Nork JW 20, SA takedown on cheap at tenda

It's pretty well made for a Nork... I'll have to shoot it this weekend and decide if it's a thumbs up or thumbs down. I'm fine with iron sights, as long as it works it will be a good beater.
Springs I feel are on the weak side and I'll be looking for replacements. Wood really needs to be rehydrated on the unfinished parts...super dry and will be prone to cracking.
I have a JW15-13 and it's much newer production and much rougher made. It works fine though, and quite handy.
 
More I play with this and figure out how it all works the more I think this is going to be a decent little rifle.
I polished the feed ramp, firing pin, both spring guides, the holes that they all go in, and bevelled the hole in the breech block the recoil spring goes in as it was kind of sharp. Cycles really smooth now, and snap caps feed through it great.
Hopefully get out this weekend and run a few hundred rounds through it.
 
I managed to mount up a scope to my second barrel yesterday (as taken from another thread, Canadian Tire has the requisite #60A Weaver Topmount base for half of what Amazon is selling for). Had some old Weaver rings (low, I think. They were on my Savage 99 when I bought it.), and the clearance is SUPER close. I'll get a pic up a bit later. It looks kinda funky, but I wouldn't say ridiculous, kind of "scout rifle"-ish. Oh, and after a range trip and some cleaning, mine definitively cycles CCI Quiets (don't ask me how I know, I definitely DIDN'T try it in my basement).
 
Lexthedestroyer said:
I managed to mount up a scope to my second barrel yesterday (as taken from another thread, Canadian Tire has the requisite #60A Weaver Topmount base for half of what Amazon is selling for). Had some old Weaver rings (low, I think. They were on my Savage 99 when I bought it.), and the clearance is SUPER close. I'll get a pic up a bit later. It looks kinda funky, but I wouldn't say ridiculous, kind of "scout rifle"-ish. Oh, and after a range trip and some cleaning, mine definitively cycles CCI Quiets (don't ask me how I know, I definitely DIDN'T try it in my basement).
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Lmao!
 
I have a good tungsten grey spray and bake paint I might treat this one too since it will all fit in my oven...make it look like a Grade 2 lol
 
Hitzy said:
More I play with this and figure out how it all works the more I think this is going to be a decent little rifle.
I polished the feed ramp, firing pin, both spring guides, the holes that they all go in, and bevelled the hole in the breech block the recoil spring goes in as it was kind of sharp. Cycles really smooth now, and snap caps feed through it great.
Hopefully get out this weekend and run a few hundred rounds through it.
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What did you use to polish the feed ramp? Think mine needs a little polishing too
 
Gmoney47 said:
What did you use to polish the feed ramp? Think mine needs a little polishing too
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Real high tech system...22cal bore brush wrapped in 0000 steel wool, chucked in a drill, then lay some metal polish on the part and start spinning lol.
Pretty welfare, but works great for anything round.
Oh, the other thing I noticed is the spring holding the feed ramp on sticks through the hole right into the cartridge path. I ground that down so it's flush.
 
Hitzy said:
Mine arrived today...what a mess. These are really old stock, box looked like it was buried in dirt and water, staples were are disintegrated from rust, and it smelled like a horders basement.
Good news is it was completely covered in whale oil or whatever they use, so everything was in pretty good shape. Only bit of rust I found was under the buttplate and it came off easy and not visible anyway.
These are not anywhere near functional out of the box, full teardown degrease required, everything is jammed with whale gut oil. The unfinished inside sections of wood had stuff growing on it...and dry as a bone. Bit of sandpaper and BLO to bring that back to life. Outside wood looks pretty good.
Still cleaning, everything looks pretty good however, parts are as expected or a bit better...rough but I haven't cut myself with anything yet either.
Will take pics when I get it oiled up and back together, but it's a few hours work so be prepared lol.

Edit...did cut myself, on reassembly the locking latch took a chunk out of my finger lol.
Figured out how to get the barrel tight. After you reassemble and tighten the lock ring as much as it will go on the receiver, take it back off and give it just 1 more click, it should twist on nice and tight with no play then.
S/N starts with 92, so they may be that old. The wood finish is kind of gross, like a paint and lacquered combo, checkering is decent and cut. Sights are OK, not sure when I'll have time for a function check but hopefully this weekend. Trigger is light but lots of creep. Springs seem weak from being ancient, not sure if it will be a problem yet, won't be easy to source new ones. Gun is surprisingly heavy. Not nearly as carry friendly as I was hoping.
I generally rate Nork guns by "would I buy another one of these at this price"...right now I'm not sure. The amount of work to clean these up is ridiculous. I probably will never use the takedown feature just for transportation. I guess if it shoots ok and functions ok I'll be happy with one... really glad I didn't drop $700+ on the Browning version which has all the same shortcomings lol.
New shortcoming...scope mounting was futile, holes were not drilled straight on the barrel, plus it looked ridiculous, irons it will be lol. Plus my trigger group rattles around now that it's all cleaned up, will have to decide if it's worth tightening up.
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How about some before and after pictures. Still sitting on the fence on this one
 
Chas said:
How about some before and after pictures. Still sitting on the fence on this one
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Just buy one, and don’t be the guy that said “ damn I should have bought one and now they are sold out “
It will always be worth what you pay for it.
When these are gone they will be on the EE for twice or more than what you pay now.
This happens with all the Norinco stuff. You can’t lose!
 
mac100 said:
Just buy one, and don’t be the guy that said “ damn I should have bought one and now they are sold out “
It will always be worth what you pay for it.
When these are gone they will be on the EE for twice or more than what you pay now.
This happens with all the Norinco stuff. You can’t lose!
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Very true, norinco m93 for example, $169 when they were in stock $2-300 now on the EE. I won't lie I like mine so much I have a strong urge to buy a second.
 
