When Ellwood Epp's had their $406 sale a couple of weeks back I decided what the hell and bought another Norinco M305 shorty. I hadn't really thought through what I wanted to do with it, I already have four other various M305/M14S' in the safe, but I hoped that inspiration would show up before the mail did.
Today I picked it up at the post office and I still have no idea what to do with it. So, I've decided to take pictures of the unboxing and inspection process, for the benefit of anyone curious. This particular rifle shouldn't really be taken as representative of the rest of the current crop, Norinco QA is far too variable for that sort of generalization, but it might be an interesting data point nonetheless.
Opening the box we're greeted with the typical Norinco factory packaging: lots of cardboard, crumbling styrofoam, and gobs of oil.
The instruction manual inspires the usual confidence
It came with all the standard kit: sling, pinned 5/20-mag, 5-round mag, and buttstock cleaning kit and tools.
The oil makes the finish seem darker than it really is, and it's kind of hard to see in the photo, but there are some areas that are definitely lighter than others. The flash hider has full-cut grooves and actually rings a little out of the box. Notice that gas lock? Yeah, more on that later.
The side-stamped markings seem to indicate 2014 for the import year, but the format is a little different than others I've seen. The heel of the receiver sits tight and flush to the stock. The stock is featureless smooth black plastic with no checkering or grip stippling of any kind, pretty much typical of every other plastic Norc stock I've seen.
The first disappointment. Typical of so many Norcs, the barrel isn't properly indexed. This one is under-indexed though, so a bit of tightening is all that's needed.
The barrel does protrude slightly past the receiver collar, but it's hard to say how much (my thumbnails aren't very long). The ubiquitous barrel set screw can be seen under the op-rod.
No sign of any welding anywhere on the receiver. 'Nuff said.
Some of the smaller parts are finished much more darkly than the larger pieces, possibly indicating more recent manufacture than the larger bits. Portions of the rear sight and the entire trigger group also had this near-black finish. The flash hider is welded on, as you can see from the patch of slight discolouration on the bottom of it.
With the bolt pulled partially to the rear, the bolt-roller is still nearly fully encased in the op-rod groove. There was open clearance under the roller when the bolt was closed as well, and there was no contact between the op-rod and the stripper-clip guide or rear upper receiver.
The hammer with the trigger held fully to the rear, and then with the trigger released. It looks like there's not much contact between the hammer hooks and the sear in the second picture, but that's my fault. I can't seem to hold a partially-released trigger and a camera steady at the same time without letting something slip too far; I repeatedly verified that there's actually full contact with the upper set at the moment the bottom set releases, I just couldn't seem to get a proper in-focus picture of it.
The trigger pull itself was actually pretty good; smooth first stage and only a very slightly creepy second. The safety was stiff, but I had no trouble working it back and forth with my trigger finger. All in all, I'd give the trigger pull a solid B+.
No visible oddities in the mag well and the stock liner is straight and solidly screwed in.
The second disappointment. Although a misaligned op-rod is not unusual with an out-of-index barrel, if you'll notice the direction the op-rod is off in it's the opposite of where it should be pointing for an under-indexed rifle. It almost looks bent...
Yep, bent. Surprisingly, it passes the tilt test beautifully and doesn't seem to be binding in the op-rod guide at all - maybe that's bent too, lol. The op-rod guide seems solidly in place, but it's hard to say how solidly without putting a few rounds through it and checking it again.
The bolt seems to have good contact on both lugs. When I put rearward pressure on the bolt I couldn't fit my smallest feeler gauge between either set of lugs, but I didn't mark the surfaces and work them to look for wear yet. Absolutely no sign of rough or hastily-ground lug surfaces.
Firing pin protrusion was just shy of 0.051 inches.
The stripped bolt closed easily on a .308 1.634 no-go gauge...
...but was nowhere close to closing on a 7.62x51 NATO 1.6455 field gauge. If I had to ballpark a guess, I'd say it was probably around 1.640 or so.
I don't know if this is actually a useful test of anything, but this is the extent of the bolt-lift before the firing pin (held firmly forward with my thumb) makes contact with the safety bridge. The gap measured just over 0.162 inches.
The gas lock didn't seem to be fully tightened out of the box. I pulled the plug out and was able to tighten it nearly another full turn before it reached hand-tight at about 4:30 or so. The extra-tall front sight post can be seen here, extending just above the protective ears (annoying, I like to replace the front sight on shorties because this always bugs me).
A bit of an oddity here. With the gas lock hand tight there's still a gap between it and the gas cylinder. The gap doesn't extend all the way around, just from about 10:00 to 2:00. To my eye it looks like the top of the cylinder itself was actually machined a little too far inward. I don't know if this could actually leak gas if the rest of the lock is tight on the cylinder.
