IOF 30-06 Rifle

[arjunmark]

i picked up my IOF 30-06 from mangalore for 1,15,000. not sure with the prices in the north

-- Thu Dec 02, 2010 8:36 pm --

-- Thu Dec 02, 2010 8:54 pm --

Katana, how's the grouping at 100yards on your 30-06'?

[Katana]

Arjun,

Your cost is in line with the prices prevalent in the market these days. Could you tell me what year make is your rifle? If it's the 2010 model, if you give us some pics? My grouping is about 1 in. at a measured 100 meters.

Katana

[hks2056]

The Ishapore factory uses special alloy steel manufactured by SAIL for making rifle barrels.The same steel is used for INSAs and 7.62 SLR. The hammerforging machine is AUSTRIAN brand STEYR.It spews out one barrel every two minutes.Feeding of barrel blanks is automatic into the cold forging machine.Considerable effort goes into production of blanks before they are fed into machine.Steyr hammer forging machines are used by all armaments factories the world over including the Chinese who are the most notorious copycats and acknowledged most accomplished experts in reverse engineering.I asked the Director rank officer who was incharge of rifle section at Ishapore two questions.First was if they supply spare barrel with the INSAS rifle to Services. The answer was no.The second question was if they have received back any INSAS rifle for replacement of any worn out rifle barrel. The answer was again no. After chrome flashing the barrel becomes virtually in destructible. He reckoned that the barrel would retain tight grouping upto firing of one lakh cartridges. Interestingly ISHAPORE produces its own carbide dies for the forging machine at one third the cost of imported carbide dies. The carbide die is about seven inches long including the chamber portion.The material used for barrel and bolt is the best.It should be remembered that all metal components manufactured inside the factory are from the best raw material. Quality of out sourced parts of weapons is suspect.The reasons of below par quality of outsourced components if any is all too well known to every one and need not be spelled out in this forum.From newspaper advertisements one can know which components are out sourced.The weakest and poorest part of 30-06 rifle is the alloy body which is die cast and not made in house.The bolt and barrel are of best material. Just like a car the rifle is a sum total of all its components.The package has to be seen in totality and reckoning can not be done merely on bolt and barrel. Surprisingly the buffing and polishing of individual components is not done before the rifle is assembled. Thus the action and trigger are not slick enough.Fit and finish can certainly be improved.Otherwise it is a very satisfying and well engineered product.It will outlast the life of any licence holder even if he or she fires five rounds from it every day (365 X12).

[Katana]

hks,

Good work! So my detective work on the rifle was more or less 'on target', about the barrel having some connection with Steyr and the action body being not at par with the barrels and the trigger assembly. However, this is not a cause of worry because the cartridge is in the barrel at the time of firing not the alloy body.

Now if only one could get a better choice of stocks to go along with it.

Lately, denzilmathew bought a new rifle, photographs of which he had uploaded. On first seeing them I presumed that IOF had goofed up again, as concerns a 11mm rail cut into the action body. This was until I got thinking about it and we spoke on the phone. However, a point to be noted is that IOF still retained the 4 taps on the body thereby giving a choice of either fitting a diopter sight or a scope on the action!Got to say good thinking for once.

Could you also ask the Director whats happening about the .223 Rem barrels with IOF? Any chance of seeing them into rifles for the civil market?

[dev]

I too am waiting for a 223, should be fun to shoot and ammo should be cheaper than that of the 30. Hope they make a 223, I know, I know making a purse out of a sow's ear is tough.

[TwoRivers]

Aren't we being just a tiny bit naive in hopes for a civilian rifle chambered for a PB cartridge? Doesn't really seem realistic under the current scenario.

[winnie_the_pooh]

He reckoned that the barrel would retain tight grouping upto firing of one lakh cartridges.

Sorry but the fellow obviously has no idea of what he is talking about.Scary to think that these people are arming our jawans.

It should be remembered that all metal components manufactured inside the factory are from the best raw material. Quality of out sourced parts of weapons is suspect.The reasons of below par quality of outsourced components if any is all too well known to every one and need not be spelled out in this forum.From newspaper advertisements one can know which components are out sourced

So you mean to say that outsourced parts are worse than the crap that the IOFB is spewing out? That is some achievement.

The weakest and poorest part of 30-06 rifle is the alloy body

I do not think so.Since the receiver is not a stressed component,al. alloy is not a problem.Now if only they would hard anodize it instead of just putting grill paint on it.

[z375]

I asked the Director rank officer who was incharge of rifle section at Ishapore two questions.First was if they supply spare barrel with the INSAS rifle to Services. The answer was no.The second question was if they have received back any INSAS rifle for replacement of any worn out rifle barrel. The answer was again no. After chrome flashing the barrel becomes virtually in destructible. He reckoned that the barrel would retain tight grouping upto firing of one lakh cartridges.

One lakh rounds and still it will group tight??? There's more than just a lotta blue sky in that statement, chrome flashed barrels were more resistant to wear and throat erosion than weapons whose barrels were not chromed, this was pretty much standard on milspec guns due to the heavy repeated or rapid firing rate at which they functioned. The chrome lining also made cleaning easier and kept the bore corrision resistant. the director rank officer has either misplaced his Pez dispenser or is smoking some really serious stuff!!

