An Assessment of the Indian Ordinance .32 Pistol

The Indian ordinance factories number about 50 and are spread all over the country. The impetus to these factories came when Krishna Menno was the Defense Minister in early sixties. These factories which come under government control now manufacture an assorted quantity of small arms and rifles for the Indian Army. The Factory at Kolkata manufactures the .32 bore pistol.

This pistol though freely available has however a waiting period of about 6-9 months and the weapon is allotted after an upfront payment of about Rs 76,000/-. Valid license holders can buy this weapon.

I had occasion to test one such weapon. The barrel length is 3.44 "and the weapon is fairly light, weighing only .68 kg (with empty magazine). The magazine can load up to 8 bullets of 0.32 caliber (ACP rimmed cartridges).

A first look at the weapon is not satisfying. You can see the shoddy finish of the weapon and the engravings of weapon number and IOF markings on the barrel and gun is done in a crude manner. Attention to the finer points of the weapon is sadly lacking. I compared it with and Russian weapon and was struck by the shoddy finish of the Indian pistol.

The weapon cocks easily and is effective up to a range of about 30 meters. But after firing about 12 rounds I found that one of the cartridges jammed and the gun did not fire. This again points to poor quality control. It is about time that the IOF paid greater attention to finish and weapon ballistics in future. Otherwise India made weapons may not find prospective buyers overseas.