India’s Unique X95 Tavor “Zittara” (I Did Not Expect the Magazine)

September 30, 2026 Ian McCollum Select-fire Rifles, Video 25

https://youtu.be/PwOZXF5c-nw

The Tavor has a history of being popular in service with high-end Indian military and security forces, and a deal was made to manufacture the X95 domestically. What makes it unusual is that it was to use the 5.56mm INSAS cartridge. This round uses standard 5.56mm NATO brass paired with a 64-grain bullet and loaded to about 60mm OAL – the maximum that can fit in an INSAS magazine. This is too long to fit a regular STANAG magazine, though. So IMI actually made a specially stretched receiver to fit a slightly lengthened magazine for the Indian contract. As far as I can tell, the planned Indian domestic production never took place, but I can’t be sure.

Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film this for you! The NFC collection there – perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe – is available by appointment to researchers:
https://royalarmouries.org/research/national-firearms-centre/

You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:
https://royalarmouries.org/collection/

Related Articles

25 Comments

  2. Y’know…

    After a bit, you almost have to admire the sheer artistry of the incompetence demonstrated by the Indian military, when it comes to small arms.

    I mean… OK, you could go with a proprietary caliber. That’d be good, but they take it to the next level by making the proprietary caliber something that everyone else uses, but which you have to have your very own extra-special magazine and an extended receiver to work with, and there’s no telling at all what epic malfunction-f*ckery you’re going to get up to with that extra few millimeters, should you ever be forced into using whatever ammo everyone else is using…

    Then, there’s the supply system idiocies that this will induce, across the board, should other weapons chambered for standard 5.56 get into your system, and…

    It’s sheer artistry. Elbonia ain’t got nothing on India.

    Reply

      • You could sabotage an enemy by simply sending them anything “made in India” in the way of small arms.

        I remember some of the legendarily bad Indian 7.62 NATO that was going around back during the late 1980s and early 1990s. You’d get the British-pattern ammo can that would look as though it had been dug out of a wartime ammo bunker up at Kohima, and then when you popped the seals to open it, there’d be all these little packets of paper-wrapped pre-corroded cartridges that were held together by what looked like below low-grade baling twine. If you ignored all of your instincts, and then actually tried firing the ammo?

        Lordy.

        I watched a friend of mine blow up a very nice L42 that was like something you’d expect to find coming along with Jonathan Ferguson as it’s personal keeper… The poor thing was immaculate. Two magazines of Indian 7.62 NATO-supposedly, and it was a blown-up wreck. You could literally hear the difference between the cartridges while he was firing two bays down; that’s how inconsistently it was loaded. I don’t know if what got that poor rifle was a squib, or something that was loaded way out of spec, but it eventually blew the hell up.

        Swear to God, if that L42 had been a child, I’d have been on the phone with CPS before that knucklehead got it out onto the firing line.

        Indian ammo. Not even once.

        Reply

      • That’s the glory of it, eon.

        The INSAS looks reasonable on paper; once executed by the Indian defense industries? That’s the rub.

        What I find interesting is the way the Indians went south, with industrialization. Time was, India produced better-made weapons than the Tower of London did; if you ever talk to someone who’s a serious collector of pre-1820 or so British-pattern firearms, they’ll happily tell you that the Indians often had better steel and craftsmanship going on than the UK.

        After the Industrial Revolution? Yeesh… India just did not keep up. And, it wasn’t really due to any specific factor you could point at, other than “bad administration” under anything other than the Crown authorities. All the Indian-produced small arms like the SMLE and the Vickers-Berthier looked like ass when you sat them next to the UK-built equivalents.

        Which is sad, really.

        Reply

        • Is there anything that India makes of industrial quality?

          I never heard about any product from there that is not agricultural. Billion+ people and nothing to show abroad, thats almost kinda fascinating to me.

          Reply

          • India’s number-one exports? Corruption, f*ck-ups, and dysfunction.

            It’s a country that can’t manage flush toilets or hygiene, ferf*cksake… You want industrial quality?

            Lots of people remember Union Carbide and Bhopal. What they don’t remember? The Indians threw out the American managers from Union Carbide, basically nationalized the company, and then turned around and sued the US branch of the company after their own incompetent management and maintenance triggered the disaster.

            There hadn’t been a US engineer or administrator on that site for over a year when it happened.

