“JW-25a” from Tenda (nearly all is wrong there!) and its review

05RAV

05RAV

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Around year 2016, or so, several Canadian vendors were selling a Norinco replica which resembled a “Mauser Karabiner 98 kurz” used by the German (Nazi) Armed Forces in WWII. I like the WWII firearm replicas, so I wanted to buy one but eventually I did not buy it for various reasons. Nine years fast forward and I see a very similar replica at Tenda Canada, under the name “Norinco JW-25A “Mini Mauser” 22LR Bolt-Action Rifle”. Why not to fulfill my long desire to have such a replica and buy it? Surely, I ordered one. It came to my door, after a couple of days (I live just about 100 km from Tenda’s location-that’s why it was so fast), packed in a plastic sleeve, inserted in a Styrofoam form, which, in turn, was inserted into a cardboard box, well secured. Excellent packaging, no problem here at all.
Tenda, on the webpage of the “JW-25a”, specifies the following dimensions: Barrel Length: 20.5 inches (52 cm) and Overall Length: 38 inches (97 cm). Immediately, after unpacking the rifle I noticed that there was something very wrong with the dimensions listed by Tenda. The rifle in a plastic sleeve was thoroughly covered with some light oil (not Cosmoline). After cleaning it with Ballistol oil inside and out, I measured its external dimensions. It happens that the barrel length is 66 cm (26 inches) and overall length is 110 cm (43.4 inches). The length-of-pull is 13.5 inches. The dimensions listed on the Tenda’s webpage are completely erroneous!
Now, the dimensions of the original WWII “Mauser Karabiner 98 kurz” (K98k) are as follows (Wikipedia): barrel length 600 mm (23.62 inches) and overall length 111 cm (43.7 inches). Apparently, the rimfire 22LR replica from Tenda is dimensionally nearly exactly a replica of the WWII “Mauser Karabiner 98 kurz” rather than a replica of some “Mini Mauser”! The latter designation by Tenda is completely wrong! The weight listed by Tenda is 3.4kg which is also very close to the 3.7kg weight of the real Mauser K98k (that’s obvious that the 22LR rimfire replica must be lighter).
Quite baffled, I did some Google browsing and found an advertising from a German firearm selling company named “Norconia”. And voilà, they list two types of Norinco 22LR JW rifles. The first one is the JW25 (KKW) with barrel length: 66 cm and total length 110 cm, advertised as “Well-made copy of the famous German K98 “Karabiner” (h ttp://www.norconia.de/w/?p=1459). The other type is the JW25A (33/40) having a 53 cm barrel and 97 cm total length advertised as “Well-made copy of the famous German G33/40 “Gebirgsjäger” (h ttp://www.norconia.de/w/?p=1461). Now, there is no doubt that the replica being sold by Tenda is the Norinco JW-25, which is a very close replica of the Mauser “Karabiner 98 kurz”, rather than the replica of the JW-25a which is a replica of the shorter Mauser G33/40 “Gebirgsjäger”!
Now, a few comments about the quality of my replica of the “Karabiner 98 kurz”. My rifle was produced in 2024 (stamped on the right side of the receiver), which seems to be a very recent production run. There are letters “CA” after the year of production. Does it mean “Canada”? Would it be a special production run for Canada only?
The rifle is just steel and wood, no plastics of any kind and no aluminum parts. A very old fashioned rimfire replica. Surprisingly, fit and finish are very good. The wood is probably beech (although I’m not sure) with a dark stain and a very even satin-like finish. This dark stain is not authentic to the original K98k which had a much lighter finish. However, since it so nicely finished, I am not very keen on removing it and make the finish much lighter. After cleaning the stock with Ballistol, a nice wood grain became visible.
I disassembled the rifle and removed the barreled action from the stock (a good video how to do it is here:
-it is pretty easy). The barreled action steel is very well blued. I cleaned it by rubbing Ballistol oil for a few minutes until light preserving oil was completely removed. The dark bluing looks very well now. According to the literature the steel receiver is forged and milled (https://www.riflemanfirearms.com/norinco-k98-mini-mauser-rifle/p44045). The top of the receiver has a 11mm dovetail rail for mounting a scope. I have to find some cheap scope.
The worst part of the rifle is its bolt. According to the literature it is a knock off of the early Brno/CZ452 bolt. In the beginning it was very coarse and gritty. It needs quite a bit of break in. I lubricated it with white lithium grease and moved back and forth like 200 times. It is much smoother now. So, indeed it needs time to break in. The initial trigger pull was 5.5 lbs. After like 200 trigger clicks it went down to about 4.5 lbs. It will definitely go down even further with use. I guess, it can get to comfortable 3 lbs.
The rifle came with one, 5rd steel magazine. I also purchased a spare 10rd, steel mag from Tenda (see pics). The magazines are pretty rough and also need some break in. Since the action is based on the CZ 452, I also ordered 5rd PLASTIC magazines for CZ452/455. I’ll see how they fit.
The gun has a bayonet bar at the front which according to some videos can perfectly accommodate an original K98k bayonet. I ordered a replica of this bayonet. I also ordered a K98k replica sling so, I’ll report on both later. Also, I’ll report on the accuracy later.
All in all, the replica which Tenda is selling now is a VERY GOOD 22LR RIMFIRE replica of the Mauser “Karabiner 98 kurz” which is designated as Norinco JW-25. Probably, the best replica on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
 

