Type 97 Gen 3. Honest First Hand Reviews?

Travis Bickle

Travis Bickle

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Location
Upper Lower Middle Alberta
Years ago I picked up a Gen 1 Type 97.
I loved the design.
It was beefy. Rugged as ####. Tough. Compact. Simple and CHEAP on the wallet.
The stock sights were total garbage and mine wouldn't feed a round without a jam from any mags to save its life. Feed ramp wasn't machined properly and the mag catch was too low as well it looked like.

Which saddened me because that aside I really liked the gun all around. I REALLY wanted it to work.

I've kind of got the itch again and I've seen the Gen 3 with rail top to accommodate basic flip up irons etc

What's the consensus on these now that they have been out a while?
Did they fix the spotty feeding/mag seat/feed ramp issues?
My Gen 1 the rounds would jam into the feed ramp so hard the projo would be inside the case and powder pissing out.
Tried at least 5 different mags types. Could never get it to feed reliably and ended up selling it at a bit of a loss.

Any and all experiences good bad and ugly welcome!
 
I had a brand new one. I loved it. worked a 100%. very accurate no jams no issues. THOUSANDS of rounds trouble free ! the gen 3 seems more refined. NO comparison to the gen 1. much better.
also owned the gen 1 and gen 2. Nice and light, short, never breaks down. "long crapy trigger"
I traded for a WS-MCR......wrong move ! sharp edges. heavy like a tank.
wished I would have kept the t97. the ws mcr isn't for every one and neither is the T97. the WS had better long range accuracy, 300yards plus
you have to decide. I sold the WS
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now I have a kodiac 180
this should be interesting LOL. No way will it out run a t97 Maybe it will be a wee bit better than a keltec SU 16. not expecting much. amazingly enough...the kodiac is more accuarte than my ws mcr was. same scope, same amunition.
The kodiac had the best accuarcy out of all 3
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I never give a review OR my opinion, unless I have actually owned one and shot it my self.! And Ill tell you if its Junk or Good in short order.
 
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Got a new one recently and just have the following to say after the initial 100 round break in:

Shoots pretty well, only went to about 25 yards for my first outing but the result is what people have said about it so far. Heavier grain ammo is on my wishlist as I’ve only been shooting 55gr American Eagle. No direct problems with accuracy, I’ve ditched the irons and put on a Holosun which has been sufficient for me at the moment (will update if any problems arise).

Ergonomics are slightly improved, the ambi mag catch allows for easier reloads (I’ve opted to use the left side better than the small nub). Safety is ehh and the switchable charging handle is a plus, but let’s be honest we didn’t buy the rifle for the controls. The trigger is something I have to get used to because there’s no wall, super funky but I can live with it.

Reliability is an area that needs more testing on my part but so far it’s been great, with no failures or anything. Shooting it has been really fun especially using the new mag release to make a QBZ-style reload, soft shooting with little muzzle rise. Still throws the brass like crazy lol.

For your direct question the feeding and mag seat issue on mine has been non-existent, I’ve tested out the stock mag and cross mags which work flawlessly (cross mags wobble a bit but not a huge issue). Can’t give you a solid answer on it but there’s a great video by Black Bear Outdoors that covers that area.

One thing I can point out is the finish which is alright, sometimes there’s little blemishes but I can’t complain due to the price I got it for. Rail screws did not come lose since I applied loctite, same with the area that retains the charging handle.

Overall the Type 97 has been great, the Gen 3 fixed up the issues the other models had before. I’m not the best expert on the rifle but that’s just my thoughts.
 
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I have a gen 3 and it shoots amazingly well. The only negative thing I have to say is it dents all my brass cases, but I dont reload so it doesn't impact me. The rail screws also became a bit loose after 500 rounds but I just tightened them. I put loctite and it hasn't had any issues since.

