Here on the Northern Neck of Virginia, we have a weekly flea Market in Warsaw, Va., held on Tuesday mornings. I guess there are so many retirees here, it doesn't matter what day you have a Flea Market, people will show up. The Flea Market is like a mini gun show, lots of folks set up selling guns, mainly field grade rifles and shotguns, the occasional hand gun. A refreshing change from big city flea markets, where most have restricted the sale of firearms....

Anyway, I picked up this Ishapore .308 carbine this last week, they were cut down from full size Ishapore rifles, coated in some sort of weatherproof material (Durakote or nickel), and marketed as the "Gibbs Survival Rifle". Ishapore rifles were made in India during the 1960's, marked "RFI" (Rifle Factory, Ishapore) and chambered in 7.62 (.308). In India, they were used as police rifles...



The above group was shot from the prone position at 50 yards, shot on a pasted up Bianchi Cup target. Load is a pet handload I had made up for a previously owned Ishapore rifle, 9.5 grains Unique behind a 170 grain cast lead bullet. Fun and cheap to shoot, the rifle is light, only 5.5 pounds, so full power loads would probably not be fun to shoot. I'm going to have fun experimenting with cast lead bullets for this rifle!

I have one of those except it has matte black finish. It is also in .308. It is a fun gun to play with and makes a pretty good utility rifle. The military sights aren't so good and I have thought about doing something like putting a fairly cheap, 2X scope on it. I got mine years ago. A local shop had it sitting in their rack for over a year and the guy sold it to me for $100 just to get rid of it. It was one of my better buys. I live a bit further south of you area but I think I might take a short trip some Tuesday. Any flea market where folks can sell their guns would be worth checking out.

Neat rifle there! I considered buying one of those when Gib's was selling them. I have an Ishapore 2-A in 7.62 Nato that is a great performer.

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Stay safe people!

Good looking rifle.....I used to buy/sell/trade at a local flea market.

The ones I used to hit when I was working in WV usually had really ****** worn out guns that the sellers wanted full retail for. I've been learning to prowl pawn shops, and I've especially enjoyed the fact everyone is big on "tacticool rifles" so now I am looking for newer and stainless wheel guns and other "uncool" guns to pickup for cheap.

I have a Gibbs (satin nickel by the way) in 303 Brit. I do appreciate that rifle. It is a fine shooter with milsurp or commercial ammo as well. I haven't killed a critter with it, and may never, but having 10 303 rounds at my fingertips is a nice feeling.
I painted the stock on mine a stone colored texture finish....
Congrats on your find. 308 is likely a better caliber for one of these rifles, but 303 appeals to me, Rule 303 and all.....

Does that textured paint hold onto a stock pretty well? I have half way toyed with painting up my coyote rifle to make it blend a little better in the grass.

Check the headspace before you shoot it. My buddy has a cut-down Ishapore in 7.62 NATO and you need a library book to measure the headspace. I have a full rifle and that one is OK other than the diameter of the chamber is a tad "generous".

Make sure to check headspace on these w/ 7.62 Nato gauges, not 308Winchester commercial gauges.
The 7.62 Nato spec for 'Field' (reject) is 1.6455".
308Win commercial 'Field' is 1.638"

7.62 Nato 'Go and No-Go' specs are also more generous by 3 and 4 thousanths".

There's lots of room for a commercial gauge to fail in an otherwise safe to fire rifle that passes on a Nato spec gauge.
Especially on a 'Field' gauge.

2A and 2A1 rifles are chambered for the 7.62Nato cartridge,,not 308Winchester.
Two different cartridges and chamber specs.

Good call, I forgot to mention it. Pretty much all modern .308 manufactured ammo will tolerate a 7.62 chamber, but you will not get the number of reloads that you could from a .308 spec chamber, obviously. Some ammo manufacturers only use 7.62 spec brass these for all their .308 and 7.62 NATO ammo.

I've got the full size Ishapore. It isn't as "slick" as the Brit rifles, but it is a pretty good shooter in .308

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G.P. Charlie

I don't know if this is true or not, but I have heard that on Enfield type rifles you can get a good guess on the headspace on the rifle by looking on the bolt face for a number, 1-5, a "1" being a new rifle, a "5" as being pretty worn out.

