Is the Norinco bolt mil-spec ?

[Waynetheman]

Actually I have here 2 Bushmaster Ar15 and 3 Colt Ar15.
I bought a Norinco upper receiver 12" barrel just because we can't get here that size barrels from USA (export from USA is for barrels not shorter than 16").
I completely disassembled the Norinco upper and put away almost all the Chinese parts ... I hate them 'cause of they very poor and cheap finish, but of course not the barrel and its barrel extension.
I assembled the barrel with an American Cerro Forge made upper receiver, with a Daniel Defense rail, I changed gas tube etc etc and I wanted to replace also the Chinese BCG with an American one and I use this upper with a Bushmaster lower receiver.
You can check yourself how poor and low quality are the Chinese finish of the upper I bought ...

This is the final result of the new upper receiver with the Norinco barrel 12"

What's that muzzle device?

 

[Bizio]

What's that muzzle device?

It's a Hera Arms Small Size Linear Compensator
http://www.hera-arms.com/#!lcs/c5pp

 

[Conte]

You must remember who you are talking to, here in Canada we are VERY familiar with Chinese guns.

Beer, moose, beavers, maple syrup, and Chinese guns, yup, that's Canada in a nutshell, haha.

That's why they are asking you why you'd want to replace it. Cause we have and use a lot of them, and despite their rough exterior, they tend to work rather well.

 

[Bizio]

In Italy we have meny AR15 Norinco CQA as well, they are the first choise for whoever wants a cheap AR15 rifle ... any other AR15, American, German would cost here at least the double of a Norinco. But I agree with you, they still work rather well.
Some Italian shooters, few of them, own a Norinco 1911 or a Norinco M14 rifle.
I also own two Norinco Type 56 AK47.

But if we talk about AR15, I consider it an American rifle so if I can I still try to buy American brands.

 

[Evil_Edie]

as far as i'm aware, "milspec" just means "good enough." In the same breath though it also generally means it will last longer under adverse conditions due to looser tolerances

 

[Bizio]

Before replacing the bolt, I wanted to check which are the measures which fix the headspace.
If we keep same barrel and barrel extension (as I did with the Norinco one) I think the headspace is given by (R - T) and in all the bolts I checked here (Bushmaster, Colt, Luvo, Norinco, DPMS) it is in the range of 3.85 mm +/- 0.05 mm tolerance.
This measure also match the mil-spec in the pdf that Blastattack linked me before : 0.156" - 0.003"
Until this measure is respected I don't see big risks for a kaboom and no need to check the headspace as well with proper expensive headspace gauges.

 

[Waynetheman]

It's a Hera Arms Small Size Linear Compensator
http://www.hera-arms.com/#!lcs/c5pp

Thanks good looking gun.

 

[Conte]

as far as i'm aware, "milspec" just means "good enough." In the same breath though it also generally means it will last longer under adverse conditions due to looser tolerances

Yeah, that's the jist of it.

You know, I'm my AR building experience, I've actually taken on "loose fitting" philosophy. Everyone puts so much stake into tight, but I've actually found my self opting for looser in my build that I'm designed for reliability. Sure enough, my loosest upper is my most reliable, and my tightest best tuned one teeters on the edge of functionality.

That being said, 1911's have a bad rap these days, but modern posh fancy 1911's are also made right tight. Meanwhile, an original military 1911 would rattle like a bucket of bolts. My Norinco 1911 has got some rattle, but seems to run 100%, go figure.

 

[greentips]

I have never ever heard of a broken Norinco bolt here at CGN.

I am just not sure you are "upgrading" the functionality. You might be moving from durable ugly parts to so-so durability with pretty surfaces.

 

[Bizio]

That's true, I heard of a DPMS lot of bolts which were faulty and caused problems in the past.
I went through over 3,000 rounds at moment with new DPMS bolt and no problems at all till now.

 

[sgmacken]

I mated a Norc bolt carrier to an LMT bolt in my Norc, and it shoots just fine! Nothing was wrong with the Norc bolt, I just wanted to have a spare.

 

[ztunelover]

Milspec is not a measure of accuracy, milspec is a measure of durability. Match grade stuff will always outshoot milspec hardware for accuracy, but it's doubtful you can burn through 2000 reliably and consistently with match hardware. Proper milspec gear with lube can usually go 5000 a session with a bit of lubing or greasing in between.