Norinco CQA AR-15 // Thoughts and Comments?

xypper

xypper

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I bought the 14.5'' barrel option as my first AR. I plan on doing some small cosmetic mods to it (stock, handguard, pistol grip, etc).

From what I could find online, it seems as if this rifle supports only commercial spec butt stocks, can anyone confirm?

Also does anyone have any negative / positive feedback for this rifle? I have a Chinese surplus SKS which has yet to give me any problems and I hope this stays true with my new Chinese AR.

Thanks!
 
Hmm, can't help re: the Butt Stock, mine came with Military specs, but that is something you can change easily, if yours is Commercial. But any in Spec AR, you can put either/or size tube on them. I can tell you that Norinco AR's are decent, reliable, & can be had for good deals on the EE. Take a look on youtube, some videos from Canadians putting them through allot rounds/torture test etc. You'll get a bunch of-"Oh the S&W is only $$ this much" yada yada.. the usual Norinco Haters chiming in.. I think they are Good +, esp. I love the 10.5" Original Norc. .. a nice set up. Cheerz~
 
I have owned 3 Norinco CQA rifles two 14.5 inch and one 10.5 inch. All 3 had commercial spec butt stocks and all 3 ran/run flawlessly. I have also owned other more expensive AR's like colt. The only negative thing I will say about the Norc is simply it is not a pretty as more expensive AR's, which doesn't bother me as is runs perfectly. I sold one of the 14.5's to a friend and gave the other 14.5 to my father simply because he enjoyed shooting it and didn't own an AR. Still have the 10.5 and it is great because it runs great and due to the low purchase price I really run this rifle hard and don't mined beating on it. Enjoy your CQA, I do and have no regrets buying it.
 
Only negative bout the Norinco is you can’t bring it stateside. Besides that it runs like a sowing machine and holds up very well. Hard to go wrong for the price point. S&W sport 2 is another bargain and form 6 eligible.
 
xypper said:
I bought the 14.5'' barrel option as my first AR. I plan on doing some small cosmetic mods to it (stock, handguard, pistol grip, etc).

From what I could find online, it seems as if this rifle supports only commercial spec butt stocks, can anyone confirm?

Also does anyone have any negative / positive feedback for this rifle? I have a Chinese surplus SKS which has yet to give me any problems and I hope this stays true with my new Chinese AR.

Thanks!
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I had a DA556 20" M16A1 clone (Norinco)
I bought it for $400 off the EE when the AR15 glut was on and everyone wanted to have shark faces and 8 optics on their AR's. Noone wanted old school "junk" like that but it was always my thing!

Anyhow, I actually tried to break it. Because I wanted to see what the "pieces of junk Norincos" were really made of.
Including but not limited to:
1. Spraying the bolt and upper receiver with brake cleaner to bone dry strip the lube out of it then fired 200 rounds as fast as I could load the 10 round mags with a charger and clips.
2. Dropping it from chest height on its side onto hard packed dirt once on each side.
3. Dropping it straight down on the butt from chest height (it's a fun way to rack the action if you slam it hard enough :D
4. Dropping it muzzle first from chest height onto the hard pack dirt.
5. Flung it around the gravel range road by the muzzle tied to paracord for a solid 2 mins.
6. Threw it in the muddy drainage ditch at the range with a mag on and the port closed.

I was actually going to put it in the earth berm and blast it at 20 meters with a couple 12ga bird shot shells but I forgot the shotgun at home lol

After stripping it, cleaning it, very detailed inspection of parts and reassembling it passed function test and was back out shooting next range trip.

Norinco has had some abortions but I can tell you their AR clones are NOT one of them. If you can get them for under $500 they will go the distance long before you go broke from buying ammo brother.
They are outstanding guns.
Some of the quirks are a lot of aftermarket parts may not fit without some modification as some area are not milspec from personal experience. One example was the CQA I owned many years back the fire selector hole in the lower receiver was actually slightly larger than a standard milspec size one. A standard milspec selector was floating in it a little bit. Fitting handguards to the Chinese caps can be a bit of a #### sometimes. And if you plan to drift the front gas block pins out......be prepared to fail :D
 
I really enjoyed mine, ran flawlessly the entire time I owned it, and thru a season of two gun without missing a beat. I will own another for sure, they are a lot of gun for a little money
 
The only problem I've heard of from people who've actually owned a Norc is that the first batch of 10.5's had weak extractor springs. It's a $5 fix. The complete 14.5 and the 10'5 upper on a Armalite lower that I had ran like tanks. Not ###y, not shiny, but runs like a beast and is as accurate as any rack grade AR you'll find. Better guys than me have tried to break them and given up. If you're looking for flash, you won't find it, but if you want a gun to run hard they're well worth it.
 
