Norinco JW-15A Compact Hiker New Arrival

One thing I'm wondering is should the bolt need big mechanical leverage to bring to the cocked position even when it is cleaned out? I cleaned mine out and i cannot get it to #### with one hand on the bolt body and one on the bolt/handle like any of the other guns i own on this pattern (brno no2, 452, etc). I'd hate to force and snap the firing pin or something.

Anyone got experience with this one?
Maybe yes. I had one that was very tight opening and closing. L lot of patient work with diamond files and polishing, and it ran beautiful. Very accurate rifle too.
 
I just ordered one of these from Tenda, I could not turn down the deal: $219.00 for the rifle and 1000 rounds of Aguilla Lead round nose. Not the greatest ammo, but it will plink. This will be the third JW15 for me, but the first short one.
 
I just ordered one of these from Tenda, I could not turn down the deal: $219.00 for the rifle and 1000 rounds of Aguilla Lead round nose. Not the greatest ammo, but it will plink. This will be the third JW15 for me, but the first short one.
I grabbed one too. We shall see if it at least functions! I always add a few "on sale" extras to get the free shipping.
 
I bought 2 of these and both had serious issues. On one of them the sights were installed extremely crooked to the bore but otherwise it functioned fine. On the other one the bolt handle cut out in the stock was not cut properly so I could not rotate the bolt fully into battery and the safety would not engage because of that.

Tenda was totally willing to take them back but I just decided to put a red dot on the one with the crooked sights and fix the stock on the other one myself. I used a sanding drum on my dremel and 5 minutes later I could fully close the bolt and it functioned fine after that.

Anyway no fault of Tenda and they were good with dealing with this but it seems the quality control of these can be quite poor
 
I just bought a long barrel version and it currently isn't a viable firearm. I cleaned the oil off and soaked the bolt in varsol, but it wouldn't matter anyways, it won't feed a round from the magazine if it's life depended on it. I knew I was buying a piece of #### that I needed to fix and I'm capable of it. I just hope no new gun people buy these thinking it's a good deal. It only is if you have tools and it's not your first rodeo.
 
I just bought a long barrel version and it currently isn't a viable firearm. I cleaned the oil off and soaked the bolt in varsol, but it wouldn't matter anyways, it won't feed a round from the magazine if it's life depended on it. I knew I was buying a piece of #### that I needed to fix and I'm capable of it. I just hope no new gun people buy these thinking it's a good deal. It only is if you have tools and it's not your first rodeo.
Cheap enough that someone can learn a bit of gunsmithing with limited monitary risk.
 
Mine works well with Aquila 60 gr subsonic, that's basically all I shoot out of it.
Aquila 60 Subsonic.jpg
 
Mine arrived yesterday. I must admit that this one is a bit rougher than the first one I had about 10 years ago (long barrel). Got the die stones out and took all the sharp edges and corners off of it, cycled the bolt a lot, did a trigger job (still needs more, but much better). Full degrease and barrel cleaning. Like all Nork barrels, pistol and rifle, that I have seen, good strong rifling. Off to the range shortly to try her out with some of that Aguila ammo. (40 years ago, we used that for racoon hunting; shot hundreds of them with this stuff. Compared to my Brnos and CZs, it is not pretty, but when you stone the metal, it is the usual Nork super tough tool steel.

I still need to free float and bed it.
 
for those that have it, do you prefer it over the Ruger American rimfire?
These are bottom of the heap. Ruger is about middle of the pack when it comes to .22s, below CZs Brnos and Tikas etc. Still a bit above Savage and most of the recent imports.

The Nork JW15 is a "project gun".

That being said, when you get them tuned in, they are almost always great shooters. Sighted mine in yesterday after a lot of hand work on the action and trigger (still needs more) 5 shot groups >1" with factory sights (after I filed the burrs off of the front sight and painted it bright yellow), I put a cheap, compact, 4 power scope on it, got it zeroed and put 10 in one ragged hole. This is at our indoor 20 yard range from a bench rest. Mine will be seeing the 100 yard range based on these results, and due to it's compact size will be an ideal choice for hiking or a truck gun. I should have taken more kinds of ammo with me, and one of my CZs, I had a lot of misfeeds from both the new Nork mag and my proven steel CZ mag with the Aguillas, I need to determine if it is my mags or the rifle. (bullets don't pop up the way that they should)

Norinco has always had good barrels and use great steel; I used one of theirs barrels on an AR I built. It shot like a laser beam. Their Pistols and their Scorpio rifles are much better than the JW for fit and finish, I still have two pistols, a 1911 and a NZ85B, and have owned a previous JW and a Scorpio. The Scorpio was great right out of the box, and was my target rifle for a couple years, the Pistols other than grips, needed nothing.
 
I just finished polishing up the bolt channel and bolt on my new 15a. What a difference 20 minutes of work gives you. It was really binding when the locking lug disengaged as you tried to draw the bolt back. Just a very rough "grabby" area in the rear of the bolt channel. I used a 360 grit abrasive diamond hone block on the flat surfaces and then 200 grit emery cloth on the round bits. Off to the range next. Thanks to Meroh for his helpful advice!! 👍

Note to others: the front sight hood looked installed but it was not. Fit 'er into the little grooves and there's a right end that goes in first. If yours looks too low that's likely the problem.
 

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I just finished polishing up the bolt channel and bolt on my new 15a. What a difference 20 minutes of work gives you. It was really binding when the locking lug disengaged as you tried to draw the bolt back. Just a very rough "grabby" area in the rear of the bolt channel. I used a 360 grit abrasive diamond hone block on the flat surfaces and then 200 grit emery cloth on the round bits. Off to the range next. Thanks to Meroh for his helpful advice!! 👍

Note to others: the front sight hood looked installed but it was not. Fit 'er into the little grooves and there's a right end that goes in first. If yours looks too low that's likely the problem.
You are very welcome!
 
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