Traded for a "Norinco"(?) 1911

[CJB]

The Norinco 1911's were made by King Keng Fu, aka Keng Firearm Specialties, aka King Firearm Specialties, in Communist China.

I was very active in the retail gun trade, doing lots of gunsmithing during the heyday of the Norinco imports.

The 1911s are not bad guns, not great, but not bad. The Achilles heel is the barrel, with good insides, but rather lousy rotten n'er-do-well outsides. The fit on those make the GI 1911's look like Clarke Custom Guns best bullseye guns....

The hammers are soft. The sears are soft. Ok for duty, never get a lasting target trigger. We had a lot of disconnector issues - soft metal there too. Slide stops...

So, if you keep it stock, and use it for "that truck .45" its fine. If you want it to shoot straight, and have a lasting trigger, you'll invest a few hundred into a barrel, and lockwork parts. Add three fifty to it, and you've got a great GI length .45 auto. Not decent, not ok, but GREAT. The frames and slides are sound, the rest is rather... so-so.

As they came - they were reliable shooters, just sloppy and had terrible triggers, so judge the worthiness on that.

If the price was right, I'd own one.

And they all had a sort of "sanded" finish, like most of the Norinco stuff.

And, FWIW, the original Home Depot brand stuff, all had "King Keng Fu, China" on it. I know, cuz I've got one their drill presses that is labeled EXACTLY that way. Norinco was just the marketing arm of the whole affair, with KKF doing the actual forging/casting of the parts and assembly. To the best of my knowledge, a lot of the "Ohio Forge" stuff sold by Home Depot "in the day" was just KKF re-badged to be "Americanized".

I had a Norinco fully machined AK-47 semi auto, folding stock, and it was a thing of near precision, with a terrible finish. Re-did the wood, it looked a lot better. The metal, that sanded finish they had... really cant fix that with homebrew stuff, unless you care to do a total refinish and plate it with GunKote or such.

[jocko]

nice rep[ort CJB. We sold Norinco's back on our gun dealing days and most of whatu said here was just not known back then but to my knowledge we never had any come back either, and again probalby most bought the gun and shoot them very seldom, therefore to them they were Ok guns.

I don't think back 35 years ago people understoodd metalurgy as they do today either. I think many though all guns that looked like 1911"s were the same, which we know today is not true.

Would I rather stick a Norinco 45 in my glove box over a clarke 45, ????U betcha. and have alot of beer money left over to.

[doc540]

stop it

the more I handle it and look at it, the better it seems as a truck gun

[Bawanna]

I was very much afraid this would happen. A 1911 is like a snake in the long grass and me thinks you just got bit my friend.

You better look for something else to sell to make ends meet. Maybe the lawn mower or some other useless expensive article that everyone hates to own.

[CJB]

I don't think back 35 years ago people understoodd metalurgy

Fuzzy math... Jocko.... more like 18-20 year ago.

This was a time when Kings Gunworks was supplying cast parts that were oversize in all respect, and that was as good as you could get in aftermarket.

There was no Ed Brown. Wilson was just beginning to get things on the market, but their quality was still being worked out. Etc etc.. there just wasn't the aftermarket like we have it today.

Used to be, you'd get a slide stop, you had to fit the pin!! and also fit everything else with needle files!!

Grip safeties were just beginning to get sold... So at least you had a choice besides "Kings". That "Kings" was the old Kings out of California, not China.

There was also an outfit that sold parts.... a bunch of ladies as I recall. Can't remember the name at the moment. It was that, or (almost) nothin.

We had Pachmeyer followers... woo..... We had Wilson magazines...woo....

Slim pickins for the .45 shooter back in the day. You wanted some of what is almost standard fare today, you had to go to Austin Behlert, Jim Clarke, Bob Day, or somebody similar.

We have evolved a long long way in the last 20 years. Not all of it I like, but most of it is good stuff - especially the metallurgy.

The crowd I ran with back then was into Bullseye and Metallic Silhouette shooting. The practical shooting crowd was a thing of the west coast of the USA mostly. The nice thing... I got first hand experience fitting parts... needle files, surface grinder, Bridgeport mill... it made for an experience that just cant be bought with cash money. We even had an EDM machine when the only folks doing EDM work were Mag-Na-Port. I wish I knew then, what I know now....

[CJB]

I was very much afraid this would happen.....You better look for something else to sell.....the lawn mower or some other useless expensive article

Sell the ol' lady... keep the 1911~~!!!!!!

[doc540]

Only thing strange I noticed was the barrel.

After handling my Colt and BarSto barrels, this Norinco barrel sure seems a little, huh, light.

[CJB]

Take the upper off the frame. Take out the recoil spring stuff. Just slide and barrel and bushing. How much fore-aft play does the barrel have in the slide? How much sideways play is present, at the hood area?

Assemble the gun with no recoil spring stuff...

With a dowel in the slide.... how much up-down play is there in its fit?

That's what I used to take note of. Also, the amount of bashing the front of the recoil locking area gets... on the barrel surfaces. Sometimes the barrel would be bashed beyond recognition, but the gun would still work!!!

[mr surveyor]

has the bidding war ended yet????

[doc540]

has the bidding war ended yet????

Hasn't started yet.

Just put it on GB and have a local ad coming out Monday.

It'll just be "recovery" money since I've already mailed payment for the K-22.

[mr surveyor]

you should recover very nicely.

[doc540]

Might have it sold!

Got a PM on another forum that they'll take it, but no real money's on the table yet.

[mr surveyor]

good for you

[Bawanna]

Damn.

[Barth]

All this .45 talk has me itching for Storm Lake to fix my
5.10" extended, dual ported, black Isonite QPQ on stainless steel match barrel for my P220.
They got my 4.4" OEM barrel and theirs back last week.
I've got 500 rounds of HST and Ranger T 230 gr just waiting to be lit off.

I'm excited to see how the ported barrel works!!