The Lee Enfield Ishapore 2A/2A1,Since India was a former dominion of the United Kingdom, it was comm

The Lee Enfield Ishapore 2A/2A1,Since India was a former dominion of the United Kingdom, it was common for post independence Indian military units to be issued with British equipment.  Thus it is no wonder that when India began to produce weapons for itself, it did so using British pattern designs.  The Lee Enfield Ishapore was the most notable of such designs.  Designed in 1963, the Lee Enfield Ishapore was introduced as a secondary arm of the Indian military.  While the official arm of the Indian Army at the time was the L1A1 battle rifle, such foreign imports were expensive.  However, a simple, sturdy bolt action rifle was cheap and easy to produce.  Thus, in 1963, the Ishapore factory began to produce a Lee Enfield type rifle similar to the SMLE Mark III.  Unlike the British Lee Enfield, the Ishapore was chambered in 7.62x51 NATO, fed by a ten round detachable magazine. This gave it common caliber with the L1A1.  Often the Ishapore is mistakenly described as being a 7.62 NATO conversion of the .303 British SMLE Mark III.  However, the Ishapore was a rifle that stood on it’s own, with the action and chamber produced independently by the Ishapore factory.  To save money, stocks and barrel bands were often salvaged from SMLE Mark III rifles.  Sights were labeled in metric meters, with 800 meters being the maximum range.As mentioned before, the Ishapore was produced to supplement the L1A1.  When stocks of L1A1’s ran out Ishapore’s were issued in their stead.  While some regular army units had to make due with the Ishapore, for the most part the rifles were used to arm reserve, militia, and police units.   India also had large stock of old .303 British Lee Enfield’s which it also issued as a secondary arm as well.  Production of the Lee Enfield Ishapore ended in 1975, making it the last common bolt action infantry rifle issued to a military.  Today some are still in circulation, used by Indian police.  During the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks a number of police units were issued with Ishapores as well a .303 Lee Enfields.  They are also common in the United States as military surplus. -- source link

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