Interestingly ISHAPORE produces its own carbide dies for the forging machine at one third the cost of imported carbide dies. The carbide die is about seven inches long including the chamber portion.The material used for barrel and bolt is the best.It should be remembered that all metal components manufactured inside the factory are from the best raw material. Quality of out sourced parts of weapons is suspect.

Not meaning to turn this into an IOF-bashing fest, even though IOF manufactures their own carbide dies no matter how long, short, fat, thin they might appear to be and though they might be using the best quality steel to roll out the bolts and barrels, it should be remembered that this very rifle and the very design is not their own brainchild from any angle, not even the sights which are CZ rip-offs, although the one thing that the IOF may lay claim to is the lousy stockwork done by their outsourced charpoy makers and maybe the grill paint and the engraving on the receiver and barrel, and that is pretty much all. Oh and yes, the wonderful 'RFI' ventilated recoil pad! So when you say that the quality of outsourced parts is suspect, think again, think of the quality control, the advent in metallurgy, their use of some of the most incredibly sophisticated machinery and tooling, the very fact that the people designing weapons there back in Germany are engineering wizards and come up with original ideas, and then implement and execute them, all the boys at J.P.Sauer & Sohn obviously got this one right a long, long time ago. And what did our folks at IOF do? What they've always been doing..just copying an already existing and proven design, fervently hoping that it will work.

The reasons of below par quality of outsourced components if any is all too well known to every one and need not be spelled out in this forum.From newspaper advertisements one can know which components are out sourced.

Pray, which newspaper is this?

The weakest and poorest part of 30-06 rifle is the alloy body which is die cast and not made in house.

The receiver can be made out of papier mache and it will still function normally, this is an unstressed part and has no significance in the strength of the action, its merely a raceway for the bolt to lock up into battery and fire the cartridge.

The bolt and barrel are of best material. Just like a car the rifle is a sum total of all its components.The package has to be seen in totality and reckoning can not be done merely on bolt and barrel. Surprisingly the buffing and polishing of individual components is not done before the rifle is assembled. Thus the action and trigger are not slick enough.Fit and finish can certainly be improved.Otherwise it is a very satisfying and well engineered product.

Agreed, after a little spit and polish and elbow-grease it can really put a mile-wide grin on the owner's mug!

[cottage cheese]

One lakh rounds and still it will group tight??? There's more than just a lotta blue sky in that statement, chrome flashed barrels were more resistant to wear and throat erosion than weapons whose barrels were not chromed, this was pretty much standard on milspec guns due to the heavy repeated or rapid firing rate at which they functioned. The chrome lining also made cleaning easier and kept the bore corrision resistant. the director rank officer has either misplaced his Pez dispenser or is smoking some really serious stuff!!

.... z375 I'm as shocked as you are!!

The poor bleeder (Director being his unfortunate placement) is a babu not a specialist/scientist or whatever, and probably has no clue other than that derived from wool pulled over his eyes by his bogus boffins.... In any case, the babus who run IOFB are not really required to be clued in on things... that's the way of our bureaucracy. Awful people.

100,000 rounds ?? by that time the poor bloke would be left only with the barrel...the rest of the rifle having beaten itself to pieces.

As I recall for instance, though its not a 30-06, the M249 SAW has a projected usable barrel life of only 15-20000 rounds.

These IOF blokes....Awful!!!!

[veeveeaar]

Friends,somebody pl give info about latest IOF 30-06 price. Also pl. enlighten about procedure for it buying from NRAI store.The NRAI website does not show the price or procedure for purchase or availability of arms and ammo as it was in the previous website.

[swajan]

Hi,
Recently I came across some 3 nos IOF 30-60 new box pack for sale here in Kolkata. They are still in stock. I opened them from the polyethylene. They appeaed to be very light weighted as compared to my experience with British rifles. I examined the stock. It appeared to be some kind of synthetic stock with some kind of coating. Wish, if someone explains. Honestly, I did not like the gun, especially for the stock and for the bolt, it could have been a beauty, if little artistic mind would have been applied by IOF.

Regards

[The Doc]

I examined the stock. It appeared to be some kind of synthetic stock with some kind of coating

Synthetic stock for IOF 30.06 ? Now that is a news . Was it similar to to that of a INSAS ?

Rp.

[dev]

Hee... hee... now we have the IOFB Alaska version, synthetic stock to last as long as the 100,000 rounds barrel. But still the rifle is fun to shoot or maybe it's just the 30 06 caliber that is nice to shoot.



Regards,

Dev

-- Mon Jul 11, 2011 11:00 am --

Aren't we being just a tiny bit naive in hopes for a civilian rifle chambered for a PB cartridge? Doesn't really seem realistic under the current scenario.

I'll hazard that the 5.56 Nato is pb and not the 223 Naive maybe but gun starved more likely.

[bandukbhandar]

The stock is still wooden and not synthetic.

[swajan]

Yah, may be
But still much lighter than a 35 airgun. It has hole in stock at barrel side to reduce the weight, the designs are also rough, god knows what kind of light weight wood have been used. Any way does not feel like a gun of esteem.

Regards