Wow....$99 pistol....Norinco M213

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Went to Silverdale with my two M213s this afternoon. I can't speak to the accuracy because I wasn't trying for any, measuring that will come the next time I go to an indoor range, though I was easily able to put everything on the paper at 25 yards today. I was more concerned about operation than anything else and frankly because it was a nice day today I wanted to get out there with my newly arrived purchases no matter how I did.

Using American Eagle 124 gr. FMJ the first pistol fed flawlessly except for 1 stovepipe. But this same pistol's safety will not work unless I push on it. Stripped it apart when I got home and could find no explanation for it. Fair enough, I generally don't use the safety so it's not a big deal to me.

The second pistol would not feed the first cartridge, catching on the barrel feed ramp, and this was with a fairly rounded nose cartridge. Despite having lightly burnished it last night, following the advice of others in this thread, my first attempt at it wasn't sufficient. No amount of racking or re-racking would allow this gun to be fired today. Upon coming home I was a bit more aggressive with the burnishing, even though I could feel no burr of any kind to begin with, and now there seems to be no problem though I'll have to actually fire it to be sure.

I'll post again on the accuracy the next time I get to the indoor range!
 
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5 rounds
17 Yards off hands
115g Winchester USA
M213 vs GL17
200 rounds went down the range including 147 Flat nose ammo, no problem at all, shoots very well, for some reason very heavy recoil for 9mm feels more like .45acp

TTvsGLv3.jpg
 
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I haven't fired off the 9x23 Winchester in the Norinco 213, as I haven't opened up the ejection port. I've been using the Romanian TT-33 for that, as it already has the longer ejection port. It should work easily, if you open up the ejection port for the longer round and punch out the pin holding the spacer in the magwell. Obviously use the 7.62x25 mag. I just took a spare 9mm Norc 213 barrel and followed Clark's directions (attached below) to convert to 9x23 Winchester.
EDIT: I remember somebody saying that the Norc 213 has the trigger group moved a bit more forward than other Toks, so that might cause a problem. I was able to cycle a 7.62x25 round in the Norinco using the Romanian barrel and barrel bushing. I don't think I would have been able to do that if the trigger group had been moved so far forward that it would cause a problem. YMMV. Since you are using a Norinco 213 barrel to convert to 9x23 Winchester you shouldn't have any of the problems that were posted about converting the Norinco to fire 7.62x25.

From http://www.gunsnet.net/forums/showthread.php?t=333443&highlight=clark+winchester

I got the information from Clark, I'll repeat his post below. I have a 115 piece TIN coated drill bit set from Harbor Freight. I just followed Clark's directions about using the different sized drills. I used a 9x23 Winchester round and 9x23 empty case from fired cases of CorBons Pow'rball load in 9x23, since I have a Star Super A that will fire the round.
I didn't need anything extra, simce I had a spare Norinco 213 barrel that I got years ago that I have never needed. Sarco and Numrich have 9mm barrels for sale.

From Clark:

CAUTION: The following post includes loading data beyond currently published maximums for this cartridge. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The High Road, nor the staff of THR assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.


I converted a Tokarev or two to 9x23mm by reaming out a 9x19mm barrel.
The Tokarevs are designed for the 7.62x25mm Tokarev round with an OAL of 1.35".

That is longer than the magazine design for 45acp at 1.275" or 9x19mm Luger at 1.169"

IIRC, the 9x23mm cartridge is not SAAMI registered, but most put the OAL at 1.245"

I have been shooting 9x23 in my Tokarev with:
158 gr Hornady XTP JHP and 16 gr of Power Pistol, 1.36"
In contrast, the Alliant max load for 357 magnum is:
158 gr Hornady XTP JHP and 8 gr of Power Pistol, 1.575"


For those who know what that means, they can see my Tokarev has gone atomic with 9x23mm

And:


Quote:
Could you share with me who you got to convert a Tok to 9x23?
1) Put a 9x23mm reamer in a lathe tailstock chuck and the barrel in the lathe headstock chuck and remove material with Sulfered cutting oil until a case will chamber with the pistols assembled.

2) Or, put a 9x23mm reamer in a drill chuck, and hold the drill chuck in the right hand and the barrel in the left hand, and give a twist of the wrist until as 9x23mm case will chamber.

3) Or, use a 115 piece drill set, a drill chuck, and two hands.
(Had a url to a drill size chart here)
As you can see, V drill will make a .3770" hole and a W drill will make a .3860" hole. The correct choice for lengthening the chamber is 25/64ths =.3906". This make the chamber .0060" sloppy, but that is fine.
The throat should be .357"
As you can see the T drill makes a .358" hole. that is .001" oversize
23/64 drill will make a .3594" hole, that is .0027" oversize.
U drill will make a .3680" hole, that is .011" oversize.
I find that I like the U drill better for getting the cartridge to fall in the chamber, but drill holes made with a twist of the wrist may be a few thousands small.
I seat a .358" LSWC bullet out to 1.36" and cut the throat until the cartridge falls in.

If you want 1.36" loads with 158 gr .357" and .358" bullets, then the 9x23mm reamer from Brownells is not going to do it all.
 
