9mm In A 1911
- Thread starter Leo M
- Start date
Travis Bickle
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Upper Lower Middle Alberta
It's a fence line I sit on always.....my only handgun is a Norinco 45 1911A1. It's an amazing gun. Dead reliable and very accurate. Just a tank of a pistol.
It's the 3rd one I've owned. Because I've gone back and forth between a 9mm Norc and 45 Norc multiple times lol I love the cheap price of 9mm vs the 10 to 15 cent increase per pull of the trigger with .45ACP. Then it just doesn't feel right after a while and I go back to the good old .45ACP.
I should probably just keep one of each but I don't have infinite cash to have tied up in toys.
Both the 1911 Norcs in .45 and 9mm are amazing 1911's from personal experience. I've owned both many times over and have never had a single issue.
It's the 3rd one I've owned. Because I've gone back and forth between a 9mm Norc and 45 Norc multiple times lol I love the cheap price of 9mm vs the 10 to 15 cent increase per pull of the trigger with .45ACP. Then it just doesn't feel right after a while and I go back to the good old .45ACP.
I should probably just keep one of each but I don't have infinite cash to have tied up in toys.
Both the 1911 Norcs in .45 and 9mm are amazing 1911's from personal experience. I've owned both many times over and have never had a single issue.
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
9mm range brass is 50 times more plentiful than .45acp and the only reason I even have 9mm pistols.
I have to agree with you. I bought a Sam Thunderbolt a few years back... It was a beautiful stainless finish.
My Sam seemed to have "soft" metal & a really weak slide spring, was not impressed & was not what I was expecting
I have to admit , my Norks were much better. Actually,..I had to take the springs out of my Nork & put them in the Sam to make it function properly .
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Broken firing pin (twice), one of the lugs cracked off the barrel, an issue with the disconnector not lining up quite right, bad trigger bow, barrel link broken, sights not staying in place. Seems like they have Monday mornings at the factory that side of the world too. I'll grant that others off the same line may have run well for their owners, and there's always the chance that the frame being slightly twisted or something may have cascaded into all the little ways that particular gun was cursed. The guy who had it moved on to a different gun.
But if you go straight for a really good 1911 and never have to do more than field-strip it for cleaning you never really learn how they're supposed to work; buy a lemon and you'll know the normal and profane names for every bit of it and be able to explain all the differences between how it's supposed to work and what was actually happening.
And if you stick with 9mm guns then you can stay totally relaxed and carefree about random bits of brass kicking around the range and happily sweep it all into the brass bin when you have to clean up, but buy a 45 and reloading dies for it and you become a monster who can spot larger cases many yards away and relentlessly scans for free 45 brass even when you're trying to relax.
coleman1495
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Whitecourt
Yup 9mm 1911’s work good. I really like my Dlask.
One thing of importance is to make sure you have an adequate recoil spring and don’t be scared to change it. I wore a spring out and it creates all kinds of issues.
One thing of importance is to make sure you have an adequate recoil spring and don’t be scared to change it. I wore a spring out and it creates all kinds of issues.
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
When I shoot my .45, I make sure and get the right most shooting lane. Makes it easier to find my .45s.
Regarding 9mm brass, the range owner, Kelly of DVC, has seen me sweeping up 9s and has given me boxes of 9 brass. Great guy!
I bought a used NP29 whose barrel barely engages one slide lug. The thing is also loosely fitted to the slide and pretty much free floating, causing peening of the lug. More shooting would cause jamming of these two parts, from my experience with a factory third conversion i had years ago.
From the marks on the frame the previous owner started to work on the problem before selling.
Since the barrel link is already the tallest I could find in Canada I only use the gun in .45.
I remember someone on cgn saying he had to change the barrels on his two NP29. Mine is the "Enhanced" with the heavier than standard Combat slide.
I'm wondering if these problems only affect one type of slide, as many here say that they shoot their guns "a lot" without a glitch.
Travis Bickle
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Upper Lower Middle Alberta
That's odd. I've owned 3 of them over the years and never noticed it. I do shoot my handguns quite a bit. They're no safe queen collector pieces.
I have read of more QC issues with the later produced 9mm Norc variants though. Maybe it's a coincidence and maybe there is some truth to it
Not consistent clearly but far far more than the old .45 models which are generally highly praised for functionality.
