Your openions on the Ishapore

[RedneckFur]

I've been looking hard at the Indian ishapore .308 Enfields. AIM surplus has them, and not a bad deal on them either. I've been wanting an Enfield for a while, and I'm thinking this might be the way to go. Do any of you have one of these? Like it? Hate it?

I've read that you can only use .308 nato, and not 308 winchester in them. Is it hard to find the nato stuff? is it that different from the winchester?

Same for the M-48 Mauser? Do any of you guys have one, and how do you feel about it? I think after these two milsurps, I'm going to go back to sporting rifles for a while.

 

[Dave R]

Have an Ishapore. Love it. Tons of fun to shoot. Surprisingly accurate. I've shot a lot of 3" groups at 100 yards with the factory irons.

Yeah, 7.62 NATO and .308 are not 'quite' the same. I believe .308 commercial can be loaded to higher pressures. So best to stay with NATO surplus, which is getting harder to find. Or do what I do, and reload to 7.62 NATO levels. No better excuse to get into reloading than an old warhorse. Then you could buy that K-31 you've been wanting, but have been avoiding due to ammo price.

Only problems I have with the Ishy are, ejection is pretty weak. Who cares? I'm not going for rate of fire. And the original sights shot way high. Like 8" high at 100 yards. I could have bought a taller front sight from Numrich or some such, but instead, I used JB Weld and some solder and built up the front sight. Now its right on.

 

[Limeyfellow]

It shot high since the battle sights are done in at 300 yards.

Apart from some having a weak extractor (though a new extractor will probrobly fix that) and a few have some butt repairs do to the way they do their drill they are rather good. I wouldn't run any really hot loaded .308 handloads through it but it works rather nice.

Well worth the money as they are a much cheaper to feed Lee Enfield design. I personally would like a nice L9 Lee Enfield (a No4 converted to 7.62mm nato) or the holy grail to me an L42 sniper rifle.

 

[BillCA]

Not a bad rifle at all.

I picked up one of the "Ishy" rifles that an importer made into a "jungle carbine" about 9 years ago. I liked it and picked up a standard 2A but had to sell it after only two range sessions. It's heavy, but you want that in a .308 and the sights are... well unsophisticated. I have a hard time seeing the front one. But once you do your part the rifle performs pretty darn well for a 40-something year old surplus gun.

 

[hodaka]

I bought one from AIM, as well as a K-31 in December. The Ishapore is the ugliest rifle I have ever seen. It looked like it had been stored in used motor oil then packed in used wheel bearing grease. I cleaned it up and refinished as best as I could, but it is still no beauty. It shoots about a foot high at 100 which I'm sure is due to the battle sights. The stock repairs look like they were done by framing carpenters. The front sight is very tiny and to drift adjust it you need to take the bayonet attachment off. The trigger is the worst I have ever seen. I plan to sell mine if I can find someone locally who wants one of these. The K-31 is much, much better.

 

[AK103K]

I had one of the chopped down Ishpore "Jungle" carbines. It had a couple of issues, but it was accurate. It wasnt real pretty and looked like they dipped it into a paint tank to finish it.

It never did want to extract and/or eject on a regular basis, even after changing extractor, spring and ejector. Some rounds would fly right out, and the next round would lay on top of the magazine, at its pleasure. I think some of the problem is it was designed for a rimmed case and the rimless .308's gave it troubles.

The mag what came with my rifle had a little slop in it and didnt fit right. I had to build up the catch slightly so the rounds sat up high enough in the mag well for the bolt to strip them off the mag. I got a new made repo from Gun Parts for around $40 that did work.

I shot both .308 and 7.62x51 out of mine. The headspace must have been out there as I never got more than one reload out of any of my cases due to case head separations.

 

[FirstFreedom]

Agreed; aside from sights that are tough on my bad eyesight, and lack of scope mounting options, the Ishys are good; usually good shooters - the "ten" round mag holds 12 rounds of 7.62x51mm. One of these days, I'm gonna drill & tap for a fully adjustable rear peep sight back at the bridge. For $200, these are excellent pickup truck guns - rugged, powerful, not out much if stolen.

 

[moose fat]

Get one.

There are some nice ones I have seen on some other C&R forums once they are cleaned up. They are mostly covered with crapy black paint (cbp) and cosmoline. The rifling is usually sharp, mechanically sound. Real good project gun.

I found out that the cbp comes off with "Easy Off" oven cleaner and elbow grease, hot water and soap. The cosmoline comes off with mineral spirits and hot water and soap. They need to be taken completely apart to get in all the crevices. High pressure air helps too. Some guys manage to throw the stock in the dishwasher when the wife isn't around.

Do a thread search on 7.62 vs. .308 , here and Google, and decide for yourself what you want to shoot in it. I have been reloading .308 for mine and keeping the loads near the starting point. Some guys use "Rem Managed Recoil" factory loads in .308, and NATO 7.62 is what its made for if you can find some, it is OUT THERE.

 

[paul salchow]

I got one 2 months ago, cleaned up reall good with boil out in cleaner tank in the blue room.
gun coated it black and refinished the stock. with the help of a scope mount i built it shoots better than any of my other long guns.
I would do this one again, it's a good piece of history and great shooter.

 

[RedneckFur]

I take it that .308 nato isnt available commercially then? only surplus? I guessed it would still be a popular round.

 

[Limeyfellow]

.308win is the almost indentical commercial version of 7.62mm nato and the Ishapore 2as and 2a1s will take both just fine. SHouldn't have any problem finding commercial ammo for it, though military surplus is alot rarer than it used to be.

 

[Csspecs]

Check the specs on the ammo, Barnaul .308/7.62x51 has a max pressure of about 42,000 and wolf gold is close to that. According to answers.com 7.62x51 NATO is around 50,000 max, and that .308 is 62,000 max.

So it looks like a number of imported low cost ammo brands will do the job.