            By rights, the US should have said “Too bad, so sad, you nationalized it, you own it…”, but the Indians did what they do so well and projected blame on everyone else, not themselves.

            They love to blame the UK for colonization and all of its issues, but the sad fact is that India only got colonized because it was a grabtastic disorganized land of epic f*ck-ups, just like Ireland, Scotland, and the Chinese. They basically did it to themselves, and blamed the UK for everything. Had the East India Company never existed, India would still be in a state of grabtastic incompetency the likes of which would make modern India look positively genteel.

            You can see all the lies about colonialism laid bare in the state of places like India and much of colonial Africa today. The colonial powers pulled out, and what do you have to show for it? It ain’t Wakanda; it’s Somalia and Zimbabwe. Not a damn thing the colonial powers built really remains standing, anywhere; it’s all been hacked up, sold off, and effectively destroyed the way the South Africans are destroying their railways and electrical grid.

          • A number of things.
            Indua is a major steel exporter. They are world leading in polished gem stones. They are a major producer of clothing and shoes. And they are improving rapidly.
            Weapons wise, you nay check Precihole airguns and barrel rifling machines. They are good.

  5. Replying to Kirk;

    The Indian Subcontinent’s main export today is phone scams. OH has the highest number of daily scam calls in the United States today, topping one billion every 24 hours.

    Most come with whatever the local area code is (740 or 614), but with a “213” or “963” prefix. These trace back to Cuyahoga County, specifically Cleveland Heights.

    There are three “blocks” of phone numbers, each of roughly a quarter-million numbers, operating in that area. All any of them are used for is robocalls or scam calls, the latter moistly phishing calls trying to obtain SocSeC numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, and etc.

    And they are owned by shell companies that trace back mostly to the Indian and Pakistani governments.

    In fact, when you actually hear a human voice (“‘ALLO! ‘Ave I reached Mr. Eon?”), it has a thick Hindi accent, and is coming from a “phone farm” in a building in Mumbai or Karachi via Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) via servers in Cleveland Heights.

    India and Pakistan are the world centers of robocalls and phone scams. That seems to be the only actual “industry” either country has.

    Switching gears, regarding India’s techne’ before the Raj, there wasn’t much to it. Their definition of “cannon” for instance, was a local ruler having one huge, immobile gun on top of his palace to overawe his peasants.
    https://www.researchpublish.com/upload/book/Mechanism%20of%20Firearms-8512.pdf

    Look in any book on “ancient weapons” and you will find that pre-British black-powder weapons in India were crudely made and overly-decorated with pearls, rubies, and etc. They were meant for show, not use. Trying to get a cheek-weld and firing one was a good way to have your face ripped open.

    Everything in ancient-to-medieval India was for show. It was ingrained in the culture as much as the “caste” system. And to a great extent, it still is.

    clear ether

    eon

    Reply

  6. Thanks for the research article Eon. I’ve glanced through it, but one thing caight my eye: cow urine as ingredient for gunpowder.
    It must be to infuse at least a little of godlike characteristics (knowing the status of sacred cows) to devilish black powder !

    Reply

    • Actually, urine is an important part of black-powder production no matter where it came from originally.

      Using it to “wet down” the leach beds that produce saltpeter (potassium nitrate, KNO3) is a good way to both increase production and get it done faster. Urine is high in ammonia content (which is why you can’t drink it, no matter what some old sourdough said way-back-when), and the anaerobic bacteria that create KNO3 as part of their feeding/waste cycle absolutely love the stuff. Using urine as opposed to plain H2O can speed up the lixiviation of the material as much as 30%.

      It’s also one of the reasons that living near government leach beds in France and elsewhere was not what you’d call a good experience, especially if you were downwind and had a sensitive nose.

      cheers

      eon

      Reply

      • Drink urine? Interestingly enough former U. Oklahoma running back Joe Don Looney joined an ashram in India and after a couple years came back with a rite claiming drinking one’s urine would help transmute one into a demigod. I also knew of a church not far from Rolla Missouri that put that interpretation on the Biblical injunction,’Drink ye the waters of your own fountain.’ Me, I’d rather munch black powder.

        Reply

    • I recall an article about the Confederacy requesting citizens to save their ‘chamber lye’ (urine) as a source of salt-peter. I have no idea of how to, how well, or even whether that works

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*