Norinco .223 Is it reloaded ammo?

Somerset Bar

Somerset Bar

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Just curious. After going through about 2 crates of this stuff, I notice a lot of things...like cases that look stretched/resized, headspaces that are out of whack, odd polished scratches, uneven case mouths, etc etc.

I reloaded 500 rounds, had to trim every case, and of course resize, and my reloads shot 1000x better than the norinco (no jams, dead primers etc). The last thing that is really odd is that there is not one bit of Chinese writing on or IN the cases. So in 1995 when they made up the ammo, it was destined for an english speaking country of some sort. Seems like maybe it's pre-fired and reloaded for export, or do/did they just have really crappy production on these things?

Not a complaint, it is great great plinking ammo, and I grabbed one crate of it for $300 taxes in, and I can reload it, just curious if someone knows, we were talking about it today at the range while trying a few different powder loads. ?
 
Yeah, complete with nostril burning goo and rusted spam keys. Wood crates and cans. Just seems quality assurance was just terrible. I mean, yes it's 1995 norinco, but damn it just screams reload. :)
 
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Weird... I've run through a little over 3000 rounds of Norinco 5.56 in the past year and not encountered the problems you describe. The only stoppages ever seen were due to crappy five round magazines pinned too tight and not seating properly. I can say ever single round has gone bang...

That said, I do note they aren't the most consistent in how they are loaded, but for the price, what the heck...

I doubt they would have bothered reloading; just not the greatest quality control to start with...
 
I've only had the bullet not seated in the brass well enough not crimped enough. Like the projectile sometimes gets pushed into the case.
 
nick237 said:
I've only had the bullet not seated in the brass well enough not crimped enough. Like the projectile sometimes gets pushed into the case.
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Yes, that's the problem I've had, but luckily they caught in the feeding path, I'm not sure how dangerous they are being fired with the projectile pushed into the case...

Probably just poor quality control I guess, I will say that when it's cleaned up and resized it works really well, and as stated you can't complain about the price (for now). :)
 
This ammo was MADE for the export market - it's mil-spec (or should be) but not mil-surp. It is new manufacture - not reloads. Now, that isnt to say there aren't components/brass scrounged or that were rejected by the military ammo standards. My guess is they re-used some components that were rejected from the 'military' line.

It was originally intended to be shipped and sold in the US - but Clinton changed that plan.

Which is why it's been sitting for almost 20 years waiting for someone with big enough cahones (CanAm) to go through the hassles of getting approvals to import.
 
canucklehead said:
This ammo was MADE for the export market - it's mil-spec (or should be) but not mil-surp. It is new manufacture - not reloads. Now, that isnt to say there aren't components/brass scrounged or that were rejected by the military ammo standards. My guess is they re-used some components that were rejected from the 'military' line.

It was originally intended to be shipped and sold in the US - but Clinton changed that plan.

Which is why it's been sitting for almost 20 years waiting for someone with big enough cahones (CanAm) to go through the hassles of getting approvals to import.
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Makes sense, I know they had the big disagreement with norinco over Iran or something. Explains the english and the questionable quality control. And hey, non corrosive and reloadable for a good price! :)

I'm surprised the US hasn't dropped the ban hammer on us for dealing with norinco yet. Glad they haven't, my norinco AR is absolutely fantastic (well after a few tweaks) :)
 
Smcx said:
And what tweaks did you do?
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Sorry just saw this....

I replaced the bolt carrier (but not the bolt), replaced the trigger pins with non rotating pins that I polished, removed the foregrip and put in an MOE with the angled foregrip attachment, got a polished stainless firing pin, replaced the stock magazines with magpul ones, replaced the fire selector with a non ambidextrous out with more profile, added in a BAD lever, removed the carry handle sights and put on an ACOG, and replaced the stock charging handle lever with a larger one. Oh and swapped out the stock grip (that knuckle doesn't fit right for me), added an ergo grip and put in a magpul trigger guard so I can shoot with gloves on. :)

I plan to build one from scratch and may swap parts back and forth, but for the $700 I paid for the norinco I certainly can't complain.
 
I should add to this...I just opened a fresh crate I had on the shelf, and the bullets in it are much much better. Still dated 1995 but I put about 50 into a go-nogo die and almost every one was bang on perfect, which is way different from the previous crate! I don't know maybe they had different production facilities or brass was short so they used once fired, but this batch doesn't have dings and marks, and even inside the spam cans was better (less fluff and scrap paper etc). Totally weird.
 
I had a couple of issues with the Norc ammo in my T97, but it flies through the XCR at an almost uncontrollable rate...on gas setting 1. I am pretty happy with it.

Anyone needs some brass to reload, wait for the snow to melt at my range, forward and to the right of the 200y position, and you may find a case worth by the time spring rolls around. :D
 
Heh we hit the outdoor range about a week ago, same thing, someone had been shooting 9mm and 45acp just in front of the benches. My buddy and I each got about ~200 rounds of each, which is quite the firefight!

There was a pile of .223 in the water, but encased in ice, just taunting us. Gotta love free range brass.
 
Somerset Bar said:
Heh we hit the outdoor range about a week ago, same thing, someone had been shooting 9mm and 45acp just in front of the benches. My buddy and I each got about ~200 rounds of each, which is quite the firefight!

There was a pile of .223 in the water, but encased in ice, just taunting us. Gotta love free range brass.
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AH...reloaders! We have to be the biggest scroungers on the planet. I have even dumpster dived (in uniform) to get piles of brass (mostly .223 and .308 FC) from the outdoor police range that was dumped on a regular basis. It's probably what started me in the gun business as I recovered more brass, hearing protection, soft body armor and other shooting related items that were just tossed away rather than recycled properly. Even to this day when I don't reload as much I still pick up all my brass I can find for a future load. Phil.
 
P of PDent said:
AH...reloaders! We have to be the biggest scroungers on the planet. I have even dumpster dived (in uniform) to get piles of brass (mostly .223 and .308 FC) from the outdoor police range that was dumped on a regular basis. It's probably what started me in the gun business as I recovered more brass, hearing protection, soft body armor and other shooting related items that were just tossed away rather than recycled properly. Even to this day when I don't reload as much I still pick up all my brass I can find for a future load. Phil.
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We were doing a shoot with some guys from "digital extremes" here in London. They wanted to get authentic gun sounds so they set up a 'studio' at the range. Well wouldn't that be the day that someone had left a couple hundred cases in the brass bin. You should have seen the look on their faces as I dived in and not only started grabbing 'garbage' but also making "yessssssssss" noises. If you are playing the game Warframe and hear a tiny "giggity!" when the AR-15 is fired, you'll know what it is. :)
 
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