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Yeah, the CA stamp is the new UN country of import stamping that the libs put into effect a few years back. It means Canada. Being that's a norinco gun I'm not surprised it's a bit rough around the edges, but it sounds like it's well built. Hope she shoots well for ya.
 
I bought one of these a few years ago from Marstar and it was intolerable.
The safety would not engage. At 15 yards from a bench rest the rifle grouped about 3 inches left of centre. The front sight was already at its maximum travel left (factory setting). The magazine was nearly impossible to remove without prying it out and the accuracy left much to be desired. The best group was about 1.5 inches from a bench rest with no wind, with the worse at 2.5 inches.

I recall quite a debate on here a couple months ago when these were first posted. No one could recall seeing them with such long barrels in the past.

Hopefully you have better luck with yours. Really cool rifle which I deemed a must have at the time!
 
I like mine (from Tenda also) but my magazine sits about 1mm too low to feed the 22LR from the magazine into the breach. Had to add material to the cut out on the magazine to have it sit higher - now it feeds fine.

Feels solid - I have about 100 rounds through mine and the bolt is slowly getting better. I oiled mine a lot - maybe grease would be better.

YMMV
 
infidel29 said:
Yeah, the CA stamp is the new UN country of import stamping that the libs put into effect a few years back. It means Canada. Being that's a norinco gun I'm not surprised it's a bit rough around the edges, but it sounds like it's well built. Hope she shoots well for ya.
Click to expand...

The Firearms Marking Regulations have not been implemented as the coming in force date is dec 1 2025.

Individual importers can choose to follow it but it isn't a legal requirement yet.
 
Arcosdad said:
I bought one of these a few years ago from Marstar and it was intolerable.
The safety would not engage. At 15 yards from a bench rest the rifle grouped about 3 inches left of centre. The front sight was already at its maximum travel left (factory setting). The magazine was nearly impossible to remove without prying it out and the accuracy left much to be desired. The best group was about 1.5 inches from a bench rest with no wind, with the worse at 2.5 inches.

I recall quite a debate on here a couple months ago when these were first posted. No one could recall seeing them with such long barrels in the past.

Hopefully you have better luck with yours. Really cool rifle which I deemed a must have at the time!
Click to expand...
I bought a JW15 from Bullseye, same problem, shooting way left. Bullseye exchange the rifle, but same problem. They got me in touch with the distributor, who gave me a direct number to their gunsmith. I sent them the rifle and the gunsmith called me about a week later and told me he tried quite a number of new rifles until he found one that did not have a "bent" barrel. A bad batch of rifles. They sent me that rifle, and did it ever shoot. They disappeared from the market place short thereafter.

