winchester1852
CGN Regular
- Location
- Rain out west
The burn bronze is beautiful
The first 2 digits of the serial number will give you the year the lower was made iirc. They didn't start making them in burnt bronze until recently though so it should be newer. NEA should be able to tell you if the bolt is from their "problem" batch or not. Regardless of when the bolt was made it is a shame these issues continue to pop up for people.
I would say you got lucky….you didn't get hurt...i was hoping to get lucky. But i forgot....all my luck is really bad!!!.
I would say you got lucky….you didn't get hurt.
Norinco?!
Is sub-standard steel a common complaint with Norinco? I thought their steel was usually considered to be top notch. Don't their 1911 and M14 receivers have a reputation for being strong?

The OP said he bought the rifle second hand. I'm guessing the original owner may have swapped out the latest gen bolt for an early gen bolt that was known to have issues.
NEA can make great components in house, they seem to have real difficulties competently sourcing quality 3rd party components.
They should've stayed making specialty parts instead of trying to be an end-to-end AR shop.
That bolt looks like airsoft metal.
Actually, it isn't that easy - remember, NEA doesn't use any US made parts to avoid ITAR issues. Now, just for fun, go out and try to buy a BCG that came from a non-US/non-ITAR source. Frankly, having never seen a Norc BCG fail, I think they'd be better off getting theirs from China.



