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Hey, Mastiff Welcome to CGN. Good to have you here.
was thinking that you could have simply removed the safety on your M-57. Can you still get the pistol? The safety could have been romoved and worked on at a later date. It is such a nice pistol to let go because of a sticky/unserviceable safety. Perhaps the owner stripped the hammer group and put it together incorrectly. I saw such a thing at the range at Silverdale.

Randwulf has a couple of very nice Norinco 9mm 213's. I was impressed with the quality of the pistols as well as how tight the parts fit together. Now he can double-wield on the Action Range. Nice pistols and thanks for letting me shoot one of them, Randwulf.
 
Thanks for the welcome, Motorman and Teapot. I wasn't sure how well a US citizen was going to be accepted on this board, since it is for Canadians. I figured that with all the Norc 213's you guys had gotten, you might want to hear a long time owners report.
I'm happy you let me know about this board, Teapot. The Norinco 213 gets a real bad rap in the US, undeservedly so. The Tok is starting to get more respect, but that kept the prices down. I'm glad you guys got to get them so cheaply, I just wish I could have had a shot at picking up a few more.

Teapot, I'm going to order 2 of the Yugo M-57's on Monday. A distributor down here is offering them for $100 less than I was paying for the one with the bad safety, plus they will discount $10 for each pistol if I buy two. I found this out the day before I went to examine and pay for the pistol. Since I had already won the auction at the higher price I was going to pick it up anyway, because a deal is a deal. The stuck safety saved me $140, since I also won't have to pay local sales tax, either.
 
Got mine last Wednesday and try it out on Thursday. Surprise!! Recoil is very manageable and no problem for Winchester 124gr or my handloads. I strip the gun down to single pieces and partially strip the trigger assembly. I just love this gun, feel good at hand and shoot pretty well. As some guys here mentioned, it shoot right to the target, I try to hammer the rear sight to correct it but fail! Anyone has idea on how to correct it? Might want to buy a second one....
 
i picked up one of those m213's out of pure curiosity. It fires decent and is fairly accurate. The only problem i've noticed so far is that the grip is about an inch and a half too short, but the for the few pesos I spent.....im happy with it.
 
Teapot said:
Even better, Mastiff. But now I 'm really envious. Two M-57's!
I am thinking of another Soviet TT-33 for $250 or a Norinco Model 54 in 7.62x25 that comes with a 9mm barrel for $210.
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The Soviet for $250 is a great price! The Norinco 54 with extra barrel is also. I'd go for either one of them:D
 
Well they (the twins) arrived last week :D :D :D

Field stripped them, wiped them down with some shop rags, hit them with lots of Simple Green for de-greasing then a liberal bath in Break Free CLP. Reassembly and a nice wipe down and rub with a silicon cloth.

Still have all my fingers but there are a few nice scratches and gouges. They have a few rough edges inside folks ;)

Can hardly wait till the weekend for some range time :cheers:

PS, those grips were a real PIA to take off ! ! !
 
After only two months and nineteen days my m213 arrived today , took about half an hour to get all the oil off and take a good look at it. I'm impressed for $99, hopefully get a chance to try it tomorrow.
 
I had the oppurtunity to fire one of these things weekend.

Inmates in a maximum security prison make weapons out of light bulbs and dental floss with a better fit and finish then these $99 auto's.
 
I took mine out Saturday, shot well, I put about 75 rounds through it and no problems. I did have to drift the sights pretty severely, but it was hitting well at 25 m.
 
Teapot said:
But they work as well as expensive pistols. That is all that is important.
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That's exactly what I was hoping for when I ordered this thing. Most pistols in 9mm fail to make my pants tingle and I had no motivation to shell out some big bucks for one. A cheap, functionnal 9mm to plink at the range was what I wanted. Kinda like a pistol equivalent to the SKS!:p

P.S. My order is now "complete" and the last tracking update was from Vancouver on the 12th. Just a few more hours/days...
 
These pistols are early 1911's in nine millimeter (and 7.62x25mm for the original version) with the improvements like the removable hammer group. An excellent and wise choice made without the consideration of brand name. Simple, cheap, rugged and dependable. What more could one ask for? Certainly not "cool factor" since this is for the weak of character. Shoot them, learn their idiosyncrasies, be able to strip them down to the last pin and and put them back together. At that point you will be greatly satisfied and have confidence in your purchase of a Tokarev.
 
Well I managed to try mine out. I ran a box of AE 124g ammo through it at the range. No failure to load but I did get several failures to eject. The casing got jammed in the ejection port several times.

I'll try a different brand of ammo next time. But is there anything I can do to fix this?

Thanks!
 
manic29 said:
Well I managed to try mine out. I ran a box of AE 124g ammo through it at the range. No failure to load but I did get several failures to eject. The casing got jammed in the ejection port several times.

I'll try a different brand of ammo next time. But is there anything I can do to fix this?

Thanks!
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One box with a few FTE's is hardly something to worry about or fix.

If you didn't do anything to work out the fit of the slide and other stuff then I'd suggest you just keep it clean and keep shooting. My own CZ was this way for the first couple of hundred rounds. At around 300 rounds I cleaned it thoroughly and from that point on it was good and just got better over the next 500 or so. Now it chucks brass out there with the best of them. If your 213 is weak in the brass tossing department then I suspect it's much the same situation.
 
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