Can anybody identify this gun?

[Priyan]

Can anybody identify the gun the forest guard carrying?
I've met this fella IRL and he too doesn't have any idea what it was. I never saw any forest guard carrying this type of guns before.

[ak27]

I've met this fella IRL

Nice Picture. Did you take it?

[dr.jayakumar]

priyan,
forest department have either iof 315 or rarely 30 06.
regards
dr.jk

[Priyan]

All the forest officials I met carried Enfields.
Dear ak27,
I didn't take this photo since I don't have a camera. I live close to Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary so I've met most of the officials working there.

[mundaire]

Can't make out much, but looks like a SMLE action. I'd be guessing it's a standard IOF .315 rifle.

[ak27]

Yes, all the forest guards whom I have confronted have a .303 Lee Enfield on them. Infact, this obsolete beast is the one which places them at risk in many situations.

[brihacharan]

All the forest officials I met carried Enfields.
Dear ak27,
I didn't take this photo since I don't have a camera. I live close to Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary so I've met most of the officials working there.

> Thank God he is not carrying a "Muzzle Loader"
> Anyway - it looks like an Enfield 0.303 converted to 0.315 - IOF used to sell this sometime ago.
Briha

[TwoRivers]

Infact, this obsolete beast is the one which places them at risk in many situations.

How so? Both the rifle and cartridge are still capable of doing what they did a hundred years ago. Kill anything hit in the right spot.

[Big Daddy]

I've met this fella IRL and he too doesn't have any idea what it was.

Really love this guy's simplicity... does not know what he carries

[puru baruah]

itd a iof .315

[raghavchalotra149]

this is .315 by Indian Ordnance Factories......it cant be 30 06....'cuz IOF has not started its sale yet.....

[Priyan]

.303 British is regularly used by poachers to poach elephants, rhinos and tigers as reported by newspapers. Everyday you see columnists advising that forest guards should be 'modernized' with AK-47 (lol they call INSAS AK_47). I do agree that they should be modernized but not just with weapons, but with other gadgets like night vision goggles, GPS and mainly they should be properly trained. I talked to a few forest guards, who said they never received training, how in the hell untrained forest guards would fight against poachers.
A few years ago, when I was in school, I met a forest guard who carried .303 British ammo in his pockets while carrying a .308 Ishapore. He said, "Amar sobei aitue lou" (We all carry this).

The gun looked like .315 to me but the action didn't look like a IOF .315.
Next time I meet him I'll take some snaps of the rifle.

[mundaire]

this is .315 by Indian Ordnance Factories......it cant be 30 06....'cuz IOF has not started its sale yet.....

FYI - IOF has been selling their version of a Suer 202 chambered in .30-06 for3+ years now... sells for between 80K to 1 Lac depending on which state you are based in.

Further to what TwoRivers wrote - the 244 grain projectile that the .315 uses can do some serious damage! Of course the user should know how to shoot to be able to use the firearm effectively, someone who doesn't even know what kind of rifle he is carrying.... now that is the "weakest link" NOT the rifle!

Last year IFG member Sanjay & I took my uncle's old .315 to the range one day, and he was easily able to get groups of 1.5" at 50 yards using the bog standard iron sights... even with the crappy IOF ammo that we are all saddled with! The rifle doesn't have much wrong with it (even though its dated looks may not appeal to all), it's real bête noire is poor quality ammunition of course combined with users who don't know how to use it to its full potential.

IIRC (maybe others would also recall the incident as it was televised live) - 3 odd years back a wanted dacoit in UP held of a few hundred cops ALONE, using just his trusty old SMLE action .315 IOF rifle. The cops were armed with all sorts of rifles, including AK's.

As IFG member skeetshot likes to say - "In a gun the most important nut, is the one behind the butt!!"

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Priyan]

IIRC (maybe others would also recall the incident as it was televised live) - 3 odd years back a wanted dacoit in UP held of a few hundred cops ALONE, using just his trusty old SMLE action .315 IOF rifle. The cops were armed with all sorts of rifles, including AK's.

Again, as I already stated, lack of proper training and a pair of big ones. Untrained cops aren't just a thing of India, I've read some cases where American cops acted foolishly too.

lol didn't expect to see that in Texas, it would have been understandable if it were California or Illinois.

[Safarigent]

Texas is where you'd expect this sort of thing.

Those rednecks have arsenals in their trucks!!
But i seriously believe the government needs to start by providing better training to the forest rangers, increase the payscale and give them better equipment.
The geniuses in government dont understand that coal and iron and infotech is all that has to be looked after.
They need to put some effort and energy into these spheres else our march towards becoming another china, where the environment was plundered and pillaged so much that things are slowly spilling out of control there.
The lovely part is, no one will do anything.