Well after wanting to examine one of these for years but not wanting to pay too much to do it, I was finally able to get my hands on one from a fellow forum member for a reasonable price. It's used but very lightly and other than the green paint job on the stock, it is unmodified.
The receiver rail is marked "Made in China by Xinan" and "Exp. by Norinco". The receiver ring is marked "Norinco M334 .308 Win.
I'll do a complete detailed description of it and follow it up with pics below.
The sights are all metal and the rear is adjustable for both windage and elevation. The front sight blade is enormous and could probably be used as a gut hook in the event you harvest something but forget your knife at home. The barrel is approx 24" long.
The receiver is drilled and tapped with standard spacing for Weaver bases but I'm not sure on the base numbers needed yet at this point. Not standard M98 bases any way as the rear receiver ring is fairly close in height to the front. The front ring measures 1.41" so basically a large ring M98 dia. Center to center hole spacing for the receiver screws measures 7 5/8", so a bit shorter than a M98.
Now here's where it gets a bit weird. The front receiver ring is obviously way longer than normal. I initially was planning to take off the barrel to see what kind of threading it had but on close examination I can see the barrel is pressed and pinned in place with 2 large pins through the receiver ring. The pins are ground flush but still visible. I think I captured them in the one pic. The receiver has the H style inner shoulder.
The trigger is all steel and fully adjustable. It is horrendous the way it is set up now so I'll have to fool with that a bit. The safety is a sliding style and locks the bolt closed when on safe. It is electro penciled with the last 4 digits of the rifles serial.
The bolt stop/ejector assy appears to be pretty standard M98 in design and dimensions. The firing pin is approx 3/16" shorter than a standard M98 but is pretty close in design. The cocking piece is again very similar to a commercial M98 piece and has the hole to aid disassembly. The bolt shroud looks like a typical commercial M98 unit but the threads are quite different. Much finer threads.
The bolt is very much M98 in design with the third lug and oval gas ports. The bolt face is recessed a bit more than normal and the bolt is 1/4" shorter than standard. It has a cocking ramp set up very similar to the speed lock system on the Zastava commercial M98's. The handle is integral to the bolt and swept back in the same profile as a FN or Zastava commercial bolt. It even has some pressed checkering on the bottom of the knob.
The bottom metal is hinged and machined pretty thick in the mag well walls and other areas. It appears pretty heavy duty. The mag length is set up for the .308 OAL.
I'm not sure what kind of wood the stock is made out of but it is very light. It's also starting to crack around the recoil lug and is very poorly inletted. VERY poorly. It could definitely use a bedding.
The overall impression of this is pretty crude. Functional but crude. I'm not sure on the type of metal used but there are hardness test dimples in all the right places so it was heat treated with some care and properly tested it seems. I'm not impressed by the pressed and pinned barrel. I'd be interested in some opinions on the strength of such a setup. I know it's used on lots of military arms and such so not a new concept by any means but not something I'm familiar with on a hunting rifle with a relatively high pressure cartridge.
I plan on doing some work to this thing to smooth out some of the metal work and redo the stock. I first want to do a shooting test just the way it is if I can muster the courage to fire the thing. I will follow up with a range report and any further work as I go along.
The barrel pins:
If anyone has questions or something they would like to see, let me know. It's still all apart so I can take pics or measurements.
The receiver rail is marked "Made in China by Xinan" and "Exp. by Norinco". The receiver ring is marked "Norinco M334 .308 Win.
I'll do a complete detailed description of it and follow it up with pics below.
The sights are all metal and the rear is adjustable for both windage and elevation. The front sight blade is enormous and could probably be used as a gut hook in the event you harvest something but forget your knife at home. The barrel is approx 24" long.
The receiver is drilled and tapped with standard spacing for Weaver bases but I'm not sure on the base numbers needed yet at this point. Not standard M98 bases any way as the rear receiver ring is fairly close in height to the front. The front ring measures 1.41" so basically a large ring M98 dia. Center to center hole spacing for the receiver screws measures 7 5/8", so a bit shorter than a M98.
Now here's where it gets a bit weird. The front receiver ring is obviously way longer than normal. I initially was planning to take off the barrel to see what kind of threading it had but on close examination I can see the barrel is pressed and pinned in place with 2 large pins through the receiver ring. The pins are ground flush but still visible. I think I captured them in the one pic. The receiver has the H style inner shoulder.
The trigger is all steel and fully adjustable. It is horrendous the way it is set up now so I'll have to fool with that a bit. The safety is a sliding style and locks the bolt closed when on safe. It is electro penciled with the last 4 digits of the rifles serial.
The bolt stop/ejector assy appears to be pretty standard M98 in design and dimensions. The firing pin is approx 3/16" shorter than a standard M98 but is pretty close in design. The cocking piece is again very similar to a commercial M98 piece and has the hole to aid disassembly. The bolt shroud looks like a typical commercial M98 unit but the threads are quite different. Much finer threads.
The bolt is very much M98 in design with the third lug and oval gas ports. The bolt face is recessed a bit more than normal and the bolt is 1/4" shorter than standard. It has a cocking ramp set up very similar to the speed lock system on the Zastava commercial M98's. The handle is integral to the bolt and swept back in the same profile as a FN or Zastava commercial bolt. It even has some pressed checkering on the bottom of the knob.
The bottom metal is hinged and machined pretty thick in the mag well walls and other areas. It appears pretty heavy duty. The mag length is set up for the .308 OAL.
I'm not sure what kind of wood the stock is made out of but it is very light. It's also starting to crack around the recoil lug and is very poorly inletted. VERY poorly. It could definitely use a bedding.
The overall impression of this is pretty crude. Functional but crude. I'm not sure on the type of metal used but there are hardness test dimples in all the right places so it was heat treated with some care and properly tested it seems. I'm not impressed by the pressed and pinned barrel. I'd be interested in some opinions on the strength of such a setup. I know it's used on lots of military arms and such so not a new concept by any means but not something I'm familiar with on a hunting rifle with a relatively high pressure cartridge.
I plan on doing some work to this thing to smooth out some of the metal work and redo the stock. I first want to do a shooting test just the way it is if I can muster the courage to fire the thing. I will follow up with a range report and any further work as I go along.
The barrel pins:
If anyone has questions or something they would like to see, let me know. It's still all apart so I can take pics or measurements.
Last edited:
