India: Ultralite .22 Revolver Developed for Self Defense

Gun Watch ^ | 14 February, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Two years ago, in 2014, India's Field Gun Factory in Kanpar, introduced the Nirbheek, an 18 ounce .32 caliber Webley clone designed for the defense of women.  At the beginning of this month, on February 2, 2016, Ishapore Arms Factory, a famous Indian weapons factory, introduced an aluminum alloy framed .22 revolver designed for defense, the Nidar.  From indiatimes.com:

Speaking to TOI, officer in-charge of the Ishapore arms factory, P K Aggarwal said, "The .22 caliber Nidar is lightest revolver ever made in India with cheapest price tag of Rs 35,000 only. The revolver is capable of firing eight rounds loaded in a revolving chamber against Nirbheek which has only six rounds capacity."

He said, "Unlike costly titanium alloy used in Nirbheek, for Nidar we developed a total new alloy of aluminum which is called 'DTD5124' and its very light and as supreme metal strength."

Here is a comment by tia amri:

Gun culture is rampant in india and every indian citizen has a right to self defence. This small calibre handgun was long overdue and it must be made easily available specially to women as rapes and molestation is a daily routine in india. The govt. must ensure that licence for the weapon should not be a hurdle. I salute the Ishapore factory for the venture.

Link to video

Both revolvers were named after a young Indian woman who was gang raped and murdered in New Delhi in 2012.

Nidar means "courageous" in english.  It is close to the previous revolver's name Nirbheek, which translates as "fearless". The revolver is only 5.5 inches long, and weighs 8.8 ounces.  It is quite similar to the Smith & Wesson Airlight 317 in .22 long rifle.  The S&W is two ounces heaver, with a barrel about .27 inches longer.  The price for the S&W and the Nidar are comparable, about $500 - $600.

The Nidar gathered 100 orders on the first day, so this revolver may be a commercial success.  From bbc.com:

The manufacturers of Nidar, however, are confident that their product will succeed - Mr Agarwal told the BBC that he expected to sell 10,000 units of the gun this year.

Members of the Indian gun culture applaud the addition of the revolver, but deplore the general state of firearms commerce and the excessive legal constraints in Indian law. From the indiansforguns.com:

The lunching of the new .22 revolver is perhaps the first step in the right direction and we should welcome it. The media should also highlight the right of a citizen as per law of self defence, so that they should know when to use the firearm and for what purpose. Secondly, adequate facilities be made available so that the new license holders can do target practice so that they can effectively use the firearm in an emergency situation. 

We are all aware that there is powerful anti gun lobby, consisting of armchair academics and experts who refuses to see the ground reality.For criminals there is no shortage of firearms neither they have any problem of obtaining gun license or all India movement permit. It is all the problem of the law abiding citizen of this country.Let us hope the situation changes in the near future.

A great advantage of Indian gun law is that self defense with a gun is seen as legitimate, and a valid reason to own a gun.  This is exactly opposite of all the gun laws in the rest of the anglosphere, with the exception of the United States.

This sad state of affairs was directly created by the British Government, which gradually, deliberately, and without due process, eroded and destroyed the right to carry arms for self defense in England. The process has been researched extensively by both Chief Constable Colin Greenwood and Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm.  Professor Malcolm goes into great detail in her scholarly books; Constable Greenwood wrote the first academic paper on the subject in a study from Cambridge University in the 1970's.

Indian courts recognizing the right to self defense have a long way to go; but the outcome may well be less stringent gun control in India.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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[marktwain]

Indian gun laws are very strict, with almost no importation of arms or ammunition. The local varieties have suffered for lack of competition.

Guns are heavily regulated; only the well off can afford the time and expense to brave the regulations (and likely bribes) necessary to obtain and use arms.

[Kenton]

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, I suppose. I wouldn’t want to get shot with a .22 LR, but I wouldn’t want to try to stop an attack with one either.

[BenLurkin]

Do they make one to chamber .22 mag?

[Sasparilla]

I once bought a box of Indian military .303 surplus. 2 out of 20 fired. Has firearms/ammo quality improved there?

[driftdiver]

Not likely to stop a drug crazed lunatic but it could certainly deter the average rapist.

Better than nothing (or a sharp stick)

[marktwain]

Reading an Indian gun forum, the answer is no.

Without competition, the guns appear to be merel adequate; people did not seem to find it remarkable to have ammunition failures of one in ten or so.

I looked at the official catalog for state arms.

They listed a shelf life of shotgun ammunition of five years!

They listed a shelf life of .22 ammunition of 18 years!

Maybe it is just a cultural disconnect, but I expect ammunition shelf life to be about a human life span.

[marktwain]

“Do they make one to chamber .22 mag?”

No. They do make a Webley clone out of titanium, in 7.62x23 (looks to be .32 S&W long), firing a projectile (estimated 98 grains) at 750 feet per second.

No pistols with caliber greater than .32 are officially allowed in civilian hands.

[MasterGunner01]

I would be very surprised if this .22 revolver worked. The quality of Indian arms varies significantly. Their new combat rifle, the INSAS 5.56 NATO has had MAJOR quality issues. It's so bad, troops were issued AKMs.

