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Norinco 1911 "Are they any good?"

181K views 66 replies 33 participants last post by  CoolE 
#1 ·
I have never had one or shot one. There is one in the box for a little under $500 at a local pawn shop in real nice condition, I would say 95%. Any and all input would be helpful.
 
#2 ·
I've never handled one but from reading on this board they are exact copies of the origional Colt design and made of extremely hard steel, so they make an excellent base for a custom 1911. For 500 in the condition it's in I'd jump on it. Worse case you could probably sell it for 600 on GB to someone.

Good luck,
Merritt
SGT USMC vet.
 
#3 ·
I bought one at the local Gander Mountain a few months ago. Paid $350 for it. I’d say it was around 95% or so. The slide was scratched/worn, mainly on the right side forward of the dust cover, and it had some other minor dings and scratches (trigger was quite worn), but that was about it. It was a rattle trap and the barrel was junk (the previous owner must’ve dropped the slide on an empty chamber about 1000 times), but it shot a decent group. It’s at the local smith’s now getting a complete rebuild.

Here are some crappy pictures:


 
#4 ·
Norincos can be great. From what I understand they can have barrel/slide issues when it comes to locking up properly and the way the barrel swings in and out of battery.

Let us know what the gunsmith says about yours, and any issues it had!
 
#5 ·
I've got 4 of them, 2 purchased before the ban went into effect, and 1 just after. Those three are all made from recycled railroad steel, they are loose as a goose, but accuracy is from between 2.0 to 2.25 with standard ball ammo. The fourth one I picked up it looks a little different from the other 3, same markings, but feels different so I'm assuming it's not the rr steel. These are extremely durable guns, GREAT base guns to be built up into hi tech guns.

The parts on all of mine are forged, not the MIM you'd find on others, and the barrels are chrome lined, all in all, the guns and parts are of extremely good quality.

I've never had any problems with these pistol, they fired hp right out of the box never once hiccupping.
 
#9 ·
The Turkish 1911's are patterned after the old style wide frame 1911's, and the finish comes off by simply rubbing your fingers on it. I looked at some at the last gunshow and the guy was asking 349 for each and he didn't sell one. I'd rather see people save an extra hundred and buy the Citadel, RIA, or American Arms.
 
#13 ·
The finish on the chinese norinco isnt THAT good either, i'd say it is the only bad thing about a nork. Although to be fair i've been using mine for about 9 years.

As far as reliability issues its pretty darn good. I only had jamming problems once with it, and they were only when i used privi partizan ammo, my nork hates that ammo. I've never had a jam with any other ammo and ive run thousands of rounds through my nork.

The other downside is that you have to find a gunsmith that is willing to work on them, not many smiths are willing to work on a nork, they are extremely tough and i've heard they can cause damage to smith tools.
 
#14 ·
Here's my Norinco with its Colt brother & the finish on these new ones (2009) are much better than the older ones I've seen.

This one was tightend, lightened & smoothed by Gunnar at Armco. It cycles any style bullet & cycles perfect. I am so happy with it, I recently purchaced another norinco from him, this time the 1911A1c....

It should be shipped any day now!:rock:
 
#15 ·
Here is my daily carry. It was parkerized then cerrocoated. It is a FLAT finish. The photo was illuminated by two 400 watt work lights.

The front strap and mainspring housing are stippled. The smith that did the work refitted the barrel and installed a new fitted barrel bushing. The gun shoots a lot better than I can hold it.

My smith says that the Norks are perfect clones of USGI Colt 1911A1s except for the steel. If he does any milling or cutting on them, he makes me buy the cutter head.

//
 
#21 ·
If it's a Norinco, then 350 is a good price. I'm always on the lookout for good deals lol. I found a Beretta M9 in nearly 90% condition for 249.00 at a pawn shop, the only problem with it was that the grips were cracked, which I fixed easily by putting on another pair of Beretta grips.
 
#20 ·
This one is NOT the high cap type, it takes same 7 round mags like the Gov't model. It has a different grip safety, hammer & trigger & is comander length of course. This gun also has a different pair of grips from the original rubber type. I also might add, this gun was bought as a used one, but is of the most recent vintage Norinco manufactures of late....
 
#23 ·
This one is NOT the high cap type, it takes same 7 round mags like the Gov't model. It has a different grip safety, hammer & trigger & is comander length of course.
did you change the grip safety, hammer and trigger? or did it come that way out of the box?

A local gun shop was trying to bring a high cap nork with all the fixings, i was wondering if they needed a gunsmith trip before using. :)
 
#22 ·
I've had three in past 20 years and one early one was a great pistol and never had any problem. Two later ones had problems with timing and was beating the barrel lugs out of shape. I've seen many more with the same timing/barrel lug problems.


I built this one few years ago from Norinco frame, slide and MSH using mostly Colt parts.
 
#25 ·
Tell me if this is normal for the Norinco:

I went to look at it, again, last night. Had them remove the trigger lock, so I could see how the trigger was, and to do a quick test on safeties. This is the point of this post: With the thumb safety on, grip safety off (gripping the handle), I attempted to pull the trigger, and of course, the hammer stayed put. However, when I took the thumb safety off, the hammer immediately fell to half cock. Is this normal for the Norinco, or does this gun have a problem?
 
#28 ·
Even if your finger was pressing the trigger when you disengaged the TS it still shouldn't drop the hammer to the half cock notch if there is no pressure on the GS. I did some fiddling with my Citadel and RIA and found that the hammer will drop all the way if I pull the trigger with the GS depressed and then thumb off the TS, but not the way you are describing.

Regards,
 
#30 ·
That really depends on the price he's asking for the gun, you can try to talk him down, and have a gunsmith fix the problem if your so inclined, it shouldn't cost that much to replace frame parts to factory spec parts, that will fix your issues but you have to look at purchase price plus price to fix, and then at the cost of a Springfield GI or MilSpec or an STI Spartan.

I leave out the Para Ordnance GI Expert because, while it shoots nicely for me, in the end, the frame is cast metal, and I simply don't believe it will hold up to the amount of shooting I do each month.

Springfield GI's in my area are selling for $519.99 parkerized
STI Spartans are $595.99
Para GI Experts are $600.00
Springfield MilSpec $575.00 parkerized
 
#32 · (Edited)
Norinco 1911s, any good

Norinco 1911s are one of the few pistols Bill Wilson will accept to work on as a project gun. That says something about the quality of the steel in the pistol. Custom builders always liked the Norinco frames as a base for project guns, But since Komrade Klinton banned their import they've become hard to find in the Chinese version. I own one that was done in Hard Chrome and it's as good if not better than most any good rendition on the market. Some less expensive imports are assembled buy companies that buy frames, slides and ancillary parts from the cheapest sources, they assemble than and stamp their name and importer marks on them.
 
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