Comments on: Norinco M14 Gun Pron

By: Mugwug

Mugwug — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:40:40 +0000

Kristopher: Don’t get me wrong, I’m not plugging the Norincos, they are cheap knock-offs of quality firearms. The price (up here anyway) is certainly right at about $400 for a Norc M1A, and the finish is usually substandard, but the rifles seem to function just fine.

The other argument is do you really want to support these guys by buying their product? I’ll admit I’d give it a second thought if I was buying the rifle today, but I bought it some time ago and have become rather attached to it.

Michael: $800? Wow… I dunno, for $800 I think I’d build one. I’ve sunk about $1000 total into mine so far between furniture, parts and accessories (damn scope mount was $200 alone).

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:49:29 +0000

I saw one of these Chicom Norico rifles in a local gun shop, selling for about $800 and change. If I had the money it would’ve been mine. But, as fate has it, I don’t, damn car payment.

By: Kristopher

Kristopher — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:50:22 +0000

Hmmm … wouldn’t surprise me.

Norinco inported M-14 clones into the US for only about a year before “assault rifle” imports from China were banned for strictly political reasons.

If they have dealt with their hardness issue, then the Norinco receivers would be superior to cast Springfield Armory receivers, and maybe a bit inferior to original TRW receivers.

By: Mugwug

Mugwug — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:33:04 +0000

Piet: Ayup, a cruel irony, can’t afford to drag my favorites to the range.

-sigh-

Kirstopher: Actually we’ve had quite a few of these Norincos imported up here, and it seems the metalurgical issues were limited to the early Norinco/Polytech imports, the newer ones don’t seem to have the same QC problems.

I’m no expert, but those wiser than me over at CanadianGunNutz.com have beaten some up pretty good, and tested a bunch and the verdict was those currently being imported are far better than the older originals.

Trust me, I’ve done some serious reading on the Norcs when I first picked it up (even bought a precision mic for my brass to watch the headspacing as online stuff had the bolts as being “soft”) but have seen no problems with mine (except for the finish, the Norincos always seem to have a “cheaper” finish.)

Appreciate the heads-up however (particularly since the Norcs are so hard to date, it’d be difficult to tell which was a new one and which was an older one).

By: Sigivald

Sigivald — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:32:27 +0000

I’ve heard it from many mouths that some of the Norinco M-14s have soft bolts, too, so you might want to get a US bolt for it as well.

By: Kristopher

Kristopher — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:48:24 +0000

You might want to have the receiver heat treated.

Norinco M-14s have forged receivers ( good ), but they didn’t heat treat them properly … You will see accuracy degrade as the receiver stretches and headspace loosens up.

Once heat treated, a Norinco receiver is superior to a cast Springfield receiver.

+1 on the b-square advice … the damned things are crap. if you are putting a scout scope on a military rifle, use an S&K instead.

By: Pieter

Pieter — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:53:42 +0000

Yet another fine rifle, to be sure.
Lesson learned on the Tascos, I last windage after 50 rounds.
They’d probably work well on a .22 or air rifle.
It’s kind of funny, two of your best rifles, get the least range time.