The Norinco M334 in detail. A bizarre Mauser variant! Now with range report.

I had one in hand today, any used, sporterized mauser is a better buy IMHO.

Horrible machining, fit and finish, not worth $500 plus tax
 
Yeah, I've seen some decent Chinese stuff and some not so decent Chinese stuff, these fall under the latter.
I remember a guy on here blew up a JW105 on the first shot, those have pinned barrels, and the pin had been drilled through the bottom of the chamber which let go on the first shot.
Then those scrubbed together Chinese SKS with pinned barrels from Lever arms, the barrels were literally flying off those guns.
I wouldn't trust Chinese steel and manufacturing for a pinned barrel rifle.
 
There was also a Norinco copy of the Winchester pre-64 model 70, but not sure any made it to Canada.
 
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I got one from Tenda two weeks ago. Seems to be fine, albeit rough around the edges (and everywhere else). Seems to shoot fine, had 2 boxes of PMC through it no issues. Stock is barely finished, def a candidate for refinish. I took it completely apart except for the trigger group and it isn't terrible, save for the bolt which was chromed before final polishing. Bolt parts are solid good metal. Seems like they missed the polishing step after filing it to shape. The action and barrel are not blued, it's more of a cerakote, or heavy-duty flat black paint? It doesn't scratch easily and I tried chipping it off under the action to test and it is pretty strong. Overall it's okay for something to bring into the bush to shoot and not be afraid to bang up. Hearing these stories of them blowing up is concerning though, I like my face and fingers as they are! I will continue to inspect it after every outing.
 
For 375 dollars more you can buy a Tikka which is made with premium materials and has a 3 shot moa guarantee. Of for like 180 dollars more a savage. Anyone who thinks they aren’t over paying for a chu wood bbq painted garbage rod is out to lunch.
 
inawoods90 said:
I got one from Tenda two weeks ago. Seems to be fine, albeit rough around the edges (and everywhere else). Seems to shoot fine, had 2 boxes of PMC through it no issues. Stock is barely finished, def a candidate for refinish. I took it completely apart except for the trigger group and it isn't terrible, save for the bolt which was chromed before final polishing. Bolt parts are solid good metal. Seems like they missed the polishing step after filing it to shape. The action and barrel are not blued, it's more of a cerakote, or heavy-duty flat black paint? It doesn't scratch easily and I tried chipping it off under the action to test and it is pretty strong. Overall it's okay for something to bring into the bush to shoot and not be afraid to bang up. Hearing these stories of them blowing up is concerning though, I like my face and fingers as they are! I will continue to inspect it after every outing.
Click to expand...

Its likely a phosphate finish. Highly resistant to scratching but doesn't give a whole lot of corrosion resistance.
 
So I got one these wish.com Mauser M334. The Weaver bases I ended up using are a #75 for the front and a #48 for rear. Heavy modification was required. The front was easy. The 75 base is the same hole spacing as the 46 you would typically use for Mauser 98 but it's already 8/40 screws. The fit is not perfect but it's pretty darn close. Didn't have to drill receiver for 8/40 because the hole size was ready perfect. All that needed to be done was take an 8/40 tap to it. The rear was much harder because the height of the rear is not correct for an FN style Mauser 98 so 46 front base and a 55 or 45 rear Weaver bases do not work. The rear is also kind of weird in the sense that the top of the receiver is flat while the sides are rounded so nothing fits well. So I took a #48 and machined it flat. I suppose you could do the same with a 55 or 45 but my measurements showed the 48 is closest to matching the height of the 75 once machined flat. After machining it flat I measured the difference in height from the front and rear then took an additional 0.2 off the #48 and it was pretty good. Additionally, I could of gone the route of shimming the front base.

With elevation being great on the scope, next issue was windage. The front and rear threads are not inline with each other. You will either need windage adjustable rings which Weaver makes or you will need a scope with a lot of windage adjustment. Cheap scopes typically have way more windage adjustment than expensive ones. A Khales I was testing the mount with did not have enough windage adjustment but a Vortex Crossfire II 3-9x40 had tones of adjustment with plenty left over. This was without windage adjustable rings. I likely could of made the Khales work if I used windage adjustable rings but a Vortex Crossfire II is more in the price category someone would mount on this pile of ####.

Conclusion, it would be significantly easier for someone to just mount a red dot sight to this than a scope. All you would need is to modify the front or rear threads, whichever one you want, to 8/40 and then drill the base to open it up to accept the 8/40 screws or just use a #75 that already comes with 8/40 screws and your good to go. Mounting a scope on this was not a simple task. It was fun trying to get it figured out but definitely not a task for most people. I suppose if you knew a machinest, you could bring them a 48 base and ask them to machine it flat. I also suppose if you couldn't get the base heights perfect, you could make up for that with a set of Burris signature Zee rings with the MOA inserts.

Final thoughts, I did a headspace check on the rifle I got and it closed on a no-go gauge but it didn't close on a field gauge which indicates it's safe to shoot but the headspace is on the long side and brass, if you're reloading for the rifle, will not last long. For those looking at buying this rifle, be prepared that you will likely use it as an iron sights only rifle. The iron sights is likely what's going to attract people to the rifle in the first place. What really annoys me about the whole thing is the gun is advertised drilled and tapped for scope based but it seems for bases that do not exist. If the thing is so proprietary, then it should of been included. If I get around to shooting it, I'll update how well the live fire sight in went and if the gun is decently accurate. I do have buyers remorse because the gun is definitely not worth its current sticker price. I'm not even sure if it's worth $199.99. I'm not going to do the work for people to modify their guns for scope bases. The amount of hours It took to make it right would cost way too much to be economical for this cheap gun making a better reason to just buy a Savage Axis if you wanted a scope. If you want a project for yourself or you dream of becoming a gunsmith, this would be a excellent rifle to mess around with to practice on. There is no recoil pad so you could practice installing a grind to fit recoil pad. There is no checkering so you could try hand cut checkering for yourself. The action definitely should be bedded so there is that to practice as well. The metal finish is pretty bad. You could practice stripping the old finish and rebluing or cerakote. Heck you could even practice threading the barrel for a muzzlebrake if you successfully mounted a scope to it and feel you can toss the sights. Hope this brings useful insight and perhaps prevents some people from buying something that's just going to cause them a headache.
 
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Thanks. I was waiting impatiently for you to get one and do a review. lol. How about the bolt closing? Did the stock interfere with the bolt closing fully?

When I d&t'd mine, I used a jig which would have straightened out the alignment if it was out a bit but I didn't notice mine being out of line. Sounds like just another poor/inconsistent build quality issue with these. The fact these are advertised as d&t'd but zero mention of it using metric screws and odd bases is pretty dirty of retailers really. Not false advertising but misleading for sure. I tried to warn people in 2 different threads but of course not everyone will have read that and I bet there will be lots of disappointed buyers.
 
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