Other than being made in China are these good guns? or junk?
Norinco should not be discounted simply due to country of origin. I have no experience with the model that you mention, but in general, their firearms are built fairly well enough to justify their asking price, which is usually pretty cheap. I had a Mak-90 from them, that took way more abuse than it deserved. It was when I was 20 years old, and had just discovered “Bumpfiring”. The barrel showed its lathe turning marks with pride. It was built like a tank. Also owned 2 Norinco SKS that were equally solid.
I’m not a Cowboy shooter, but a few guys at my club are.
They’ve taken a liking to these, and they put 500-700 rounds through them a year each. In the 2 years they’ve been using them I’ve not heard a complaint nor hiccup.
They seem pretty satisfied with their choice.
I used to own the real thing [winchester] several years ago and like an idiot I let it go in a moment of weakness. About a year back I happened across one on gunbroker that was listed for $4000…I about crapped!!! anyway I did purchase a Norinco model just for the hell of it. I had to polish the loading mechanism with emery cloth and the gun started feeding correctly. now after several hundred rounds it works like a champ. I love the exposed hammer and you can hold the trigger down on this gun and rack the shells through. I am totally happy with mine.
Thanks for the responses. I’ve always wanted an original too but the price always kept me from buying one. And with one of these I would’nt worry about shooting/beating it around a little bit. I know some would say dont buy it cause its made in China,but then so is everything else. Thanks again
Have one, love it.
I bought one a while back. They are like their 1911’s in quality. Pretty well made, nothing that would win a beauty contest, but good steel and functional to say the least.
On mine, the front bead seems a little canted. I thought about rotating the heat shield a little to get it to line up straight, but you can notice the heat shield being canted alot easier than the bead, so I left it. When I finally shot the gun, I was suprised that the slugs went right to where the canted sight was aiming for. Now I’m not sure if it’s canted because it’s zeroed, or what. Anyway, I’m not screwing with it. Buck or slug, it shoots nice and like the original there is no disconnector. Also like the original, you can empty the mag tube with the push button on the side, rather than having to work the action. I don’t know why other shotguns don’t have this feature as it sure makes safe and easy work out of unloading and clearing.
Oh and mine shoots higher with the 17" bayonet fixed.
I recently saw an 1897 made by Chapparal Arms and thought that looked quite good. Any thoughts?
I just bought one of the Norinco model 97’s and I must say it sure is fun to shoot! Talk about firing six rounds in a hurry!
The internal finish is a little rough but like another post mentioned a few minutes with some emery cloth and it’s smooth as can be now. I used some SLIP2000 which really made a difference. One thing with all of these Chinese imports plan on spending some time removing heavy lube they are packed in before shooting your new one.
Now maybe I need the lever version:-)
I think these run in the 300-400 dollar range new- the guys in my cowboy shooting circles have had fair luck with them- a little rough and need some break in or tweaking to get to work. at least in my neck of the woods you can find a used original in shootable condition for the same price range. To be honest I tried using all original guns for cowboy shoots and often keeping them running due to parts breakage and the fact parts almost always need hand fitting led me to use modern repro guns instead
Mine was marked $425 but since they had it in stock for some time they knocked it down to $350 so I was pleased.
It was certainly rough but after using emery cloth and cycling it for awhile it smoothed up. Your right about the parts for original guns. The really old ones were all pretty much hand fitted and the steel was more brittle than what we have now so I bet you were spending some money on parts. That and if it breaks during a match–well not good:-)
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