NP34 Review

[fleabaggins]

So, after months of delay, I finally got to the range to try out my NP34.

I purchased this gun last year from Marstar. As a side note, I have to say they were fabulous to deal with - I phoned them, they had an NP34 in stock, I bought it. Very simple and straight forward.

I purchased 3 extra mags, as the gun only comes with one. Another side note - I noticed that the mag that came with the gun had the same serial number as the pistol. The other three mags also had serial numbers (all different). I am guessing Norinco probably produces 2 serial numbered mags with each gun, but ships only one, and sells the mags separately. Great way to make extra money.

But I digress.....

Upon receiving the pistol, I stripped, cleaned and oiled it, as well as cleaning the mags. Stripping it was straighforward, exactly like a Sig.

I took the pistol to the range along with a box of 115gr and a box of 124gr ammo, both of which were FMJ. I fired the 115gr first and the pistol functioned flawlessly. I had the same result with the 124gr, until the last mag.

On the last mag, as I slammed the full mag home, the slide (which had been locked to the rear) released itself and went into battery. When I pulled the trigger, I found that the slide had not picked up a round. I performed a "tap-rack",and ended up with a jam - the unfired round was sticking primer end up, partway out of the ejection port. The second round in the mag, was also primer end up, and had jammed the slide. I unloaded the gun and made it safe. Upon examining the mag, I observed that all the rounds had been forced nose down into the mag, and all had the primer end pointing up.

I had identified this as an issue with all 4 mags when I first got the pistol. I had been loading and unloading the mags (with bullet weights from 115 gr to 147gr, FMJ and HP) and found that every so often, with all 4 mags, the noses of the rounds would tip down into the mag, and cause a mag jam.

I think this occurred because the slide went into battery prematurely. Has anyone else experienced this with the NP34 or Norinco "Sig" line of pistols/mags?

I have not had a chance to fire the pistol again, or to run HP ammo through it. I do believe this stoppage was a "one-off", but time will tell.

The sights shot true to aim, although I was only shooting from 20' to 40'.

Overall, I am very happy with this pistol. I will update this after my next trip to the range.

 

[gunzik]

Norinco used to ship the pistol with two mags. Many dealers would take the second mag out and sell it separately. This happens regardless of the make of pistol.

My NP34 was a flawless shooter with SIG P229 or SIG P228 mags. Never an issue. It came with two mags in the case, but I bought it used.

If your ammunition flops around inside the mag, I'd imagine you could either return them as defective / spring too weak and buy a couple of SIG mags, or you could spend more of your own money and order some replacement springs from Wolff (gunsprings dot com) and swap them out and probably be done with your troubles. It sounds like all the springs are too soft, hopefully it's not an issue with the mag follower. Very hard to tell from here but that definitely doesn't happen with my mags.

One thing that might help is once you've loaded the mag, give it a couple of whacks on a forgiving surface, on the primer side, to "seat" all the bullets. This will help, though it's only a Bandaid if the springs are weak. Recoil could still tip them.

Start out with fewer bullets -- say 5 -- and see how they feed. I typically only fire 5 rounds per string at the range anyway, if it's a good string, I look better. If it's a bad one, I've only wasted 5 rounds.

Just my 2 cents. But if you buy one new SIG factory P229 magazine, you'll be able to swap the spring out once you establish how well that mag works. Then maybe you'll want to send all 4 back, and you should experience excellent customer service.

 

[fleabaggins]

Springs

Thanks for the tip. I am looking inot getting the Wolff springs. Overall, I think that would be simpler than returning the mags or springs, and so on. Will let you know how it works out!