Where have all the Norincos gone?

ghostie

ghostie

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I was at Lever Arms yesterday (Mar. 16) and noticed that all the Norcs seem to be gone. The only Norc pistol I noticed was that Chinese military pistol, the CF98 (which looks really interesting by the way, the picture on their website doesn't do it justice at all). The cabinet where the Norcs used to be now has a bunch of accessories and junk in it. The CF98s are now over in the cabinet to the left of the revolvers, the one where the SKS parts and accessories were.

The cabinet where the surplus Berettas were (by the till) now has some swords in it :)confused: ) and the Berettas are over with the CF98s.

They still have two of the Norc AR-15s, and maybe a shotgun or two, but the SKS's and M-14's are all long gone, etc., etc.

Every time I go to the Marstar website, more and more of the Norc products seem to be out of stock. There seem to be a lot of us (including my girlfriend and I) that are looking for an NP-29. When??

Is the Norc plant on strike or something? :confused: Has the supply of cheap Chinese labour dried up or something?

When will the Norcs return? Anybody know anything about this? Are we agreed that the supply of new guns seems to have gotten pretty thin?
 
They come into the country, and then people buy them, and then there are none left, and then people looking for Norinco's wait, and then another shipment arrives and the process starts again......:runaway:
 
ghostie said:
I was at Lever Arms yesterday (Mar. 16) and noticed that all the Norcs seem to be gone.
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I dropped in at Lever Arms a few weeks back when I went over to Vancouver for the Van Morrison concert. Can't believe how dismal Lever is every time I drop on there. Being circling the bowl ever since old man Lever sold it to the new ownership, I'm afraid.

However, when I was there they did have one of the new Norc commander .45's on display. Must've sold it.

I was just over on this past Thursday and drove right by Levers. I doubt if my next trip to Van will include a visit to Lever either. Just too depressing.... :(
 
--Terry-- said:
Have you called Marstar and asked them how soon the new stock will come in?

I saw a man selling a brand new NP-29 in the 3/10 HACS Gun Show in Chilliwack. He asked for $400.
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I haven't called. Somebody (was it you Terry?) was telling me they were getting some in March. So far nothing.

Ah.. geez... I knew I should have gone to that HACS show... going to the hunting show at TRADEX was kind of a waste of time... for shooting stuff anyway.

NAA said:
Can't believe how dismal Lever is every time I drop on there. Being circling the bowl ever since old man Lever sold it to the new ownership, I'm afraid.
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Yah, it sure seems like a lot of stock just sits and sits in there for a long damn time before someone actually buys it. The only stuff that really moves is the cheap stuff... the Norincos and the surplus stuff. I can think of quite a few new items that have been sitting in the show cases for at least a year now. The prices are just too high. If everyone knows you can get the same thing somewhere else for $100-200 less, it makes it real hard to buy anything there. I have found that you can work them down on prices, but it feels too much like work... just to get them to where everyone else is. I kind of like the guys over there though. Not as much as the Reliable guys, but the Lever guys are personable too.

I really hope they hang in there though. In the city of Vancouver proper it is just them, Reliable and Italian for gun shops.

Updating their website once in a blue moon would be a start in bringing the place back to life. So would ordering some more stock in and pricing it competitively.
 
ghostie said:
I really hope they hang in there though. In the city of Vancouver proper it is just them, Reliable and Italian for gun shops.

Updating their website once in a blue moon would be a start in bringing the place back to life. So would ordering some more stock in and pricing it competitively.
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Sometimes I wonder if the 'new' owner of Lever Arms just keeps it running not so much because he's interested in running a 'successful' gun business so much as he's just interested in keeping a business with doors open for other [tax write-off] reasons. Like, why not put some money in the place....

Geez, Lever Arms pales in comparison to a place like P&D [sponsor on the site here]. Frankly, these days I'd sooner give my $$ to a CGN site sponsor than some hole in wall in Vancouver...
 
ghostie said:
I haven't called. Somebody (was it you Terry?) was telling me they were getting some in March. So far nothing.

Ah.. geez... I knew I should have gone to that HACS show... going to the hunting show at TRADEX was kind of a waste of time... for shooting stuff anyway.
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Don't regret. That show was not very good, either. And that NP-29 was one of the earlier products, and it was quite rough. For Norinco guns, newer is always better.

I think you should give Marstar a call. They will usually tell you when the shipment will come in and when it will be available for sale.
 
ghostie said:
Has the supply of cheap Chinese labour dried up or something?
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Maybe they killed the last bunch of workers off for body parts and they are waiting on more Fallon Gong members to start up production again? :eek:

But seriously... it does seem to be a dry season for Chinese weaponry.
 
