.315 Indian Ordnance Factories Lee-Enfield sporting rifles

The Indian Ordnance Factory Board website lists .315 (I belive they're 8x50R Mannlicher) chambered sporting rifles which are unquestionably based on the Lee-Enfield.

Now, the thing is, no-one I know has ever seen one and there's a surprising lack of pics of them online - I've seen a few, so I know the rifles do exist and they're definitely Lee-Enfields, but there aren't the comprehensive "walk-around" galleries available there are with pretty much every other model of Lee-Enfield ever produced.

There's been a couple of threads here on the .315 rifles over the years but there still doesn't seem to be a lot of information available on the guns outside India - even Skennerton's The Lee-Enfield only seems to give them a very brief, passing mention.

From reading a popular Indian shooting forum (I'm not sure what the rules are on mentioning specific names or linking to it from here are) I gather the rifles aren't particularly highly regarded in India, but I can't work out if that's because they're not well-made, or if they're just far too expensive for what they are.

The prices (again, taken from discussions on that forum) seemed to be running to between about 70,000 and 90,000 rupees (About $1400 - $1600 Australian) for a new .315 IOF Enfield sporter a few years ago. I'm not sure about the US, but while that's not an outrageous price for a brand new centrefire rifle in Australia, I can't imagine there's many people in India with $1500 available to spend on a rifle (especially one which might be a bit average in the quality/accuract department) - and the ones who can spend that sort of cash probably want something "better" than a sporterised Lee-Enfield.*

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone on the boards here, particularly from outside India, had actually seen in person (or better yet, fired) one of these rifles? I'm just surprised how little informed, reliable information is available on the guns considering their legacy.

Surely someone (one of the super-collectors out there?) has found a way to legally get one out of India to complete their collection by now?

*Look, we all know the Lee-Enfield is one of the greatest and best guns in the universe, but in an unremarkable sporting configuration it does lack a certain something that says "this cost an ostentatious amount of money but really is the best on the market".

I did forward information over to Century about a year ago, but never heard what, if anything, happened.

IIRC Indian Ordnance have never even responded to any enquiries for commercial sales of their products - of course there has been a lot of civilian interest in their .303" ball that they still produce. I myself have twice raised commercial enquiries directly in person with their staff at DSEI (the international arms exhibition in London) and both times never had any further communication from them.

The sporting rifles do occur a lot in pictures from India - they seem to be a common rifle in the various national park departments, for example. However the civilians who can afford a sporting rifle - and have the necessary influence to get a licence - are probably likely to be rich enough to opt for an expensive foreign model.

The shooting club I'm a member of made enquiries about purchasing a bulk quantity of .303 and .380 Revolver ammunition from the Indians a few years ago, but heard nothing back from them either.

I'm surprised they're not more eager to export Ordnance Factory Board sporting/civilian stuff for commercial sale - there'd be quite a market for it overseas and you'd think the .303 ammo alone would be a nice little earner for them.

I'm guessing from the lack of replies to this thread that no-one outside India has held/fired one of the .315 IOF rifles?

I enquired about the the Enfield revolver they still produced and if it was possible to produce them to UK long barrel revolver spec...... Think it fell on deaf ears, Although when I started the ball rolling again I did some more research and the price of the revolver at the time was around £1200 IIRC so not realy a viable option.....

here is a link to their site:
http://www.ofbindia.gov.in/index.php?wh=Weapons&lang=en

Then click on:
0.315 SPORTING RIFLE
I think it is their own proprietary cartridge, not 8x50R Mannlicher.

The consensus, from what I've read, is that the .315 Indian round either is 8x50R Mannlicher or it's interchangeable with it.

While civilians (I suspect frequently interpreted to mean "non-Europeans") were prohibited from owning .303 rifles in Colonial days, I know 8x50R was a popular calibre because it was somewhat ballistically similar(ish) to .303 and would fit in an SMLE action; a lot of sporting rifles in India around that time were chambered in the rouund as a result, from what I understand - so it would make sense to resurrect the cartridge for the "modern" rifle, rather than going to all the trouble of developing a new one, at least in my view.

The specs given for the .315 Rifle cartridge on the OFB site seem to match the 8x50R Mannlicher; the cartridges certainly look the same and the (limited) ballistic data matches up with the info in my copy of Cartridges Of The World (12th Edition).

I know this thread is rather old, but I realised that we never really got around to actually answering the question I posed in it - and given things have been a bit quiet of late, I thought it might be worth revisiting?