thought the aluminium receiver was anodized black it could have been paint as well... in the hurry that I was in, I failed to take this into account- I'll confirm this later.
As regards ammunition, the 1992 Government of India ban on civilian use of any shot size larger than 5mm for whatever ill considered reason seems to have gotten the bureaucracy pretty befuddled. The Defense ministry (Ordinance Factories) manufactures something and the Home Ministry bans the same... That's how the government functions. The Ordinance Factories, as such, don't manufacture any useful combat loads like 00 buck shot or otherwise, even for government use. All I see everywhere is No.4 shot...I was also told the police (at least where I visited) receives only paper cartridges in No.4 and smaller. I'm told now that No4 shot is also in short supply in the civilian market.
As regards reliability, I was told the IOF PAG is okay. I suspect that is because they are not fired too often and simply carried around a lot.
Well, this review is indeed brief as I couldn't dissect the weapon and I hope to append a more detailed write up as and when I get the chance to do so.
Bottom line - another unoriginal mediocre turkey further skewed up by half-witted marketing policies.
I'm sure there are still many old civilian pieces floating around. If any IFG member encounters one, please don't hesitate to contact me with detailed pictures if possible...or simply add to this tread