I only clean the gun about once every 3-4 times I go to the range, and it hasn't caused any issues. Probably better to clean it every time, but even at my frequency, no issues.
 
lone ranger said:
I had a brand new one. I loved it. worked a 100%. very accurate no jams no issues. THOUSANDS of rounds trouble free ! the gen 3 seems more refined. NO comparison to the gen 1. much better.
also owned the gen 1 and gen 2. Nice and light, short, never breaks down. "long crapy trigger"
I traded for a WS-MCR......wrong move ! sharp edges. heavy like a tank.
wished I would have kept the t97. the ws mcr isn't for every one and neither is the T97. the WS had better long range accuracy, 300yards plus
you have to decide. I sold the WS
**Image and video linking functions will be enabled after you have contributed more to the forum**

**Image and video linking functions will be enabled after you have contributed more to the forum**

now I have a kodiac 180
this should be interesting LOL. No way will it out run a t97 Maybe it will be a wee bit better than a keltec SU 16. not expecting much. amazingly enough...the kodiac is more accuarte than my ws mcr was. same scope, same amunition.
The kodiac had the best accuarcy out of all 3
**Image and video linking functions will be enabled after you have contributed more to the forum**

I never give a review OR my opinion, unless I have actually owned one and shot it my self.! And Ill tell you if its Junk or Good in short order.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the review! Been researching these 3, this is very helpful.
 
They changed the feed ramps on the Gen 2 and that seems like it solved the feeding issues of the Gen 1. Some people on here have altered the feed ramps on the Gen 1's to match the ramps on the Gen 2 and 3. As far as I have heard on here, the only difference between the Gen 2 and the Gen 3 is that they changed from Keymod slots to M-lok. I had a Gen2 for a while, only a couple hundred rounds I guess, before deciding that a bullpup was not for me. I got it second hand and the rail screws were loose when I bought it. I re-installed it with blue loc-tite and it held for as long as I kept it. Mags were very tight to insert, I had to squeeze the spine in a bench vise on all of the ones I had to make them reasonably easy to insert. I was able to get most of them to drop free as well (factory mag that came with it and several C-products LAR mags). As far as I know that issue was hit and miss and still can be an issue with the Gen 3, but easily solved. The sights on mine were pretty basic and the front sight post was loose, but the sights are easily changed. I had a red dot and a 3x magnifier on mine as I can't see well enough to shoot irons anymore. I never had any feed issues or stoppages except when running a brass catcher (stove pipes). I sold it and bought a WK180, which has been great. I did upgrade the trigger on it to a Hyper Fire and added an extended mag release. The LAR mags I altered for the T97 all still work fine in it, as do any of the others I have tried.

Jim
 
All good data!

Thanks guys.
Yeah I had a WK180C. I've bashed that piece of #### on here enough so I'll leave it at that lol...

I'm seeing sales in Alberta for the Gen 3 with a cheap scope even around 1200 bucks.
Would prefer a used stock one for much cheaper to give it a go.

I'm glad they hammered out the mag/feeding issues and a low rise flat top rail can accommodate a basic set of flip up irons as well.
Looks like she may be worth getting reacquainted with lol
 
Never had any problems with my gen 1. Feeds and shoots reliably. Fun and as accurate as one would expect. The carry handle is a bit of a pain as it is difficult to mount optics....
 
The Gen 3 ran flawlessly for us through multiple videos etc that we did with it. The brass denting is a thing since it flings brass out at a massive pace in a 2 O'clock angle. Below is our honest take on the rifle

 
From the BCL Bison picture thread, randyhub posted the following pictures of a Bison with a side-mounted M-Lok bipod, which may also work with the Type 97 -> https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/2198880-BCL-Bison-picture-thread?p=18344181#post18344181

randyhub said:
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Got it off Amazon less than 80.00, it's a UTG, been on a few of my rifles, compact works great. I have Harris type bipods as well, but this one is more out of the way.
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Pretty sure he is referring to the UTG Recon Flex M-LOK Bipod https://www.amazon.ca/UTG-Recon-M-LOK-Bipod-Matte/dp/B071RS3QJS
 
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