Well mine showed up on thursday, just got around to opening it today.

First impressions after I gave it a quick clean were very positive, blueing was nice, checkering felt great, the old manual with inspection "bookmarker" is awesome.

Then......I saw the cracks.... Rifle has 2 long(1 inch) cracks from the reciever into the buttstock, one where these types of rifles normally break, and another right behind the trigger guard.


Will contact tenda about this soon and see if they can send me another rifle/buttstock. My impressions were very positive after having this rifle in my hands
 
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Blew through 300 rounds today, very fun little gun. Had 3 jams with Sterling, but they have a bit of a longer fatter nose which I think was the issue, the nose would hang up on the bottom of the chamber.
Minimag, Aguila, RWS, all ran perfect. It likes standard velocity best, the Aquila and RWS shot very well, 2-3" at 40m with irons and no proper rest... shooting off the hood of my car lol. I can call that acceptable for my needs. Off the bench when I have time it will be better I'm sure.
Shot 3,5, and 10 rounds in the mag, no issues, but I did have to turn the tube a bit to get it in over the cartridges, little finicky.
Loading the first round is a little tricky, I had to do it upside down or the round would just fall out on the ground, and just had to pull it back far enough for the cartridge to drop, not all the way or it would jump out of the feed ramp. Also a bit of a finicky there. At one point I had 5 empty cartridges in my sleeve...bottom eject lol.
Adjusted the rear sight to zero, almost right to the top of the blade. Need a bit of a drift but not much, and it moved easily. It's definitely designed for iron sight shooting.
The muzzle thread protector shot loose, even though I loctited it... probably didn't use enough but watch that when out shooting.
Now some pics.
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Codyg14 said:
Well mine showed up on thursday, just got around to opening it today.

First impressions after I gave it a quick clean were very positive, blueing was nice, checkering felt great, the old manual with inspection "bookmarker" is awesome.

Then......I saw the cracks.... Rifle has 2 long(1 inch) cracks from the reciever into the buttstock, one where these types of rifles normally break, and another right behind the trigger guard.


Will contact tenda about this soon and see if they can send me another rifle/buttstock. My impressions were very positive after having this rifle in my hands
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Same thing happened to me. I initially ordered two of these one for me and one for a friend. One came with identical cracks as you are describing. Tenda had canpar pick the damaged rifle up from my house two days later, said they will send a replacement as soon as they get it back. I suppose it is what it is when you buy a Chinese rifle that's been sitting in a box for 26 years. Guess I'm not the only one at least, not that it makes you feel any better. I kinda wish I would have asked if I could send them pics and keep the rifle for half price, but to late for that now, for me at least.
 
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Hitzy thats awesome! Glad you rifle works well too! I also had a little issue with loading the first round but didn't spit out any live ones. For me it was just a little hemmed up on the feeding rack, racked the bolt a few more time and it chambered. Seemed to get better after putting a bunch of rounds down range. I only shot minimags through mine and it was flawless.
 
Hitzy,i believe you said you sanded the small wire clip flush that holds the cartridge guide in place.i think that small amount of wire sticking out
holds the round in place when you rack the bolt and prevents the round from falling out.
 
Gmoney47 said:
Same thing happened to me. I initially ordered two of these one for me and one for a friend. One came with identical cracks as you are describing. Tenda had canpar pick the damaged rifle up from my house two days later, said they will send a replacement as soon as they get it back. I suppose it is what it is when you buy a Chinese rifle that's been sitting in a box for 26 years. Guess I'm not the only one at least, not that it makes you feel any better. I kinda wish I would have asked if I could send them pics and keep the rifle for half price, but to late for that now, for me at least.
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Makes me feel better as well.

Just to add another thing, my rifle is set up so that your scope mounts to the barrel portion of the take down.

Not sure why ruger hasn't figured that out yet
 
toyboy said:
Hitzy,i believe you said you sanded the small wire clip flush that holds the cartridge guide in place.i think that small amount of wire sticking out
holds the round in place when you rack the bolt and prevents the round from falling out.
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That's quite possible, it looked like it was in the way and was going to cause feeding issues. I might have to order a new spring if that is it's purpose.
 
Just cleaned it, and man it pukes fouling everywhere in the action. At least it's fairly easy to clean...just hosed it down with WD40 and brushed, then hosed it down with Balistol and wiped dry.
The bore was quite clean, took no time to clean it, seems like a well made smooth barrel.
 
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