Norinco .223 ammo keyholing
- Thread starter d1ce
- Start date
I typically do not buy ammo but roll my own.
A friend of mine was buying some 1120 round crates of Norinco from Canada Ammo last spring and asked me if I wanted any.
Since I only had about 1,000 .223 Hornady bullets left and my 6,000 round box of bullets wasn't expected to get here before Christmas I bought 2 crates.
I shot 50 rounds through my Norinco to see if there were any issues with it and there were none.
I then fired 5 rounds through my Noveske Afghan to check for accuracy and this is what I got at 50m.
The ones below are my 55gr handloads shot out of the same rifle at the same distance.
A friend of mine was buying some 1120 round crates of Norinco from Canada Ammo last spring and asked me if I wanted any.
Since I only had about 1,000 .223 Hornady bullets left and my 6,000 round box of bullets wasn't expected to get here before Christmas I bought 2 crates.
I shot 50 rounds through my Norinco to see if there were any issues with it and there were none.
I then fired 5 rounds through my Noveske Afghan to check for accuracy and this is what I got at 50m.
The ones below are my 55gr handloads shot out of the same rifle at the same distance.
I have seen some key holing I have also seen split necks on fired casings. I speculate that perhaps the velocity is much slower for these rounds that the neck split and perhaps that is causing the round to not stabilize. Only a few rounds per case that did this.
I bought four cases of the Norinco 5.56 from Canada Ammo when he first put on his break even sale to cover his costs of importing the ammo.
Maybe I got lucky because it all shot very well out of some very accurate rifles. I went through this before, shortly after the sale started.
I tried it in three of my own rifles and all of them shot it into less than an inch. A buddy's rifle. Tikka T3 standard weight barrel, shot it into an inch.
We pulled a bunch of the bullets, weighed the powder and projectiles as well as the brass. We were very surprised to find how close the weights on all of them were to the overall average. Same goes for velocities.
We reloaded several hundred of those cases and only had one complaint. Not all of the flash holes were centered and almost all of them were burred to the extreme on the inside. Other than that, the cases were very ductile and sized well. Some of the case mouths were not square, I just threw them into a bucket for later trimming. All of the water capacities on the cases were excellent, pretty much the same as match grade cases.
At first, I didn't believe some of the reports that were coming in. Then, I went to a friends place who had a private range in his back yard (1300 acres) He had a couple of extremely accurate rifles and I brought along a couple of mine. One of which was a CZ527. He had a custom built AR 15 made up on a Colt receiver and put together with more expensive components than I could afford. First thing that occurred were numerous misfires with his ammo in his rifles. My CZ and Mini 14 had no issues but the groups were horrid to mediocre at best.
I had brought along 500 rounds of Norinco factory fodder and 200 rounds of reloads on Norinco brass, loaded with BLC2 and CCI magnum small rifle primers.
First we tried the factory stuff in all of the rifles, his rifles still had misfires. This was quickly accounted to the hard military primers and the light strikes his firing pins were delivering. I could load and shoot the misfires into my rifles and they did well. The misfires from his crate shot but not well.
We did similar measurements as those of the OP. His bullets were .220-.222 diameter and weights varied by as much as 5 grains from lightest to heaviest.
He wasn't a happy camper. He has shot some of my ammo previously and was impressed. The thing was, we used my rifles. I have a CZ 527 with a very set trigger. It seems to like milspec primers and will ignite them consistently.
The CZ has the set trigger so I don't worry about trigger tensions. The mini 14 is one of the earliest models made in 1976 and will digest anything that it is fed. 2in groups are about the best it will ever give.
I was a hard sell to issues with the Norinco ammo at first. The fact is, it is a crap shoot, even in the same crate. I've noticed that the loose packed stuff is more of a problem than the stuff packaged in the yellow 20 round boxes. Maybe one is kept to more critical standards than the other for commercial reasons????
My Tikka T3 doesn't shoot the milspec primers very well either. Just to hard.
When you figure out the cost of components, if you already have brass cases, the Norinco ammo is more expensive than buying primers, powder and components. You can easily purchase enough components to reload 1500 rounds cheaper than the cost of the Norinco offerings. The only thing you would save, would be the labor.
Maybe I got lucky because it all shot very well out of some very accurate rifles. I went through this before, shortly after the sale started.
I tried it in three of my own rifles and all of them shot it into less than an inch. A buddy's rifle. Tikka T3 standard weight barrel, shot it into an inch.
We pulled a bunch of the bullets, weighed the powder and projectiles as well as the brass. We were very surprised to find how close the weights on all of them were to the overall average. Same goes for velocities.
We reloaded several hundred of those cases and only had one complaint. Not all of the flash holes were centered and almost all of them were burred to the extreme on the inside. Other than that, the cases were very ductile and sized well. Some of the case mouths were not square, I just threw them into a bucket for later trimming. All of the water capacities on the cases were excellent, pretty much the same as match grade cases.
At first, I didn't believe some of the reports that were coming in. Then, I went to a friends place who had a private range in his back yard (1300 acres) He had a couple of extremely accurate rifles and I brought along a couple of mine. One of which was a CZ527. He had a custom built AR 15 made up on a Colt receiver and put together with more expensive components than I could afford. First thing that occurred were numerous misfires with his ammo in his rifles. My CZ and Mini 14 had no issues but the groups were horrid to mediocre at best.
I had brought along 500 rounds of Norinco factory fodder and 200 rounds of reloads on Norinco brass, loaded with BLC2 and CCI magnum small rifle primers.
First we tried the factory stuff in all of the rifles, his rifles still had misfires. This was quickly accounted to the hard military primers and the light strikes his firing pins were delivering. I could load and shoot the misfires into my rifles and they did well. The misfires from his crate shot but not well.
We did similar measurements as those of the OP. His bullets were .220-.222 diameter and weights varied by as much as 5 grains from lightest to heaviest.
He wasn't a happy camper. He has shot some of my ammo previously and was impressed. The thing was, we used my rifles. I have a CZ 527 with a very set trigger. It seems to like milspec primers and will ignite them consistently.
The CZ has the set trigger so I don't worry about trigger tensions. The mini 14 is one of the earliest models made in 1976 and will digest anything that it is fed. 2in groups are about the best it will ever give.
I was a hard sell to issues with the Norinco ammo at first. The fact is, it is a crap shoot, even in the same crate. I've noticed that the loose packed stuff is more of a problem than the stuff packaged in the yellow 20 round boxes. Maybe one is kept to more critical standards than the other for commercial reasons????
My Tikka T3 doesn't shoot the milspec primers very well either. Just to hard.
When you figure out the cost of components, if you already have brass cases, the Norinco ammo is more expensive than buying primers, powder and components. You can easily purchase enough components to reload 1500 rounds cheaper than the cost of the Norinco offerings. The only thing you would save, would be the labor.
andrew3081
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
Bearhunter, your friend has a CFO approved range?
From what I read from your post, you guys shot an ar15 in his backyard?
From what I read from your post, you guys shot an ar15 in his backyard?
It's not unheard of.
I helped a fellow build his own private, CFO approved range here a few years ago...
