Norinco NP29 - the good the bad and the ugly...

I had one of the older NP 29 models and switched the sights out. I think the rear was regular Colt dovetail and the front was a narrow tenon, put King fixed high profile sights, came out very nice. Also, I immediately ordered a Wilson 9mm/.38 super slide release as the Norinco extended one drove me crazy, the look of it was repugnant.

I also used Mecgar 9mm 1911 mags which the gun ran flawlessly with, the Norinco mags became stripper mags as I found them less than 100% reliable.
 
Here's mine with a few upgrades. it's the older model.

IMG_7134.jpg
 
^^ I just some received some Metalform mags. They are nicely constructed and are pre drilled for base-plates. They are coated in some sort of semi sticky #### that make them slower than the Wilson ETM to drop free.
 
The trigger sucks cuz its a norinco. 1911 properly tuned single action triggers are about as good as it gets in a pistol. You can have a smith stone the hammer and sear, or you can try a drop in matched hammer sear which should be smooth and come in around 5lbs.
 
Hitzy said:
The trigger sucks cuz its a norinco. 1911 properly tuned single action triggers are about as good as it gets in a pistol. You can have a smith stone the hammer and sear, or you can try a drop in matched hammer sear which should be smooth and come in around 5lbs.
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Maybe I'm just weird. I'll try to articulate what I'm experiencing.

The 1911 trigger is the gold standard of triggers. Even this cheap Norc should have a better trigger than most DA and striker fired pistols, and it does. It has a very predictable break and it's there that I seem to be having the problem. I didn't notice it as much with live fire but with dry fire I am getting a very perceptible front sight wiggle to the right during portions of my wall drills.

I break down most of my dry fire into some "slow" drills and some "fast" drills. During a portion of my dry fire I do the wall drill and do several sets of slow and fast iterations of this drill. For the slow portions I reset the gun, take my grip and sight picture and then slowly press the trigger to the rear, focusing on correct sight picture and NOT moving the sights. Fast wall drills are essentially the same except I reset the pistol as fast as I can, reestablish a grip then take a sight picture and press the trigger as fast as I can while maintaining my sight picture.

It's during the fast portion of this drill that I notice front sight wiggle to the right with the 1911.

I just don't get this issue to the same degree with my Glock and it's pissing me off. I've done some research on the issue and I'm glad to find I'm not alone. I think the very defined break on the 1911 is causing me to snatch the trigger (or something). One thing if for sure, I need more trigger time on the 1911.
 
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The Aftec extractor arrived...



Here it is vs the Norc factory:

Nobody guessed what was wrong with the factory extractor yet. It's fairly obvious.

More little bits and springs to lose. Oddly all the parts, including the extractor, were magnetized. Should help with the Tula ammo I'll be feeding it :D

The springs apply constant pressure on the extractor.


Sticks out like a sore thumb. But I don't care what this thing looks like, just that it's reliable. The Aftec seems to feed and eject dummy rounds fine. It passed the extractor test fine. Luckily the Aftec didn't require any fitting of the firing pin stop.


More evidence I don't care what it looks like. Total cash spent on the pistol to date: $470. More range time this weekend and another 10-8/Hackathorn extractor test. I replaced the obnoxious jumbo mag release with another I found in an old parts bin.
 
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With the little I know about my 1911's I can't really see what is wrong with the stock extractor. The nose looks a little funky but that might just be the way it rolls while you're taking the pictures. Or did I just spot the issue?
 
Hitzy said:
Looks like a .45 extractor was stuck in there
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Bingo!

9mm extractors don't have the bulge in the middle on the hook side of the extractor. Usually, like on a Wilson 9mm extractor, that bump is removed so that you can get better extractor tension on the smaller rim of the 9mm case. This Norc had a .45 extractor installed, which explains why I couldn't get reliable tension even after adjusting it. I could have ground the bulge off, but the part was so ####ty anyway, it wasn't worth working on it.

I wonder if all NP29's use the .45 extractor?
 
Clobbersauras said:
No way! I'm bound and determined to make this thing as ugly as my Glock!
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That'll be pretty darn hard! Lol! My Np29 had the proper extractor by the time I got it, but it was really loose on the cases. FWIW though, I did get the gun second hand from a tweaker.
My slide is supposed to be back from Dlask this week with adjustable sights. I'm gnawing at the bit to get it out.
Ivor
Post post (pun) I didn't notice the issue on the extractor until it was pointed out. I'd never had my 45 and 9mm extractors wise by side to see the difference.....I sure see it now :p
 
ivor said:
That'll be pretty darn hard! Lol! My Np29 had the proper extractor by the time I got it, but it was really loose on the cases. FWIW though, I did get the gun second hand from a tweaker.
My slide is supposed to be back from Dlask this week with adjustable sights. I'm gnawing at the bit to get it out.
Ivor
Post post (pun) I didn't notice the issue on the extractor until it was pointed out. I'd never had my 45 and 9mm extractors wise by side to see the difference.....I sure see it now :p
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You can grind down the bulge, but you risk ruining the heat treating of the extractor by heating it too much through the grinding process.

That's if you are confident enough in Norinco's ability to heat treat small parts...:D
 
So I made things worse, kind of.

The pistol is now experiencing a lot of failures to return to battery. Case rim gets stuck on the upper lip of the chamber. It happened at least ten times in the first three mags. So I swapped out the flat wire spring for the regular spring and FLG. Things improved but I'd still get a failure to return to battery every few mags or so.

I tend to think the Aftec is providing too much tension and that I may need to radius and polish some of the edges so that the case rim slides up under the hook easier. I will also try removing one of the Aftec springs and see how that works. On another note, the pistol did pass the 10-8 extractor test with the Aftec installed.

I also had this happen:

I think this can be attributed to the Metalform mags. The Metalform mags are junk, I had one mag that stopped locking back the slide after 18 rounds. Garbage, don't buy them.

I also benched it at 21 yards. Very, very poor. This was the best group I could get out of it. That is a standard NRA B8. I took a 6 O'Clock hold, which I had to do for all my shooting. I'm used to POA/POI with my Glock and at speed I ended up pushing shots high.


So I think I'm done for a while with this little project. I need to further tune the extractor, tune the mags, it needs a new barrel bushing, and according to my timer, a mag well. I've lost interest and time for now. I'll keep it for a next winter project.

Final verdict: The NP9 is not worth the money. Unless you want to rebuild everything in the gun to get it to work. Which pushes the price into Glock and M&P range....plus hours worth of work. With the parts and time spent (on the work bench and ####ing around with it at the range) it would be cheaper just to spend the $2k. I don't have any irrational love for the 1911, so it's back to the G17 for me.
 
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Do they still use the pencil barrel for 9mm? I have a spare unmolested oversized Kings bushing for the skinny barrels if you need it. That is the first thing I do with a Nork is a new tight bushing. It has actually helped with feeding issues as well in some of the guns....
 
^^Yeah, they still use the little pencil barrels.

Thanks for the offer, but this one's on a time out for now. I'll try to get it running again someday, when I don't feel like chucking it over the berm.
 
Hey, Great post Al Bundy :)
I'll rather work extra 10 Saturdays and get a nice hand gun. Just got beautiful Python.
Remember, life is too short to shoot ugly guns :))
Good luck
ikmm.jpg
 
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