Norc 1911 nose diving

Somerset Bar

Somerset Bar

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Wonder if anyone has any tips. I have 2 norinco 'commander' 1911's. A black one and the 'chrome' version. The chrome one shoots like a champ, never has an issue (although I did do a lot of work smoothing out the contact points, trigger, mag release, slide, feed ramp etc etc).

Anyway, the black one somewhat consistently nosedives on the first round, either in 7, 8 or 10 round magazines. The rest feed fine, but the last round sometimes is completely crushed by the slide. I've polished the feed ramp and checked the clearance on the trigger around the magazine. I figure that maybe the magwell is too tight up near the ramp, or perhaps the slide spring is too tough? It's not really a pistol I would take to a gunsmith, but it was the 1st 1911 I every bought, so I'd like to think I can figure it out (It does shoot straight so its got that going for it). I have tried a variety of different ammunition, from factory to reloads, and it's always diving and crushing, usually 3-4 crushed casings per 50 I would say.

Any tips or things to try would be appreciated. I am not using the norinco magazines (although I have tried them), my preference is the the dlask 8 rounders...anyway, would be curious on what to check for. I googled the issue a bit, and it does seem some 1911's are prone to nose diving, but I can't imagine it's something that can't be adjusted somehow.
 
I would be interested in looking at this, My suggestion is disassemble both and measure everything you have and see if there are any differences between the two and then adjust as needed.
 
Couple things you can do or look at.

- Lock the slide back on the black 1911. Is the feed ramp on the frame in line or slightly higher than that of the barrel's ramp?
- Insert an empty mag. Is the front of the mag lips below or above the feed ramp?
- Swap the mag release on the pistols and see if the your feeding is improved
 
Took it out to the range again today, nosedives are down (I swapped out the mag release for another one), but it does crush cases every so often. I will post up some pics of clearances when I get a few moments to break it all down (and I'll grab the calipers too, to try and compare dimensions with the sweet running Norc) :)
 
Somerset Bar said:
Awesome. I think I'll just chuck it in the compactor and get a glock!
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Could someone explain how its acceptable to buy a new gun, have it not work. Only to spends hours/days/weeks and dollars modifying this and filing that to get it to run somewhat reliably? Short of a broken part(which happens) there is no excuse for a new gun to not run as intended. Then again you get what you pay for.

Tdc
 
It's a $300 gun that came with a $500 AR. I'm not hoping to turn it into a $2000 dream pistol, I just enjoy working on them.

For the record, I've never understood why anyone would spend $800 on a plastic pistol, but everyone is looking for something different out of this hobby I suppose.
 
Somerset Bar said:
It's a $300 gun that came with a $500 AR. I'm not hoping to turn it into a $2000 dream pistol, I just enjoy working on them.

For the record, I've never understood why anyone would spend $800 on a plastic pistol, but everyone is looking for something different out of this hobby I suppose.
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Who paid $800 for a polymer pistol? I paid $600 or less for all of mine. I like guns that work, are simple to operate and don't weigh a ton.

Tdc
 
I had a problem with the nosediving some time ago. I found that the recoil spring was causing the
problem as it affects the timing and force of the slide going back & forth.
Try the recoil spring from the pistol that works fine & see it that makes a difference.
 
colinjw said:
I had a problem with the nosediving some time ago. I found that the recoil spring was causing the
problem as it affects the timing and force of the slide going back & forth.
Try the recoil spring from the pistol that works fine & see it that makes a difference.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea, and I had planned to order a lighter spring from Brownells (hard to find one that doesn't have export restricitons), as the gun crushed a couple of cases yesterday and the recoil spring was definitely a suspect in that..
 
I don't have any help, but my Norc does the same thing occasionally to the last round in the mag. I will be following this to see if any tips work on mine.
Kristian
 
I bought the same package. It came cheap with a $500 rifle and it does the same thing with the last round in the mag. Mine also hits the target 4" high and 4" right at 7 yards and is completely off paper any further back so I'm trying to return it. I agree that you get what you pay for, but $300 is $300 so it should work out of the box.
 
Mine isn't bad for accuracy at all, I ordered a few different springs for it from brownells, but they have them on hold as they suck at figuring out which items they can send across the border and which they can't.

I've swapped the slides on the 2 norcs I have, but have been way too busy to make it to the range to test fire. I figure that will narrow down the problem to either slide or frame :)

My AR actually shoots like a champ, never had an issue with it. In fact when the barrel wears out I might just buy a new barrel, I love that thing!
 
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