The rear sight seems surprisingly functional and clicks and moves properly. It's hard to say whether it's really up to snuff without seeing if it will hold zero under recoil, and continue to function long-term, but it's the nicest factory-Norc rear sight I've seen yet. The adjustment knobs, aperture piece, and spring cover are all that near-black finish that I'm theorizing indicate newer-manufacture parts, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Closing Thoughts:
This is easily the worst example of a Norinco M305/M14S I've personally seen. It combines some typically-expected flaws (poorly-indexed barrel, overly-generous headspace) with some I haven't seen before (bent op-rod, gas lock/cylinder gap) into a really sub-par package. On the other hand the rear sight seems to be the most functional Norc example I've seen so far (assuming it holds zero and continues to work) and the trigger is one of the nicest out-of-the-box Norc jobbies I've handled. Despite being bent, the op-rod slides freely and easily performs the tilt test. It may be the worst M305 I've seen yet, but the rifle still seems like it would probably be able to chew through cheap surplus ammo all day just fine - a testament more to the robustness of the design than the efforts of whatever remedial shop class actually built it, I'm guessing
If I were to keep it, I'd certainly replace the op-rod and gas cylinder (as well as the op-rod spring guide and the front sight). Contrary to my usual default upgrade list, I'd also leave the rear sight in place for a while and see how it performs - it would be nice to see if Norinco is finally figuring those out.
If I decide to get rid of it I'll probably part-out the good bits (and some of them seem very good) or turn it into a project build for a friend. I couldn't, in good conscience, sell this rifle as-is on the EE though, unless I was 100% sure the person buying it understood the problems with it - and anybody who understood it probably wouldn't want it, lol. It hadn't actually occurred to me until I was typing this that I could probably send it back to Epp's for a replacement, but it's only a $400 gun and it seems like less hassle to just source a new op-rod and gas cylinder and re-index the barrel. Projects are more fun anyway.
There are a few things I haven't tested yet, like the gas port alignment, flash-hider alignment, and bolt/receiver hardness - and probably a few other things I haven't thought of tonight. If anyone wants me to check something specific or take some more pictures of anything, I'll be happy to try and oblige. For now, it's already past my bedtime. If any of our in-house experts spot something I've missed, please chime in (especially if I've missed something potentially dangerous). In the meantime, I've got to try to think of a reason to keep yet another project in the safe...maybe it's time for a full-on mall-ninja tacticool build, hehehe...
Cheers.
Today I picked it up at the post office and I still have no idea what to do with it. So, I've decided to take pictures of the unboxing and inspection process, for the benefit of anyone curious. This particular rifle shouldn't really be taken as representative of the rest of the current crop, Norinco QA is far too variable for that sort of generalization, but it might be an interesting data point nonetheless.
Opening the box we're greeted with the typical Norinco factory packaging: lots of cardboard, crumbling styrofoam, and gobs of oil.
The instruction manual inspires the usual confidence
It came with all the standard kit: sling, pinned 5/20-mag, 5-round mag, and buttstock cleaning kit and tools.
The oil makes the finish seem darker than it really is, and it's kind of hard to see in the photo, but there are some areas that are definitely lighter than others. The flash hider has full-cut grooves and actually rings a little out of the box. Notice that gas lock? Yeah, more on that later.
The side-stamped markings seem to indicate 2014 for the import year, but the format is a little different than others I've seen. The heel of the receiver sits tight and flush to the stock. The stock is featureless smooth black plastic with no checkering or grip stippling of any kind, pretty much typical of every other plastic Norc stock I've seen.
The first disappointment. Typical of so many Norcs, the barrel isn't properly indexed. This one is under-indexed though, so a bit of tightening is all that's needed.
The barrel does protrude slightly past the receiver collar, but it's hard to say how much (my thumbnails aren't very long). The ubiquitous barrel set screw can be seen under the op-rod.
No sign of any welding anywhere on the receiver. 'Nuff said.
Some of the smaller parts are finished much more darkly than the larger pieces, possibly indicating more recent manufacture than the larger bits. Portions of the rear sight and the entire trigger group also had this near-black finish. The flash hider is welded on, as you can see from the patch of slight discolouration on the bottom of it.
With the bolt pulled partially to the rear, the bolt-roller is still nearly fully encased in the op-rod groove. There was open clearance under the roller when the bolt was closed as well, and there was no contact between the op-rod and the stripper-clip guide or rear upper receiver.
The hammer with the trigger held fully to the rear, and then with the trigger released. It looks like there's not much contact between the hammer hooks and the sear in the second picture, but that's my fault. I can't seem to hold a partially-released trigger and a camera steady at the same time without letting something slip too far; I repeatedly verified that there's actually full contact with the upper set at the moment the bottom set releases, I just couldn't seem to get a proper in-focus picture of it.
