Clobbersauras
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Waaay out west.
I wanted to see what all the fuss was about with the 1911. I've owned a few in the past, but I was more of a collector than shooter back then.
So as I do before starting most new things, I started researching 1911's. I came to a few conclusions:
1) I wanted one in 9mm. Because it's cool and all the big kids are running 9mm's 1911's.
2) I wanted a full size, just because I'm a big guy and If I'm going to shoot an all steel gun I might as well go full size.
3) If I wanted a reliable 9mm 1911 I was looking at spending at least $1200....at least. And that wouldn't give me super confidence that the pistol would work. If I wanted reliability I was looking at over $2k..
So faced with a $2K bill, I decided I would rather create some work for myself and go with the cheapest 9mm 1911 made. I've read some good things about the Norinco NP29, and of course everyone who owns them says they are 100% reliable.
I found a gently used Norc NP29 on the EE that I picked up for $350 shipped with some new grips and a few mags. I knew going in that I would probably have to do some work on it, which didn't particularly scare me off because I'm a little bit of a Ninja with a Dremel tool and I can read so...
The Gun:
Well, you get what you pay for. It was actually nicely outfitted with all the go fast stuff, ambi safeties, beaver-tail grip safety, extended slide release,
obnoxiously large mag release and trigger with holes drilled in it (what ever that does). The sights weren't terrible, but the three dots had to go, so I whipped out the black Tremclad for the rear and bright orange engine paint for the front.
Much better.
The grips ware actually really nice. Color not withstanding, they are actually very grippy. I was curious about who manufactured them and discovered they are made by Ergo. I supplemented the lack of checkering with liberal use of skateboard tape (front strap, under trigger guard and along the left side of the frame) and called it a day.
Trigger actually wasn't too bad. Will need lots of dry fire with it. Safety activation was positive and it passed all the standard function/safety checks one does with a 1911. I didn't detail strip it, as I was curious how well it would shoot as is.
Finish was actually not bad for an inexpensive gun. Unfortunately there are sharp corners everywhere. I'll probably eventually take care of that, but it's good enough for now. I immediately cut down the extended slide release as I knew my freakishly long thumb would activate it under recoil. My trusty Dremel and some cold blue took care of it.
I checked the extractor tension per standard methods and it seemed fine. I held the case nice and tight and passed the standard "shake" tests, even though the actual extractor hook was horrid.
I also noticed a problem. Something wrong here (bonus points if you can spot it):
The Wilson mags didn't clear the ejector so I took care of that as well.
(like I said, Dremel Ninja)
Time for the range. I only had three mags; one Wilson ETM and two Norc factory. The factory mags were really rough, lots of issues loading them. I could work on them but I have some new Metalform mags coming so I'll probably just bin them instead of wasting my time. Interestingly, they worked fine once in the gun.
At the range, I put it through it's paces. It was acceptably accurate, recoil was negligible and I was getting used to the slim grips. It shot high and to the left for me. I'm confident enough in my shooting to know that it wasn't me, and it was confirmed by two other very competent shooters. I'll have to bench it on my next trip to baseline it and then drift the rear sight and perhaps file down the rear. Norc sights use non-standard dovetails, so unless I want to drop more coin on this pig, it's up to me to fix it.
So things went well for the first 100 rounds. The gun fed and fired everything reliably. I was starting to like the NP29. So I decided to put it through the 10-8/Hackathorn extractor test. Things went well for the first 6 rounds.
Then the wheels fell off.
Instead of ejecting between 2 and 5 o'clock, I had rounds hitting me in the head, dropping back down through the mag well and getting caught by the slide. Didn't matter if it was a two handed grip or SHO, It had unpredictable ejection. So I field stripped the extractor and did a little judicious bending. Popped it back in and tried again, no luck, same issues after about 5 rounds. (See above photos for the issue...)
I continued with my testing and the gun ran fairly well with the mags in it. I had two failures to fully eject at about the 250 round mark. Clearly the extractor has to be dealt with. I'm not interested in messing around with the factory one. It's garbage and I'm not confident enough in Norinco's ability to produce a quality small part as important as the extractor. I'll order an Aftec, and hopefully that will solve the problem.
Feeding seemed consistent, notice the skid marks on the frame and barrel.
The gun doesn't seem to be mag sensitive (hopefully) and I'm hopeful that this doesn't become a problem once a proper extractor is put in the gun.
I've also replaced the recoil spring with a Wilson Flat Wire spring. Again, I'm not confident in Norinco's ability to product quality small parts and the recoil spring is vitally important on a full size 9mm 1911. On advice of a Wilson Tech I clipped two coils.
I ground the flat for better contact on the guide rod face and will order a new plug to replace the factory FLG and FLG plug.
One more problem to report. The barrel link pin likes to walk out.
So I took care of that with some light staking.
Further testing: Once I'm confident that I have the extractor and recoil spring working properly I intend to put the Norc through a 2000 round challenge with no additional lube or cleaning to see how it performs with a few minor upgrades. I'll be running a variety of timed drills to see If I get any better performance with a 1911 than my Glock. More to come.
