.315 Indian Ordnance Factories Lee-Enfield sporting rifles

[Colonel Enfield]

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".

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