[1911Tuner]

When the Norincos first appeared, I wasn't greatly impressed. I could see internal parts that weren't anywhere even close to spec, and looked like they were fitted with a hacksaw and a wood rasp. If I had my time to do ovr, I'd have borrowed money and bought a pickup truck full of'em.

While the earliest ones had vertical barrel fit problems, that was corrected in short order. The guns are reliable...accurate enough for their intended purpose...and as tough as a chunk of pig iron.

They're a little rough around the edges, but no more so than many wartime Ithacas and early Rands I've seen...and they could all do with a little careful stoning and polishing in the fire control group...but they're functional, and I've only encountered one that refused to run without some pretty labor-intensive work. I spent nearly 20 hours on the "Norinco From Hell" but it was one of the early ones, and all turned out well...finally. The owner reports that it hasn't missed a beat...and after proving itself...has joined his carry rotation.

Standard spec parts will generally interchange with only the occasional need for light hand-fitting. The springs seem to be a little iffy...particularly the sear spring...so I change those out and install an EWG firing pin stop with a 1/16th radius as a matter of SOP. If the upper lug engagement is good, that's about all that's needed, although some owners opt for a Kart barrel.

As an interesting aside, the OEM magazines are carbon copies of Colt's redesigned "Hybrid" type. All that's needed to complete the package is a Wolff 11-pound spring.

Then, just go shoot it, but be aware that if you want to practice malfunction drills, you'll have to purposely induce a stoppage.