Rajasthan, interesting, I know some local Indians who visit home sometimes, but I don't think they come from there. I will have to ask if they can look in on the factory when they are home next. Seems they are also in the armor and swords business, people speak well of their products, must be the boys doing all the medieval reenacting.
I been shooting since I could walk, owned my first dozen guns before I was out of the 8th grade, and have been a military surplus arms collector all my life. I know quality when I feel it, heft it, and shoot it, and I know quality costs. These Indian guns have their place, and they may not be the highest quality, but they are not manure either. These guns are not made to take the place of a fine, handcrafted weapon produced by a master gunsmith, they are mass produced so casual shooters like me can experience what it was like to shoot the big military muskets of the 18th century without busting the bank. I would not ask a master craftsman to produce me a $3000 masterpiece so I can shoot tin cans with it on the range every other weekend, and use it as a noisemaker on the 4th of July. I don't shoot in competitions, haven't got the eyes for it anymore, I don't do living history demonstrations, and I don't hunt with big bore military muskets, so these guns fit the bill. They are fun shooters, they work, and despite having been looking for some time I have yet to find a report of one having blown up in anybodies face were it was not a case of shooter error, poor loading, overloading and so on ( and none of these reports involved Indian guns) I don't expect these guns to be 100% correct, they are close, and just what is correct in the first place? Interchangeable parts didn't come along until the mid 19th century, The Brown Bess and every other 18 th century musket was produced by hand at government armorys and small shops over a 100 year period, the variations over that many years must have been endless. Even guns made at approximately the same time will have small variations from each other, made to the same pattern but not made identical.
If I had my way I would not be buying Indian reproductions, I would be buying shootable originals, it's a milsurp collector thing, but I have not been able to find any, and the ones I do find are huge money for guns that look too delicate to shoot, or decrepit. My oldest shootable original military surplus firearm is a converted 1853 Snider Enfield made in 1862, followed by a 1863 US Springfield. I would love to shoot a Bess that had been used during the American Revolution, but as that seems not likely to happen then dropping $600 for the Indian repops is all I can do. As to Indian VS Italian Vs Japanese Vs American pepops, they are all fakes, none of them carry the weight of history as does the real thing, and to a milsurp collector that makes them all less than worthless as anything but can bouncers, and noisemakers, just another modern firearm. They all have their irritating problems, soft frizzens, poorly designed touch hole passages, the problem with the lock geometry on the Pedersoli 1807 Harpers Ferry, but none of them are dangerous any more than any other gun if properly used. I remember some pretty crude looking manure CVA was importing back in the 70's, so things have come a long way since.