Had one, ran great, no issues.

Issues started arising when I wanted to modify it by swapping out for milspec parts and things just were not lining up properly, wasted a lot of time and money on parts that did not fit. Mine was a Dominion Arms version.

My stock seemed to be commercial sized, but the ones Marstar was selling were millspec sized.

Ended up putting it back to the original config and selling it to a guy at my club about 4 years ago. I see him shoot it at the club from time to time, he seems to enjoy it.

From what I can tell the consistency on these is hit and miss, depending on the batch of rifles that are imported. Some have a really nice finish others have rougher/thinner finish.
 
I have the 10.5", the trigger "failed" after about 100 rds, it would start to go full auto once in a while.
It could also be that I over lube the trigger parts, in any case I put in a ALG trigger group.
On my sample, the trigger does not have the hole drill out to fit the disconnector spring, the spring was just kind of stuck into the slot on the trigger.
All in all, I think it is a decent AR, certainly no worst than my issued service rifle
 
wai762 said:
I have the 10.5", the trigger "failed" after about 100 rds, it would start to go full auto once in a while.
It could also be that I over lube the trigger parts, in any case I put in a ALG trigger group.
On my sample, the trigger does not have the hole drill out to fit the disconnector spring, the spring was just kind of stuck into the slot on the trigger.
All in all, I think it is a decent AR, certainly no worst than my issued service rifle
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Failed fire control group and incorrectly machined receiver..where did you seissued service rifles like this? Never seen a receiver missing a trigger pin hole in the lockup
 
My first dive into the AR foray was a Norc CQA. It's a workhorse. Anyone else who tells you ignorant chatter like "it's Chinese crap, blah, blah" just think their turds don't stink, and are probably the same guys that bench shoot their AR's in multicam plate carriers.

It's a useable tool. When you're ready, real men build their ARs.
 
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yes its a commercial buffer tube, i would recommend hitting the EE and finding a milspec tube and swapping them because lets face it, eventually you will buy another ar because they are the the lays chips of the black rifle world, and when you do buy more they will most likely have mil spec tubes, the future you will thank the current you for swapping the tubes so when you have a box full of different stocks you have tried out they will all be interchangeable between rifles.

plus because mil spec tubes are the standard by a LARGE margin your options will be greatly expanded by the simple investment of a used mil spec buffer tube. everything else pertaining to the tube can stay the same, buffer, spring, castle nut, end plate, all you need is that tube
 
Cheap but tough entry level AR15. Gets the job done.

Some people will tell you that unless you pay 3k for an AR its not worth it... Some will use a 500$ chinese AR and show them how its done at matches :p
 
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All in all, my Norc AR is fun to shoot and I don't feel bad if it gets abused. I'd buy used, knock it around, and figure out the things you like/dont on it in anticipation of your next AR.

rdesjardine said:
Anyone swap out the handguard on the Norc 10.5"? If so what size and brand did you use and any problems getting it to fit?
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I put a magpul SL on mine when I first got it and never looked back. Took some dremeling and filing to get it to fit. The D-ring on these is rubbish.

While I was in Ireland, I left it with one of my writers, and he put an MFT handguard on it. He had no issues at all with that one.

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TV-PressPass said:
All in all, my Norc AR is fun to shoot and I don't feel bad if it gets abused. I'd buy used, knock it around, and figure out the things you like/dont on it in anticipation of your next AR.



I put a magpul SL on mine when I first got it and never looked back. Took some dremeling and filing to get it to fit. The D-ring on these is rubbish.

While I was in Ireland, I left it with one of my writers, and he put an MFT handguard on it. He had no issues at all with that one.

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All-in-Pieces-FINAL-1024x666.jpg


After-HDR-FINAL-1024x683.jpg
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Your Norc looks an awful lot like an NEA.......LOL

Norc upper I assume?
 
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