Norinco M37 "tactical", my experience.

roadwarrior

roadwarrior

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Well, last december I purchased one of these things. I knew off hand from this forum that many guys had problems with them, but my masochiste side could'nt help it...I had to see for my self.

After barely 5 rounds of 3" rifled slugs, the heat shield was off the gun and on the ground...Good start :rolleyes:

So I continued shooting some more slugs :D At 25 yards, the ghost ring sights got me some decent groupings from resting my elbows on a table. I got a horizontal spred of about 4" out of 5 rounds.

I did fire a few rounds of 3" mag 00 buckshot at 15 yards for #### and giggles. It gave me a nice even pattern.

Finally, I proceded to shoot a box of 2"3/4 bird shot from the hip, with the stock folded. Nothing scientific here :p

I was constantly frustrated with failiure to cycle rounds properly. This happened every 3-4 shot. It seems either the cartridge would'nt come out of the mag, and/or would snag up when being elevated to the chamber. The shotgun was heavy for it's size. It also bruised the upper part of my hand near the thumb on the hand that held the pistol grip. The recoil pad did'nt do any miracles to protect my shoulder neither.

I so called Marstar this morning and I am shipping the shotgun back to them. The guy at the service dep. was pleasant and understanding. I have asked to exchange the firearm for the 870 (18.5") copy. I will continue to do buisiness with Marstar since good service is really important to me. I hope some of this information will have been helpfull.
 
roadwarrior said:
The shotgun was heavy for it's size. It also bruised the upper part of my hand near the thumb on the hand that held the pistol grip.
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That is exactly what I dislike the most about the gun.

Also, I have had a problem with the ghost ring sights loosening up and falling off, as well as the stock loosening up after putting through a bunch of rounds.

I sent the shotgun back to Marstar and told them to fix it and send it back to me. I should be receiving the repaired gun in a week. I will post here about how it turns out.

BTW, I have to say that Marstar has great customer service, they are even picking up the cost of shipping both ways. So I am going to give the Norinco tactical shotty one last try.
 
I've got an M37 Tactical myself. Got it at the end of last year. It's got about 3 boxes of 3" and 2.75" waterfowl loads through it at this point, and I've seen all the problems described (mostly the cycling issues). I also noticed how much cosmoline seeped out of the little nooks and crannies from all the banging!! I thought I got it all, but nooooo :rolleyes:

Anyways, to make a long story boring, yes it did fail to cycle rounds, quite often at first but after a thorough teardown & tune and some use it's now down to one jam every couple or three mags (even less often with 2.75" loads, the extra weight of the 3" shells seems to cause most of the feed problems), and anything that fell off or loosened got loctited. It used to feel rough when I racked it, but it smoothed out after the 2nd box of 3" BB loads :D It is heavy, but I like the heft & weight, and it doesn't seem affect the way it handles. As far as the bruising problem when shooting from the hip, I haven't noticed anything along those lines but to be honest, it's a 12 guage mall ninja shotgun, do you really expect it to be comfortable to shoot from the hip?

All in all I'm fairly happy with it. I'd be happier if I paid about $50 less, since there are better shotguns to be had in this price range, but it's still a fun piece and I'm satisfied. Yes, you do get what you pay for, but a little elbow grease goes a long way with Norinco products, so bear that in mind.
 
Most Ithaca design feed problems are due to the action being out of timing. Any decent gunsmith should be able to vastly improve the reliability of the gun for maybe $40?
 
Of course, I had no crazy expectations with this shotgun, and I was willing to look past some of the inperfections (like the trigger) but I can't have a heat shield falling off and the gun jamming left and right. After all, who whats a "Tactical" piece of gear that you can't count on... With my luck, the one time i'll be facing a bear or a burglar, the thing will jam :rolleyes: Oh well, I am not saying that every copy is like mine, I just received many PM's from a previous thread that wanted to know how the shotgun turned out to be.
 
I sent the shotgun back to Marstar and told them to fix it and send it back to me. I should be receiving the repaired gun in a week. I will post here about how it turns out.
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Thats what I did - sent it back for repair. First news I got (after 3 weeks) was a refund on my visa bill (full amount, including shipping). It seems Marstar is not willing to take the time to fix these if we aren't (and based on the deficiency list for the one I had, I don't blame them). Don't be surprised if you're shopping for a new gun next week. I'm tempted to try again with the 870 clone... but once bitten...

/gc.
 
Claven2 said:
Most Ithaca design feed problems are due to the action being out of timing. Any decent gunsmith should be able to vastly improve the reliability of the gun for maybe $40?
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That may be so with the Norinco copy's but that is not the case with the real Ithaca shotguns
 
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