[Little Pig]

You have to take the climate into consideration as well. Much of India is a true tropical climate, with high temperatures (upwards of 115F in the summer) and high humidity, particularly during the monsoon (weeks of 95-100% humidity). Further, virtually no one there has a proper gun safe which can act as a climate buffer; ammunition will probably be stored in a wooden cabinet somewhere. To make it worse, shotgun shells are largely cardboard, not plastic.

I think the biggest problem is the ban on imports. If the Indian gov would lift the ban, even if they then restricted it so that only a very few outlets were allowed to import, they’d get better-quality ammunition, and better-quality weapons into the mix. Sure the price would be largely out of reach for the average Indian, but the presence of foreign stuff would force competition, and force the Indian factories to improve quality.

[Gadsden1st]

I have a question for those out there that have real world experience such a Police, Security Officers, Military, etc.

Its the age old argument. I find hundreds of discussions about the stopping power of various calibers. Revolvers vs Semi-autos, etc. etc.

I can’t seem to find a definitive answer to the following, real life encounter.

I would think most cases where one would need to respond with deadly force would be close encounters. Within 10 yards or so. In the event of such an encounter, even with much practice, not every shot will hit center mass. Maybe even most will miss.

Question...weapon..Revolver..most reliable, less chance of jam, etc. will give you 5 rounds of 32 or higher caliber, therefore more “knock down” power, 6 rounds of 22 mag. with a lot of noise and flash and many reports of “nasty wounds”, or 8 rounds of 22 LR, not as powerful but still regarded as deadly.

A bad guy is not going to take the time to try to figure out what caliber and what load is being shot at him, what type of gun is being used, count the rounds fired, etc.

Bottom line, doesn’t it come down to “Holy S#IT!”, “Run Away”, or “I am so out of it on drugs, you better have a double barrel shotgun!”?

[marktwain]

I think they put the import ban in place in 1986. It has been there about 20 years.

I would like to see it lifted. There is a significant potential for a vibrant Indian gun culture.

[JoeProBono]

[CtBigPat]

Rs 35,000 equals $514. Kinda pricey, especially for a third world country.

[P8riot]

That’s OK, my S&W 342PD pre-lock weighs 10.8 oz. Not bad for a .38+P 5-shot. Recoil with full house rounds is a bitch though.

[SampleMan]

Ammunition shelf life is based on heat and humidity.

If not kept in air conditioned dry storage, India is not conducive to long ammunition shelf life.

[marktwain]

The “Run Away!” is, by far, the most common occurrence. For a determined attacker, If the attacker is armed with a contact weapon, you have three options:

1. Heart-lungs. Takes 10-20 seconds to disable. If you can survive the 10-20 seconds, ok.

2. Central nervous system, Brain/spinal cord. Usually an instant stop, but there are exceptions.

3. Pelvic girdle. If you can break/shatter the pelvic girdle, the attacker will be down in one step. You can usually walk away faster than they can crawl at you.

A reliable pelvic girdle shot requires a cartridge of sufficient power. Usually though of as .380 ACP or above in Auto pistols; .38 S&W and above in revolvers. It is power, not caliber, that is important here. The 7.62x25 is said to do a splendid job.

[marktwain]

“I would be very surprised if this .22 revolver worked. The quality of Indian arms varies significantly. Their new combat rifle, the INSAS 5.56 NATO has had MAJOR quality issues. It’s so bad, troops were issued AKMs.”

Maybe it works just well enough. Revolvers are pretty simple mechanisms. Would they do worse than the RG-14? I had one of those. It was pretty awful, but it would go bang with fair regularity. If you fired it single action only, you could, with skill, concentration, and considerable effort, get decent accuracy.

You would think for $500, an Indian arsenal would be able to produce a revolver a little better than a bottom of the line German design...

[marktwain]

“Decent” accuracy may be stretching it a bit. As I recall, I could get six shot groups of about 2 inches at 50 feet.

The sights are fixed; so I also had to apply a correction of about 4 inches to the left and 4 inches low, as I recall through the fog of 30+ years ago.

I am not endorsing the RG, just illustrating that revolvers tend to be fairly forgiving creatures.

[Jewbacca]

Gee, a Saturday Night Special.

That said, a .22 LR is a pretty potent round out of a longer barrel for such a little bullet

And I’d prefer a semi-auto to prevent some of the loss of pressure.

I wonder if a design could be made to move the chamber WAY far back and sneak in a few inches of barrel while maintaining the over all size.

Perhaps have the magazine sharply angled in the grip and some sort of novel hammer.

Alternatively, a quadruple stack mag and 50 rounds in a medium size pistol.

[Cen-Tejas]

My Mail scale just confirmed to me that which I already knew. Namely, my Ruger LCP 380 weighs in at 8 1/2 ounces empty (no mag or bullets) and 11 1/2 with a full mag.

It might be that a Freeper doesn’t know the difference so I will point out that a 38 caliber bullet is infinitely more powerful ballistically than a regular .22 round.

The gun rides comfortably and inconspicuously in a blue jean pocket.

Cost: $231.00 plus tax