Norinco Olympia 22 Pistol

Ganderite

Ganderite

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Location
Farm south of North Bay
I have a Norc "Woodsman" and it shoots well. A nice plinker. For serious 22 shooting I use my Ruger Mk 1

For $245 this Olympia Norc looked interesting. It is a clone of a real 22 target pistol.

It arrived in the factory box, with each piece sealer in plastic. I squirted everything with some G96 to wash away the used crankcase oil Norcs are shipped with and fired a few rounds to see if it worked.

The stnd velocity Federal Champion ran the action just fine. Seems the mags only hold 8 rounds. ???

Trigger is light and crisp. very light.

The sights were about right for me, out of the box. With a small screw driver the rear sight is adjustable for azimuth and the front sight for elevation.

The pistol has some weight to it and the grips fill my big hands perfectly.

I am pleased.

Apparently a Smith M41 mag will fit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCMvWRU9szk


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I am not sure about the wheel weight though, interesting that 41 mags would work, I would think was pure accident
With all the stuff you have , you should have one to try?, I just sold my last one.
 
The muzzle weight fits on a rail and is anchored by 2 screws. Totally optional.
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The pistol takes down like a typical Walther. The trigger guard swings down and the slides goes back and up to remove. easy peasy.

The only mod I need to make is to open up the rear sight notch to suit my old eyes.

Note: The mags did not drop free. It took the grip panels off and used a file to remove some flash around the mag entry, and now they drop.

The pistol has a slide lock on an empty mag.

Without the muzzle weight, it reminds me of a Walther PP.
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It is well-finished and polished, inside and out. Better than my other Norcs.
 
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I have two of them. Liked the first one so much that bought the second one right away.
They feel so good in a hand, and so easy to shoot well.

They are actually a replica of a hunter's variant, not the sport shooting variant. But it makes me like them even more, because they barrel is of reasonable length and the grips are not too large.
 
I know some like lots of weight up front, my joints don't anymore, With a little work would be easy to to mount a laser on it, I you smoothed the front frame it would pass for a PP
I think a fellow should have stock up on these, Hindsight is great, an't it, Colt Pythons fall in there as well.
 
Never thought I would see "Python" in a Norico thread.

The flat rail would be a good place to put a laser. I would just glue it in place. No recoil to deal with.

I tested the pistol with a few rounds,and got 50% misfires. I squirted some Brake Cleaner through the firing pin channel, washing out the Norc crankcase shipping oil.

At the range today I got 100% ignition and function with stand vel ammo. 50 rounds without an issue.

The best cheap 22 pistol I have ever used.
 
I've got 0 (zero, literally) misfires in my 2 Olympias yesterday (shot around 250 rounds total).
However, I had two really bad jams - when a round is half-chambered, and there is almost nothing you can do:
- the round won't move into the chamber or out of it when you try to do it manually
- the magazine can't be taken out because the half-chambered round prevents it

I've managed to clear one of them by sling-shoting the slide many times and gradually moving the round into the chamber. It wasn't easy to do because you have to move the slide not too far back so that it doesn't catch the next round (I've ruined one of the rounds before I've realized that).
I've cleared another one by moving the round out of the chamber back to the magazine with a tool I had in my range bag.
I believe the problems are magazine related - the magazines that come with the guns are matched to a particular gun (there is a serial number of a gun on them), and I'm not sure a magazine from one gun can work reliably in another gun.

There have been some other issues too in the newer gun - many times it wouldn't chamber a second round in a magazine, while chambering all other rounds fine. I believe it needs some break-in, because by the end of my range session it worked fine.

Taking the price into account I'm willing to forgive them those issues. I absolutely love how they feel in hand and how they look, their triggers are good (but not identical! one is better than the other), and they are accurate.
They are awesome guns, a reproduction of a great gun I wouldn't be able to buy otherwise.
They are not my first, second or third 22LR semi-autos, and IMO they are among the best 22LR semi-autos on the market. I haven't shot a 22LR Ruger, but comparing my experience with Olympias and reviews of the Rugers, it looks like quality of Olympia's trigger is only achievable on Rugers with an expensive after-market upgrade.
 
I bought one this winter , just tried it out today . Works great , shot all ammo , even cheap win wildcat. After 200ish rounds the rear sight screw backed out a bit. I tighted up and used blue locktite . Great pistol now to find a couple S&W 41 mags .
 
scriptguru said:
I've got 0 (zero, literally) misfires in my 2 Olympias yesterday (shot around 250 rounds total).
However, I had two really bad jams - when a round is half-chambered, and there is almost nothing you can do:
- the round won't move into the chamber or out of it when you try to do it manually
- the magazine can't be taken out because the half-chambered round prevents it

I've managed to clear one of them by sling-shoting the slide many times and gradually moving the round into the chamber. It wasn't easy to do because you have to move the slide not too far back so that it doesn't catch the next round (I've ruined one of the rounds before I've realized that).
I've cleared another one by moving the round out of the chamber back to the magazine with a tool I had in my range bag.
I believe the problems are magazine related - the magazines that come with the guns are matched to a particular gun (there is a serial number of a gun on them), and I'm not sure a magazine from one gun can work reliably in another gun.

There have been some other issues too in the newer gun - many times it wouldn't chamber a second round in a magazine, while chambering all other rounds fine. I believe it needs some break-in, because by the end of my range session it worked fine.

Taking the price into account I'm willing to forgive them those issues. I absolutely love how they feel in hand and how they look, their triggers are good (but not identical! one is better than the other), and they are accurate.
They are awesome guns, a reproduction of a great gun I wouldn't be able to buy otherwise.
They are not my first, second or third 22LR semi-autos, and IMO they are among the best 22LR semi-autos on the market. I haven't shot a 22LR Ruger, but comparing my experience with Olympias and reviews of the Rugers, it looks like quality of Olympia's trigger is only achievable on Rugers with an expensive after-market upgrade.
Click to expand...

VQ sear is like $35 and all that is required for a nice light MK series trigger pull.
 
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