I heard that as the rifle wears, headspace increases, armourers would replace the bolt face with a larger one, therefore the different numbers you see on the bolt face...

The number on the bolt face on this rifle is a "2"....

Not sure if this is factual, anyone else heard this?

The #4 Enfield rifle (WW2) had a system whereby the bolt head was used to adjust for headspace problems. Bolt heads were mfg'd in sizes from '0' to either '4' or '5' depending on who you read. '0' being the smallest. Each increase in number was supposed to be a .003" increase in length to adjust for headspace problems in a rifle.

The older #1 rifle (which the Ishapore 2A1 7.62 Nato caliber rifle is a variant), did not use that manufactured oversize bolt head system.
If a #1 rifle developed headspace problems, the armorer simply measured the existing offender and then found by trial and error measurment, a larger bolt head from a stock of loose parts from stripped rifles and possibly new parts depending on the situation they found themselves in.
If an oversize head was used, it was faced off carefully to fit till it closed on a MilSpec gauge. Those 303 Milspec gauges are more generous than the commercial 303 gauges BTW.

AFAIK, the Ishapore 2A1 uses that same fitted bolt head system of the older #1 303 rifle and there are no manufactured step increased bolt heads made for them.
Some parts supply houses will for a fee, try to hand pick a bolt head to measurement for you,,no guarantee of course as supplys are always limited on such parts.

As the to #2 on the bolt head,,could be a fitters mark,,a replacement part mark,,ect. Many 2A1 Ishapore rifles have the bolt head marked with a '2'.
Try posting on one of the Enfield boards as they get into the small details of these all the time,,not that they always agree!
But it's interesting.

2512HQ,

Thanks for the info. This rifle shoots good with the cast lead rounds I intend to shoot a lot through, just got back from the range putting 30 rounds of 180 grain LRN cast lead through it, shoots dead on, point of aim/point of impact out to 100 yards. This will be more of a target and canoeing rifle than any sort of battle rifle, so I think it will fill the bill nicely. These 180 grain cast lead round nose have the recoil and accuracy of a .22 rifle at 50 yards...

I picked up about 250 empty cases for it, so my next few days will be occupied casting and loading some more 180 grain LRN rounds for it.

Sounds like a fun load to shoot. I had 3 of the 2A1 rifles over the years and always shot MilSurp ammo in them. Sold them off one by one. Maybe should have kept one!

Now I shoot mostly light loads in jacketed reloads or reduced loads w/cast bullets in my rifles.
Good to hear the 2A1 is a winner with the light loads.

My '06 and 30-40Krag loads are cast lead over 12gr of RedDot.
Just like your loads, little recoil but very accurate.

Nice job. Do you think the six groove rifling is a help with lead bullets? I am assuming yours as six as all the other 2As I have seen are so equipped.

Nice catch, looks like it's in great shape. Did you get a good deal?
I've wanted a Gibbs rifle in .45-70 for some time but have yet to come across one. Guess I need to hit the flea markets!

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

2512HQ,

Not sure what makes these rifles shoot cast lead better than others, may be the rifling. I have some rifles that shoot cast lead well, others not so much. I have a Model 94 Winchester that shoots cast lead "'OK" out to 50 yards, not so much past 50. This is the second Ishapore I have owned that shoots cast lead like it was made for it.

WC145,

The deal I got was OK I think, $250. When these rifles were first imported and marketed as the "Gibbs Survival Rifle" I think they were going for around $190. The deal took a few weeks, as the seller was quite optimistic about it's value at first, he had it priced at $400 the first time I saw it. He came down $50 a week, and finally took my offer of $250.

Sounds like a deal to me, I'd even give $275 for it if I had to!

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

Can someone help me out. I'm trying to find this flea market. I live in Richmond and want to visit a real flea market.

It's in Warsaw, Va., near the intersection of route 360 and Route 3. From Richmond, go through Warsaw, turn left on Route 3 like you are heading to Montross, and it's about a half mile on the left. Near the old "Buyrite" building in an old baseball field.

Tuesday mornings, rain or shine, all year long.

@ Canoeguy, Thanks for the directions.