The trigger pull itself was actually pretty good; smooth first stage and only a very slightly creepy second. The safety was stiff, but I had no trouble working it back and forth with my trigger finger. All in all, I'd give the trigger pull a solid B+.
No visible oddities in the mag well and the stock liner is straight and solidly screwed in.
The second disappointment. Although a misaligned op-rod is not unusual with an out-of-index barrel, if you'll notice the direction the op-rod is off in it's the opposite of where it should be pointing for an under-indexed rifle. It almost looks bent...
Yep, bent. Surprisingly, it passes the tilt test beautifully and doesn't seem to be binding in the op-rod guide at all - maybe that's bent too, lol. The op-rod guide seems solidly in place, but it's hard to say how solidly without putting a few rounds through it and checking it again.
The bolt seems to have good contact on both lugs. When I put rearward pressure on the bolt I couldn't fit my smallest feeler gauge between either set of lugs, but I didn't mark the surfaces and work them to look for wear yet. Absolutely no sign of rough or hastily-ground lug surfaces.
Firing pin protrusion was just shy of 0.051 inches.
The stripped bolt closed easily on a .308 1.634 no-go gauge...
...but was nowhere close to closing on a 7.62x51 NATO 1.6455 field gauge. If I had to ballpark a guess, I'd say it was probably around 1.640 or so.
I don't know if this is actually a useful test of anything, but this is the extent of the bolt-lift before the firing pin (held firmly forward with my thumb) makes contact with the safety bridge. The gap measured just over 0.162 inches.
The gas lock didn't seem to be fully tightened out of the box. I pulled the plug out and was able to tighten it nearly another full turn before it reached hand-tight at about 4:30 or so. The extra-tall front sight post can be seen here, extending just above the protective ears (annoying, I like to replace the front sight on shorties because this always bugs me).
A bit of an oddity here. With the gas lock hand tight there's still a gap between it and the gas cylinder. The gap doesn't extend all the way around, just from about 10:00 to 2:00. To my eye it looks like the top of the cylinder itself was actually machined a little too far inward. I don't know if this could actually leak gas if the rest of the lock is tight on the cylinder.
The rear sight seems surprisingly functional and clicks and moves properly. It's hard to say whether it's really up to snuff without seeing if it will hold zero under recoil, and continue to function long-term, but it's the nicest factory-Norc rear sight I've seen yet. The adjustment knobs, aperture piece, and spring cover are all that near-black finish that I'm theorizing indicate newer-manufacture parts, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Closing Thoughts:
This is easily the worst example of a Norinco M305/M14S I've personally seen. It combines some typically-expected flaws (poorly-indexed barrel, overly-generous headspace) with some I haven't seen before (bent op-rod, gas lock/cylinder gap) into a really sub-par package. On the other hand the rear sight seems to be the most functional Norc example I've seen so far (assuming it holds zero and continues to work) and the trigger is one of the nicest out-of-the-box Norc jobbies I've handled. Despite being bent, the op-rod slides freely and easily performs the tilt test. It may be the worst M305 I've seen yet, but the rifle still seems like it would probably be able to chew through cheap surplus ammo all day just fine - a testament more to the robustness of the design than the efforts of whatever remedial shop class actually built it, I'm guessing
If I were to keep it, I'd certainly replace the op-rod and gas cylinder (as well as the op-rod spring guide and the front sight). Contrary to my usual default upgrade list, I'd also leave the rear sight in place for a while and see how it performs - it would be nice to see if Norinco is finally figuring those out.
If I decide to get rid of it I'll probably part-out the good bits (and some of them seem very good) or turn it into a project build for a friend. I couldn't, in good conscience, sell this rifle as-is on the EE though, unless I was 100% sure the person buying it understood the problems with it - and anybody who understood it probably wouldn't want it, lol. It hadn't actually occurred to me until I was typing this that I could probably send it back to Epp's for a replacement, but it's only a $400 gun and it seems like less hassle to just source a new op-rod and gas cylinder and re-index the barrel. Projects are more fun anyway.
There are a few things I haven't tested yet, like the gas port alignment, flash-hider alignment, and bolt/receiver hardness - and probably a few other things I haven't thought of tonight. If anyone wants me to check something specific or take some more pictures of anything, I'll be happy to try and oblige. For now, it's already past my bedtime. If any of our in-house experts spot something I've missed, please chime in (especially if I've missed something potentially dangerous). In the meantime, I've got to try to think of a reason to keep yet another project in the safe...maybe it's time for a full-on mall-ninja tacticool build, hehehe...
Cheers.