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
I believe you. I've had a couple of Norkie 1911 .45 with less than perfect barrel to slide lock-up. 2 out of 8 or 9 can't be all that bad. Could be isolated quality control issues within a certain production batch. I don't think Norinco produces bad fitting pistols as a matter of business practice. The Chinese can do wonders if they wanted to.
I remember that none of my 6 ((2 Combat Elites, two Gold Cups, one stainless Gov't and one blued Gov't) Colt Series 80s ever had tight barrel to slide fits. The best was no better than my loose Norkies.
My remaining Norkie 1911 .45 Sport was tuned by Roger Kotanko and is as tight or loose as is necessary for total reliability. Which it has been so far, even with Norinco magazines.
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I had far fewer issues with my Nork in 9mm than the Remington I sold shortly after buying it. I don’t recall one single trip to the range that I didn’t have an issue with that gun. The Nork has. Got...6 or 7000 rds through it, and it’s been pretty close to flawless. I stick with 9mm because I have so many 9’s; Glock, Smith and one Norinco, plus several PCC’s; a JR Carbine, a Keltec Sub2K, and a Kriss Vector gen 2 carbine. I had two 5gal buckets of 9mm brass given to me a couple years ago, so it was a worthwhile winter project getting it cleaned, sized and loaded. 2 months pretty much full time loading, 10 months of shooting 2 or 3 times a week...no desire to add another caliber
- Location
- West Quebec
turbo_bird
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Kamloops, BC
Just did some fiddling with my NP29, spent about 20 min with a Brownells sear jig and dropped the trigger pull from around 5.5 lbs with a bit of creep to a fairly crisp 3.5 lbs. Might head to the range this weekend to give it a try. Hopefully IPSC in Canada is still a thing next year, I'd like to work this thing over and do a few matches with it.
Kristian
Kristian
turbo_bird
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Kamloops, BC
Did some more work on it this afternoon instead of going to the range. Did some metal shaping on the frame and beavertail. Undercut the trigger guard, fixed the A1 scallops behind the trigger, and blended the beavertail and safety lever a bit better. I've got lots of smoothing and sanding before I'm ready to finish it, and have to decide if I'm going to checker the front strap or just use grip tape. Once I'm done with the frame, I'll bead blast it and parkerize it. I also tried drilling out my stock front sight to turn it into a fiber optic one, but broke off the 1/16" drill bit in the sight. Oh well, I guess it'll just be a white dot until I can get the slide machined for new sights.
Kristian
Kristian
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JACKSMYDOG
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Haldimand County, Ontario
9mm 1911 is by far my favorite pistol to shoot. I have a 2nd hand Norc which I have well over 10K through. It runs good on Norc mags, but the last round hold open is inconsistent. Using Tripp mags it is 100% reliable. It has STI Trigger/sear/hammer and VZ grips and is more accurate than I am. I have $700 into the gun and it shoots almost as well as my STI Trojan. The fit and finish is not nearly as nice as the STI, but less than 1/3 of the cost and performs almost as well.
Direct comparison between them is a little disheartening as the slide to frame, and barrel to slide fit is sloppy to say the least. The STI feels like one piece of metal in your hand, solid solid and feels like quality. The Norc you can hold one strong hand only, and shake it enough to wiggle the slide around.
Allot of people dis on Norc because they are cheap and not pretty, but you can get in the 1911 game for cheap, then move to more expensive if you like it, or sell is on the EE, where even at 30% discount, you are only losing $100-ish.
It had some polished parts when I got it, and I wanted to clean up some of the corners, so I polished a bunch more on it. I am planning to finish the polishing and cleaning up the fit a little more, then sending it to Roger for new sights and a hard chrome finish. Best value gun in my safe.
Direct comparison between them is a little disheartening as the slide to frame, and barrel to slide fit is sloppy to say the least. The STI feels like one piece of metal in your hand, solid solid and feels like quality. The Norc you can hold one strong hand only, and shake it enough to wiggle the slide around.
Allot of people dis on Norc because they are cheap and not pretty, but you can get in the 1911 game for cheap, then move to more expensive if you like it, or sell is on the EE, where even at 30% discount, you are only losing $100-ish.
It had some polished parts when I got it, and I wanted to clean up some of the corners, so I polished a bunch more on it. I am planning to finish the polishing and cleaning up the fit a little more, then sending it to Roger for new sights and a hard chrome finish. Best value gun in my safe.
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