Lots of CGN members have been taking my advice with the NP29's ....

Don't buy ONE, buy TWO of them. :)

The NP29 is by far the best deal for the money from the Kommunist Kollection. Well, the M14 is a close second. I say the close second because MOST if not ALL the single stack M1911 parts WILL fit in the NP29. Same cannot be said for the USGI M14 parts which are rapidly becoming very expensive and scarce. At least with 1911 parts, it's a fantastic opportunity to tweak your NP29 into YOUR very OWN pistol.

Doing the same for an M14 is very costly and you will never recover your money... or most of it anyways.

Cheers,
Barney
 
Hungry said:
Lots of CGN members have been taking my advice with the NP29's ....

Don't buy ONE, buy TWO of them. :)

The NP29 is by far the best deal for the money from the Kommunist Kollection. Well, the M14 is a close second. I say the close second because MOST if not ALL the single stack M1911 parts WILL fit in the NP29. Same cannot be said for the USGI M14 parts which are rapidly becoming very expensive and scarce. At least with 1911 parts, it's a fantastic opportunity to tweak your NP29 into YOUR very OWN pistol.

Doing the same for an M14 is very costly and you will never recover your money... or most of it anyways.

Cheers,
Barney
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True but lots of people do it anyways. Its no different from car hobby. Pick up a car modify the heck out of it and then sell it for half of what you put in it. Still fun..:)
 
I was back at Lever on March 20 and there were a few more Norcs out:

What they have:

NP-22 (Sig 226)
Tokarev (with interchangable barrels)
CF-98 (Chinese Military pistol)

All the 1911's, Woodsman, etc. are sold out.

In rifles, they seem to have 4 AR-15 copies, one of which is denoted (I think) as a "dash 1" (M311-1) the one with the short fat barrel that is quite weird looking. I wish I could find a picture of this thing for you.

They also have a trench gun, a JW and some other stuff I have no interest in. SKS's are gone. the only M-14 seems to be the owners custom job which is on display.

Over at Marstar... some of the guns that are out of stock:

NP-22 (226)
NP-34 (228)
NP-30 (high cap 1911 .45)
NP-29 (single stack 1911 9mm)

To their credit, Marstar seems to have the rest of the Norc handguns they list in stock.

Still... Norc! Make more NP-29's!!
 
pitdogboy said:
Don't support Lever Arms
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I'm on that... place has been circling the bowl ever since old man Lever sold it off... my last visit in the past month salted it for me... not even going to grace it with a visit next time I'm over in "The Big City".... :runaway:
 
I went to Lever today to pick up a case of .45 auto and the guy told me they didnt have any. I was fairly suprised and let it be known. The guy told me to hang on and went into the back room. He soon came out with another guy who told me they had one case of 500 left and it was priced at $210. I didnt mind too much (I needed the ammo for the weekend), so i bought it only to come home later and see on thier website that the acctual price for the 500 case is $175. Hmmm, last time I go there I think. I liek Reliable better anyways.

But back on topic, I did converse with the guy about Norinco Rem. 870 copies, and he told me the owner was going to be bringing in a new shipment of Norinco fairly soon, however what was going to be included in the shipment would be limited.
 
Shane, Paul and the rest of the Family are excellent people that know how to run a business...It's like the 'Cheers' of gunstores...everyone knows your name.

They always have the ammo I need and are happy to do a volume deal.


Don't give your hard earned bucks to the bozos at lever...
 
While I won't say that Lever is on par with Reliable, they have been decent to me and I have no complaints, I would say there customer service has improved over the years.
 
Norinco NP-29 [1911] 9mm...

Hungry said:
Lots of CGN members have been taking my advice with the NP29's ....

Don't buy ONE, buy TWO of them. :)

The NP29 is by far the best deal for the money from the Kommunist Kollection. Well, the M14 is a close second. I say the close second because MOST if not ALL the single stack M1911 parts WILL fit in the NP29. Same cannot be said for the USGI M14 parts which are rapidly becoming very expensive and scarce. At least with 1911 parts, it's a fantastic opportunity to tweak your NP29 into YOUR very OWN pistol.

Cheers,
Barney
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Well fellow CGN'ers... ole Barney is right on the money... shot my "new to me" NP-29 today for the first time... man was I impressed! That little pussy 9mm round is a tack driver off the 1911 platform...

So, yeah I will be looking to get a second & possibly a third [want to do a Hitzy and convert one to .38 ACP/Super] when the slow boat from China gets here with the next shipment. :cool:

2007-01-26_092716_zNorc9mm1a.jpg
 
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