Guns: Perils of the Used 1911: A Norinco Report

Another post in my series of archived reviews from The High Road. This one has a sad ending, though:

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This post is sort of a primer/first-person account of the experience of buying a used 1911 for the first time. First, some acknowledgments: Xavier's guide to buying used 1911s, as well as the numerous posts on THR about the Norks (from Tuner and others) were very helpful. Thanks all!

Introduction

I missed out on getting something for "Buy a Gun" day, so when my local range had a huge used gun sale, I couldn't leave without picking something up. That something was a Norinco 1911, serial no. 302XXX. I had previously owned a Springer Loaded that I liked, but not enough to keep it for any length of time. The price was $325, which is higher than I would have accepted normally (you'll see why below), but since my range was acting as the FFL, they let me shoot 100 rounds before purchasing, which is a very considerate thing to do. After 100 rounds of 230 gr. S&B went downrange without a hitch, I took out my wallet...



Wait a second! That trigger and safety aren't stock! There's not one but two idiot marks! And what's with the front strap - did someone drag it through an auto parts store? The gun had a lowered ejection port, some definite wear on the finish...

In retrospect, I should have field-stripped the gun right then and there to check for wear in all the key places. Obviously the gun had been "worked on" - not a bad thing in and of itself, but as many have noted, something about the 1911 brings out the amateur gunsmith in all of us, and it is quite easy to screw up an otherwise good gun.

During the initial shooting session, the trigger felt pretty good (not excessively light, but not too heavy or gritty). The gun seemed reliable, and nothing seemed too racy or hyper (no extreme recoil spring setup, erratic ejection, or heavily modified hammer/mainspring to speak of). The slide to frame fit was loose, but it did not look like the gun was overly abused by its previous owner (many of these used guns came from police confiscations). Some of the other examples of gunsmithing, however, were questionable...

Stippling on the front strap. When I first bought the gun, there was some rust and/or gunk in many of the holes - some Breakfree and elbow grease cleaned it up a bit, but any rust is a bad sign. The MSH has been similarly stippled.




The magwell has been beveled - looks a bit amateurish in person, mostly because the person who did it slipped and took some of the bluing off on the frame itself (thankfully the frame is still okay). The stock mag that came with the gun was an abomination; you know it's bad when it's hard to load a mag because the follower bangs against the front of the mag unless you push it back. Yeah, it may say "Colt" on the baseplate, but who knows where it came from?

Shakedown

I was able to get in a much longer range session today, consisting of 100 rounds Blazer 230 gr. FMJ, 100 rounds of UMC 230 gr. JHPs, and 50 rounds of WWB. I'd love to be able to say this pistol shot as well as my CZ, but I'd be lying; honestly, most groups were 3"-4" at 15 yards offhand - good enough for defense, certainly, but it's not going to win any bullseye competitions. More importantly, the pistol was 100% through all 350 rounds across this and the previous shooting session. I did everything I could to make it bobble - left hand only, right hand only, limpwristing (thumb and forefinger hold), sideways shots, etc., but the pistol was good to go.

Bugger. The crappy mag's feedlip got damaged after about 100 rounds. I quickly bought a Mecgar 7-rounder from my range, which worked flawlessly. Even with the crappy mag, the pistol never bobbled. The bad mag now serves as a field-stripping tool .

Ouch. Caked blood is actually kinda difficult to get off of a hammer and grip safety. I hate spur hammers on autos - they make no sense, especially for a single-action piece. They might look better, but I'm going to switch to a ring hammer and beavertail ASAP if I keep the gun. Also note the fairly good fitting of the rear of the slide - much better than my old Springer Loaded.

So if the gun is reliable (even with a bad mag, which is saying something), accurate enough, and has been lightly customized, why did the previous owner get rid of it (assuming it wasn't a police confiscation)?






Here's 1911Tuner with the answer:

Howdy Mulliga,

Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings...but your barrel and slide are trashed. That "wear pattern" is indicitave of bad barrel linkdown and drop timing normally seen when the frame's vertical impact surface is too far forward, or the rear of the lower barrel lug is located too far rearward. My experience with Norincos is that they're just the opposite...and usually the barrel lug location being the issue, with the barrel being stopped by the link in extension instead of by the impact surface in the frame.

This can also be caused by somebody installing a long link to improve vertical lockup and lug engagement...or the link being stretched so badly that it behaves like it's too long, delaying barrel linkdown until the locking lugs can't drop below the slide's lugs.

A perfect example of why one should insist on field-stripping a used 1911, especially one that's been obviously tinkered with. The non-standard trigger was the red flag.

If you bought it from an honest dealer, you may have some recourse. Otherwise, you've got a useable frame and a paperweight that will serve as a painful reminder.

Wish I had good news...