I was well looked after by both the distributor and Bullseye, and after "dehorning" the rifle, it was very slick. I bought a CZ and sold the JW, the new owner was very happy with it as well. I have been steadfastly a CZ guy ever since.
 
Wow that was excellent service eh. I've always liked Bullseye as a supplier. Marstar wasn't quite as sympathetic, saying a 1.25 inch group ( their range test) at 20 yards was acceptable. They did take the gun back. My newly arrived 15a isn't too bad for accuracy but I really should try a 15.
 
Today, Monday, May 12, there was a very nice weather in Waterloo, so, I decided to drive to my outdoor shooting range and test my newly acquired Norinco JW-25(a) with iron sights. I was a bit worrying after reading all those negative comments about precision/accuracy of this particular rimfire rifle model.
All shooting was done at 25 yards, from the bench using a soft Feyachi rifle rest at the front and a small Champion bag under the stock. I set up the rear sight at the lowest setting of 25m. For testing, I used CCI Standard/1070fps ammo. Aiming exactly at the central bullseye, all 5 shots went about 2.3 inches high with a bit scattered grouping (see pics). For shot#2, I used the “6 o'clock hold” and printed a 5 shot group, with 0.65” c-t-c, although still slightly above the black bullseye. I screwed shot#3 and shots#4&5 went into 0.94 and 0.52” group sizes, respectively. There are a few conclusions here. First, the rifle shoots straight without any problem, so, the barreled action is aligned properly. Nothing is crooked. Since the front sight is shifted to the left, it seems that the rifle was accuracy tested in a factory for a front sight adjustment. Second, for a preliminary shooting with iron sights, the groups at 25 yards are quite reasonable for my old eyes and indicate that the rifle has a potential for precise shooting with a scope. Third, it shoots about 2” high. I’m not sure why. It may be an incorrectly machined rear sight or the fact that originally, the rear sight is metric and its set up at 25 meters does not correspond to 25 yards (only 22.86 meters). This really doesn’t matter so much because for a really precise shooting a scope is needed anyway.
During testing, I noticed that the bolt became much smoother. Trigger pull weight is also already reduced to about 3.5-3.7 lbs from the initial 5.5 lbs. The rifle felt very solid and acquiring a target was very natural and quick. Extraction of cases was very decisive. There was no malfunction of any kind. I used two types of steel magazines, 5 and 10 rounds, as mentioned earlier. The 5rd magazine was working nearly flawlessly, although sometimes the first cartridge after insertion of the magazine was jumping to a vertical position and need to be pushed down before locking the bolt. The second, a 10rd mag, is a complete POS. I bought it from Tenda which recommends it as a spare magazine for both the JW-15a and JW-25a. After inserting into the rifle, the magazine was sitting too low after locking, such that the bolt was unable to catch the upper round and push it into the breach. Every time I had to push it a bit up to have a cartridge inserted into the breach but even after that, on some occasions, it didn’t work well and the cartridge/bullet was deformed by the bolt. I am waiting for the plastic CZ452 magazines and will see how they work. In general, the rifle works as it supposed to work and its accuracy is very encouraging.
 

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05RAV - I'll bet you find the CZ magazines will fix everything. I picked up a new Norinco JW15 recently. I really like the rifle, but no question the 10rd magazines from Norc are not great. Tenda replaced some for me, but these need some attention too. I think they are basically the same rifle design, with the exception of the longer barrel on the JW15, and military style tangent sights and mauser-like furniture on the JW25.

I have several CZ magazines (they are interchangeable from 452-455-457), and they all work perfectly in the JW15. Pretty much cures all issues.

Taking into account Norinco QC, these are decent rifles. With just a bit more attention to detail and a touch more refinement, they could be very nice.

If the triggers are the same, you'll see a small sear engagement adjustment screw behind the trigger. Turning it clockwise decreases sear engagement (pulls the sear down) and really improves trigger feel. Be careful, you can reduce sear engagement too much. Definitely do a safety test if you adjust this.

Hope you enjoy it...cheers.
 
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