The two 'Duty' revolvers in current Indian Police service are the Ruger Service Six and a hideous contraption called the FIE Corp. Titan Tiger...also in .380/200. I've heard murmurings of Llamas but I've only seen .32 Llama revolvers in Customs Department service. Apart from that, there are a lot of .380/200 hand-me-downs from former Army inventory, like Webley's , Enfields ,Smith&Wesson K frame M&Ps and Colts in similar specifications. These old war horses soldier on side by side with the Service six and the Titan Tiger.
For concealed carry the standard issue is the S&W M49 Bodyguard in .38Spl. People keep referring to the Colt Cobra snubbie but I've never seen one so presumably they are simply calling the S&W a cobra simply because the Cobra name caught on as a popular snubbie. Never heard of or seen a Speed Six.
Here are some pictures of Police revolvers that I examined earlier this year.
A well used /abused Sturm Ruger Service Six in 380/200. There are still many unused examples kept as reserve, so 'brand-new' Rugers continue to appear in khaki hands.
A close up of the service cartridge markings on the left side of the barrel....barely visible.
The Titan Tiger made of Arminus Parts.
Another view of the Titan Tiger
Here's the box cover heralding the Titan Tigers pedigree.
The Titan Tiger is probably the result of another mini 'bofors' scandal. Certainly not duty material. Definitely involved greased palms. It was manufactured by an obscure and perhaps now defunct Florida company F.I.E Corp, Miami. The Frame is a coarse die cast alloy that appears to be zinc based. Most were worn out well before the Ruger counterparts even began silvering on the edges. Currently most have loose barrels because the ventilated rib that abuts into a slot on the alloy frame have lost their screws or simply sit in enlarged slots. Timing often buggers up because quite a bit of trigger /lock work is made of flimsy sheet metal. The grip is simply a plastic piece bolted on to a stub in the frame and is made to have the appearance of wood.
As regards semi-autos, it started off with large quantity import of the Belgian made FN Browning GP35 in standard configuration. Indian made HPs are actually clones of the Canadian Inglis HP... savaged by distressing degrees of sub standard quality and finish. All indian military weapons (other than imports) are manufactured by the state run Indian Ordnance Factory Board under the aegis of the Ministry of Defense. Firearm factories are spread all over the country. The Indian HP clone... called the Pistol 1A is manufactured at three factories:
RFI (Rifle Factory Ishapore) West Bengal
SAF(Small Arms Factory) Kanpur
and BDL (Bharat Dynamics Limited) Hyderabad
and maybe GSF(Gun & Shell Factory) Cossipore, West Bengal.
One musn't forget that in the mid 80's the Government of India tried to import about 55,000 Cz75s with a view to have it as a standard police side arm...or perhaps it was only for the para military forces... I can't recall. The gun while being a damn good piece ended up not being used because of the inevitable allegations of corruption and of course it also clashed with the idea of standardization when the IOFB was gearing up or already manufacturing its Inglis HP clone/piracy. The issue was forgotten because the Bofors Scandal that came shortly over shadowed every thing else.
Of late, the Glock 17 and 19 are the blue eyed boys... the establishment and a lot of lay-folk regard Glocks as the panacea to every ill that visits the nation.
As regards other revolvers, there are enormous stocks of the old .455s which was the standard before the .380/200.
They are more or less retired and most are locked away to die slowly.. occasionally they make an appearance when the situation demands so . While a few were purchased directly for police use, most of those in the various state police inventories appear to have been inherited from the army even before independence. Obviously, most would be Webley&Scott Mk IVs and VIs and magnificent beasts they are. Most MkVIs bear almost no markings and are somewhat coarsely finished, probably indicating war time (WWI) production runs. There are also many Colt and S&W New-Service revolvers marked .455 ELEY. Also to my surprise I dug out a few specimens of Webley RIC(Royal Irish Constabulary) No1 DA revolvers in .476, and the Webley Fosbery .455!! Why, a Webley MkIII small frame with safety latch in .38 (perhaps 380) appeared out of the pile!! I can post pictures if required.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
cc
).Thank you so much sharing these exceedingly interesting pictures.Any possibility of repairing and restoring the Fosbery revolver?
We used .380/200 in them.
