British firearms maker Webley & Scott plans to set up two shooting ranges in every state to promote shooting as a sport, besides manufacturing revolvers in Uttar Pradesh.
Maninder Sial, promoter of the company’s Indian arm Sial Manufacturing Private Limited, said Webley & Scott has chosen Kanpur and Gorakhpur for establishing two ranges apart from one testing range at Sandila on its factory premises.
Webley & Scott has entered into a joint venture with its Indian arm to produce 3,000 revolvers annually. It will produce its first weapon in India at its Sandila factory in Hardoi district in November.
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“We want to change the definition of what people think about weapons. They are not meant to be seen as tools for shooting but as sporting instruments,” Sial said.
The ranges will be named after Webley & Scott and people can come and use the weapons and ammunition given there.
{{/usCountry}}The ranges will be named after Webley & Scott and people can come and use the weapons and ammunition given there.
{{/usCountry}}“They can do trap shooting, skeet shooting, and 10-metre pistol shooting. They will learn shooting as a sport. At the same time, they will unlearn about the weapon whose image is imbibed in their psyche in altogether a different way,” said Sial.
Sial’s family has been associated with the firearms business for over 50 years and has been importing firearms and selling them.
His association with Webley & Scott goes back to 2003. Since 2010, he was trying to tie up with the company that armed the allied forces in two World Wars.
“We could not succeed then. The opportunity came in 2017 under the current government. We jointly applied for a licence in 2018 and got [it] in March 2019.”
The company has finalised the production line of .32 bore revolver Mark IV. Engineers from Webley & Scott visited its facility and trained 40 men whom Sial hired locally. In the second phase, air guns would be made from June 2021 and shotguns from November 2021.
“Our experts are testing the revolvers,” Sial said. He added the company would employ 200 people, who would be from Hardoi, by the time all the four units become functional.
Thereafter, Webley & Scott would produce .9x19 parabellum pistols for the Army, police, and the paramilitary forces.