Just receive my Norinco JW-20 with a threaded barrel!!!

[BabySeal]

Priced below a Marlin 795, its pretty hard to say no to this one.

[hassaracker]

Mine arrived a few days ago. After I stripped it and cleaned the cosmoline off it worked like a top, even with the CCI Quiet subsonics. It is a great deal at the current price.

[Ronsse610]

[BabySeal]

I read something interesting online. Apparently, Browning designed this gun before WW I and that it was released a couple years after the securing the patents.

When the gun went into production, it was the first off-the-shelf semi auto .22 on the market.

If that it true then it is pretty cool that the design is still so well regarded today.

[BabySeal]

I've got to unbox and de-preserve mine yet. It comes well coated in what looks and smells like cosmoline.

I'll post some pics tomorrow afternoon of the I boxing and cleaning.

Range review to follow later in the week.

[Gun Lover]

I am on my second one, since the first one had serious barrel issues. Haven't had the time to take out this one, but other than the barrel being in a little better shape than the first one, it looks much worst than the it (including bluing missing from the top tang.

Oh well, it is a cheap rifle after all. If this one shoots straight and is reliable, I am keeping it. If not, I'll just dump it and go for something else.

[BabySeal]

OK! So I got this on Saturday but didn't have time to open it until this afternoon. Here you can see you get you owner's manual and a plastic bag containing one smelly, greasy gun.



So I donned the rubber gloves and broke out my favourite degreaser and set about the task of getting this rifle ready to fire. Through the grease, I noticed several scuffs on the butt of the rifle that must have occurred at the factory. "Nothing too major." I told myself and carried on. (They don't show up so well in the photo so I can see I am not making a big complaint here at all)



I continued degreasing the gun. This necessitated taking the it completely apart, which was not overly difficult, with a couple exceptions. First off, I could just barely budge the take down latch. It was very stuck until I helped it along with the handle of a toothbrush. As soon as I got the barrel off, I realized that I had two problems.

The first one was announced by the sound of splitting wood.




Sadly, when I went to take the barrel off, I had the butt resting on a stool. I didn't realize it, but the butt was a fair bit loose and as I wrenched the barrel off, the butt rotated against the receiver, splitting off some substantial wood chunks. The pics above show the stock on reassembly, after I smoothed the splintered part out a bit on my belt sander.

The other problem was that the takedown latch had it's retaining pin hole drilled all wonky. The hole on one side is approximately 1/8" on one side and 1/16" on the other. These holes are not aligned, and there was no pin present. The latch itself had gotten nicked by the drill at some point too. This raised a ring of burs on the side of the latch. This is what made it so difficult to operate the latch. A few strokes of a fine stone sorted that out. I was annoyed at this point, but I was committed.





I continued stripping and cleaning the gun. When I disassembled the trigger mech of the gun I noticed something unique. This is the only striker fired .22 I have ever owned. I thought that the double extractor claws at 6 o'clock on the bolt face were interesting too. Then I realized how nice the trigger is. If it weren't for the slight bit of take-up, I would probably have to make the trigger pull heavier.


Striker cocked


Striker in fired position


(The striker: You can see the stud on the left side that rides in a groove inside the bolt.)


(Extractor claws on bolt face)

Once all the guts were cleaned up, it was a quick matter to throw it all back together. The hardest part was getting the recoil spring back into it's home.



There were a few things about this rifle I expected to be done to a low standard. The first was the trigger pull, which is really light. Second was the sights, which are actually ok. The third thing I expected to be sketchy was the checkering. It is actually quite nice.


(Rear Sight: Note tapped holes for scope mount)


(Brass beaded front sight with untested 1/2 x 28 threaded muzzle)


(Fore end)

Overall, I like this design. There is a simplicity and elegance to this design that even carries through the Norinco workmanship. There are some obvious flaws though. It doesn't really work as a takedown rifle, unless I risk losing the latch, detent and spring. Then there is the stock...


But will it shoot???

To be continued...

*UPDATE* - Canada Ammo is sending me a new stock and takedown latch! With these replacement parts installed, this rifle should be in optimal shape!

Thanks Canada Ammo!

[winchester94]

That's sh1tty about your wood splitting. I've been extra careful when taking mine down. that take down latch is not easy by hand on mine either. I'll have to see if it needs a smoothing.

[spudislander]

I had the exact same problem with the take down latch, It took me about 2 hours to get it working good by machining it with a hand file. I lost one of those little springs but found that the spring holding the flint on a bic lighter worked as a great replacement. Great gun for the price once you get your take down pin working, and the threaded barrel is a bonus,the only thing you have to buy is a solvent trap for it from ebay.

[BabySeal]

Many thanks to CanAm. I installed the replacement parts they sent me and headed to the range today. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. Here is my first group of the day.



It was so sunny, from 50m all I could see was a white rectangle. I couldn't see the orange parts at all. I was struggling here and had to try for the middle of that very bright white paper rectangle. The results weren't wonderful, but it showed me that the rifle has potential.

So I dragged the target back to the 25m line. I just let 5 shots go relatively quickly. I knew I still had to sight it in yet.



I then set about adjusting the sight and did my best to tighten up those groups. I can't say I achieved anything that great but I was in terrible form. I bet an average marksman could shoot dime sized groups at 25m.

I did run into one problem at the range. Luckily I only needed a twoonie and my multitool to fix it.



When I put the new stock on, I failed to ensure that the loading port in the outer mag tube lined up perfectly with the hole in the stock. This is something I might have spotted if I hadn't held back on better lighting for my shop. It was a mercifully quick fix though. The twoonie let me remove the stock. Pliers helped me sort out the mag tube and I used the knife to enlarge the hole in the stock slightly.

Now this rifle is very easy to load, even with shaky sausage fingers like mine.

The rifle gobbled its way through 350 assorted rounds with only 1 stoppage.

Subsonic ammo reliably cycles the action on my rifle which makes me pretty happy.

Once it was all sorted out and sighted in, this proved to be a wonderful plinker. I repeatedly chased a pair of hockey balls out to 75m.

Thanks again CanAm.