I am holidaying in India in December and January and would like to visit some gun shops and/or dealers.

Does anyone have any suggestions of any particularly good ones to visit?

I of course have a particular interest, see below.

NitroX,

The Bombay Gun House in Mumbai always has good guns and you could also check with Hanzala Bandukwala whose much smaller shop has some nice guns from time to time. Rusi Jijina is the owner and a very nice man.

In Rajasthan, The Curious House http://www.curioushouse.com has a good selection of guns and they also have an antiques license which allows them to export guns that are more than 100 years old, something that requires special eprmission. Gajendra Singh Parihar, the owner, and his son Pradeep are very nice people and I came to know about them thanks to Edmond on AR. In India, I hadn't heard about them.

After the big shops in Calcutta, Rodda, Manton, O C Daw etc closed down, the trade has shifted to Kanpur and the little city has more than a hundred gun shops to browse. You may find that the constant advertising by Westley Richards' Walter Clode asking for guns in the newspapers ahs driven prices of some guns very high in India though some bargains can be found occasionally.

The Hindustan Armoury and the Shikar Armoury in Chennai have some nice old revolvers including Webley Fosberrys and other collectibles but their prices are very high and it may not be worthwhile buying from them considering the fact that you may face import taxes in Australia...

Best wishes and a detailed e-mail follows

I wonder if you'll be able to find anything Jim Corbett related. Sounds like an interesting holiday!

Mehul

Thanks for the comments. I will have to ask the boss for the itinery as we are mainly going to particular regions this trip. I know we are going to Jodhpur and the region West of it.

An Indian con man tried to sell me a whole bunch of double rifles a few years back, and that prompted my query. It would be nice to see some if there are better gun shops that still have any. Who knows I am in the market too.

Looking forward to the email. It hasn't arrived yet.

JJH

quote:

Originally posted by CaneCorso:
I wonder if you'll be able to find anything Jim Corbett related. Sounds like an interesting holiday!

CaneCorso

Of course. I will have to be on the look out. But this time we will not be going to Corbett National Park. Dec/Jan is the wrong time of the year. Instead we are going to two other parks (Kanha and ?) to hopefully view Tiger, I'm hoping for Gaur, barasingha, sambar, chital, etc.

NitroX,

I am sure there are internet salesmen and crooks in India trying to take advantage of people who are interested in buying old guns. The shops that I mentioned have selections that you could see and handle before you come to a decision on whether or not to buy.

Since youre going to Kanha, The Curious House should be a nice place to visit. Both are close to each other. If you fly via Singapore from Australia you should land either in Chennai or in Calcutta. The old Calcutta gun shops have merged into a single entity, I am told, but I have no idea which name they operate under - G M Biswas, O C Daw, Manton and Rodda were the prominent names before they merged.

The Chennai Armouries are much smaller and Hindustan Armoury in Anna Pillai Street sometimes has some long arms while Shikar Armoury which is owned by Appa Rao and DVS Rao at Luz have some nice old revolvers and automatics including a mint 1911 (not the A-1) which I saw and shot some years ago.

Rusi Jijina's Bombay Gun House is the best gun shop that I have seen in India and the old man had several very interesting guns some years ago when I visited him last including several A Hollis and I Hollis guns, several Sauer pre war double rifles, some Anschutz large bore rifles including a very nice 423 (I think the Brits called the 10.75x68 that) and a huge selection of shotguns of every important make you would care to think about - Purdey, Holland and Holland, Bosss, Westley Richards etc. He also had some 12 bore Explora guns though I am not sure what he has left these days as some of the other Mumbai dealers have sold all their old stock to Westley Richards and some private collectors who have contacted them. I remember a 250-3000 Westley RIchards double rifle that was in Hanzala Bandukwala's shop in Mumbai and which is now with Westley Richards in the USA on sale at more than six times the price that he was asking for it when I saw the gun in his shop.

In Delhi Paramjit SIngh Sodhi's shop at Hauz Khas is also well known among people looking for fine guns, though, his prices too may be high to very high from what I have heard. I have not been to his shop, though.

Best wishes and good luck!

Mehul,

How easy is it to export the gun out of India, even if one were to find one at a good price? I exported my 375H&H double after 1 year of threats, bribery, etc..!!!

Do you know anyone who facilitate this?

thanks

Reddy375

Reddy 375,

Exporting a gun that is less than 90 years old is fairly simple - you need a "No Objection Certificate" from Customs and any C&F agent could get you one. If the gun is an antique you may need a special license.

I know that two of the companies that I listed above have the understanding of the laws as well as the required licenses to export older guns and they may be better people through whom to export anyway, though their charges are high - Paramjit Singh Sodhi charges 20% of the value of the gun to export it. Curious House recently offered some very old swords and guns on sale, some of which were about 200 plus years old, and they had all the papewrwork worked out to offer them to any buyer who wanted them. I have no idea what their charges may be but you could contact them on e-mail and check. Gajendra Singh Parihar is the owner and his son Pradeep works with him in the business.

Knowing the ways of Indian customs and the authorities as far as guns are concerned, I can understand your ordeal. It would be best to go with dealers who know the export formalities well.