So as I do before starting most new things, I started researching 1911's. I came to a few conclusions:
1) I wanted one in 9mm. Because it's cool and all the big kids are running 9mm's 1911's.
2) I wanted a full size, just because I'm a big guy and If I'm going to shoot an all steel gun I might as well go full size.
3) If I wanted a reliable 9mm 1911 I was looking at spending at least $1200....at least. And that wouldn't give me super confidence that the pistol would work. If I wanted reliability I was looking at over $2k..
So faced with a $2K bill, I decided I would rather create some work for myself and go with the cheapest 9mm 1911 made. I've read some good things about the Norinco NP29, and of course everyone who owns them says they are 100% reliable.
I found a gently used Norc NP29 on the EE that I picked up for $350 shipped with some new grips and a few mags. I knew going in that I would probably have to do some work on it, which didn't particularly scare me off because I'm a little bit of a Ninja with a Dremel tool and I can read so...
The Gun:
Well, you get what you pay for. It was actually nicely outfitted with all the go fast stuff, ambi safeties, beaver-tail grip safety, extended slide release,
obnoxiously large mag release and trigger with holes drilled in it (what ever that does). The sights weren't terrible, but the three dots had to go, so I whipped out the black Tremclad for the rear and bright orange engine paint for the front.
Much better.
The grips ware actually really nice. Color not withstanding, they are actually very grippy. I was curious about who manufactured them and discovered they are made by Ergo. I supplemented the lack of checkering with liberal use of skateboard tape (front strap, under trigger guard and along the left side of the frame) and called it a day.
Trigger actually wasn't too bad. Will need lots of dry fire with it. Safety activation was positive and it passed all the standard function/safety checks one does with a 1911. I didn't detail strip it, as I was curious how well it would shoot as is.
Finish was actually not bad for an inexpensive gun. Unfortunately there are sharp corners everywhere. I'll probably eventually take care of that, but it's good enough for now. I immediately cut down the extended slide release as I knew my freakishly long thumb would activate it under recoil. My trusty Dremel and some cold blue took care of it.
I checked the extractor tension per standard methods and it seemed fine. I held the case nice and tight and passed the standard "shake" tests, even though the actual extractor hook was horrid.
I also noticed a problem. Something wrong here (bonus points if you can spot it):
The Wilson mags didn't clear the ejector so I took care of that as well.
(like I said, Dremel Ninja)
Time for the range. I only had three mags; one Wilson ETM and two Norc factory. The factory mags were really rough, lots of issues loading them. I could work on them but I have some new Metalform mags coming so I'll probably just bin them instead of wasting my time. Interestingly, they worked fine once in the gun.
At the range, I put it through it's paces. It was acceptably accurate, recoil was negligible and I was getting used to the slim grips. It shot high and to the left for me. I'm confident enough in my shooting to know that it wasn't me, and it was confirmed by two other very competent shooters. I'll have to bench it on my next trip to baseline it and then drift the rear sight and perhaps file down the rear. Norc sights use non-standard dovetails, so unless I want to drop more coin on this pig, it's up to me to fix it.
So things went well for the first 100 rounds. The gun fed and fired everything reliably. I was starting to like the NP29. So I decided to put it through the 10-8/Hackathorn extractor test. Things went well for the first 6 rounds.
Then the wheels fell off.
Instead of ejecting between 2 and 5 o'clock, I had rounds hitting me in the head, dropping back down through the mag well and getting caught by the slide. Didn't matter if it was a two handed grip or SHO, It had unpredictable ejection. So I field stripped the extractor and did a little judicious bending. Popped it back in and tried again, no luck, same issues after about 5 rounds. (See above photos for the issue...)
I continued with my testing and the gun ran fairly well with the mags in it. I had two failures to fully eject at about the 250 round mark. Clearly the extractor has to be dealt with. I'm not interested in messing around with the factory one. It's garbage and I'm not confident enough in Norinco's ability to produce a quality small part as important as the extractor. I'll order an Aftec, and hopefully that will solve the problem.
Feeding seemed consistent, notice the skid marks on the frame and barrel.
The gun doesn't seem to be mag sensitive (hopefully) and I'm hopeful that this doesn't become a problem once a proper extractor is put in the gun.
I've also replaced the recoil spring with a Wilson Flat Wire spring. Again, I'm not confident in Norinco's ability to product quality small parts and the recoil spring is vitally important on a full size 9mm 1911. On advice of a Wilson Tech I clipped two coils.
I ground the flat for better contact on the guide rod face and will order a new plug to replace the factory FLG and FLG plug.
One more problem to report. The barrel link pin likes to walk out.
So I took care of that with some light staking.
Further testing: Once I'm confident that I have the extractor and recoil spring working properly I intend to put the Norc through a 2000 round challenge with no additional lube or cleaning to see how it performs with a few minor upgrades. I'll be running a variety of timed drills to see If I get any better performance with a 1911 than my Glock. More to come.
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