Ishapore Rifle Factory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ishapore Rifle Factory (also known as Ishapore Arsenal) is an Arms manufacturing plant located at Ishapore, in the Indian sub-division of Barrackpore, outside Calcutta.

The first Arms Manufacturing facility on the site was a gunpowder factory, which was started in 1787 and began production in 1791, whilst a Gun & Carriage manufacturing facility was set up nearby in 1801.

In 1904, a Rifle Factory was established at Ishapore, and began production of the Lee-Enfield rifle, which has continued- more or less- until the mid-1980s, and possibly the present.

Military rifles manufactured at Ishapore pre-1948 are stamped "GRI" on the buttsocket, referring to George Rex, Imperator- ie, King George VI, last Emperor of India, whilst military rifles manufactured post-1948 are stamped "RFI", which stands for Rifle Factory, Ishapore.

The .303 calibre Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III, the 7.62x51 NATO calibre Ishapore 2A/2A1, and the 7.62x51 NATO L1A1 were manufactured at the Ishapore Rifle Factory, and the factory now manufactures the INSAS 5.56 mm assault rifle for the Indian Army, as well as numerous other weapons for both the military and civilian markets.

The Ishapore Rifle Factory is controlled by the Ordnance Factory Board of India, who are notoriously secretive regarding production figures or specifications for military rifles, making the exact number of rifles produced at the arsenal almost impossible to determine.