Traded for a "Norinco"(?) 1911

[doc540]

serial #508xxx

"pre-ban"?

Funky grips but seems to be a decent 1911.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/doc540/Guns/008-1.jpg

please tell me it's worth $300-$400 cuz I'm dumping it pronto :cool:

[Bawanna]

serial #508xxx

"pre-ban"?

Funky grips but seems to be a decent 1911.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/doc540/Guns/008-1.jpg

please tell me it's worth $300-$400 cuz I'm dumping it pronto :cool:

Why you dumping it? Those grips don't look that Funky to me, I know a guy that has a cure for that if it's an issue.

[doc540]

I't's gonna help finance a 1953 S&W K-22. :o

What's it worth?

I'll put it on gunbroker today.

[Bawanna]

Strange, theres only two on there right now, one doesn't look as good as your and he's going for 500 with no bids. The second has a lot of upgrades and custom work and is at 7 or 750, not a great comparison.

I'll go check my book and see what it has to say.

With few to compare to you might do ok with it.

[Bawanna]

According to my Blue Book it's valued at 525 in 100% condition, 475 at 98% and 45 at 95% 400 at 90%, 350 at 80% which is probably far enough to fit yours. 275 at 60 % so I think your in good shape.

It says they were imported from 1991 to 1995 and the last Suggested retail price was 320 bucks.

Seems like I've seen alot of these used as builders like the second one I saw on gunbroker. Use it as a base and build what ya want kind of thing.

Kind of makes me wish I had 3 or 400 on hand to offer but I don't so good luck with your sale.

You might list it right here in the non Kahr / AO guns for sale area. Post a few more pictures of both sides. If you do go gunbroker, post lots of pictures, seems to help, I've never sold but look there a lot. Pictures are indeed priceless.

Somebody might scoop it up. Zoot shooters, who knows.

Have you shot it? Damn I gotta get this out of my head right now.

[doc540]

Thanks for the info.

Have not shot it, but stripped it and it's like new, clean, and lubed well.

Off to GB it goes!

[Bawanna]

Whats your rock bottom price? I'm cursed.

[doc540]

Whats your rock bottom price? I'm cursed.

pm sent

[Barth]

And I thought I was bad - LOL!
We are all some out of control pups here.

[yqtszhj]

Did you notice it took Mr. B. exactly 4 minutes to go from I don't have the cash to what's your best price?

Sounds just like me. :)

[doc540]

Did you notice it took Mr. B. exactly 4 minutes to go from I don't have the cash to what's your best price?

Sounds just like me. :)

That's about how long it took me to justify posting "I'll Take It" after I saw the K-22 online.

Funny how the mind works, "I can sell this and trade that so it won't really cost me anything!".:o

[Barth]

Did you notice it took Mr. B. exactly 4 minutes to go from I don't have the cash to what's your best price?

Sounds just like me. :)

I'm not sure it takes me four whole minutes to fold like a lawn chair
and suddenly forget every promise and plan I've made?
But yes I see your point

[DeaconKC]

Hey, if he hadn't asked, I would've!

[Bawanna]

My middle name is rob Peter to pay Paul. It's just how I roll! When he added it looked new inside the hook set a little deeper.

I'm looking for Peter now so I can rob him. Bonnie and Clyde didn't have a wish list big as me.

I'd hoped it would go to somebody here, mostly me but better here than gunbroker. Least we could visit from time to time.

Wheres Greg? I need counselling.

[doc540]

just put it on GB

guess we'll see what happens

Thanks for all the good info

[CJB]

The Norinco 1911's were made by King Keng Fu, aka Keng Firearm Specialties, aka King Firearm Specialties, in Communist China.

I was very active in the retail gun trade, doing lots of gunsmithing during the heyday of the Norinco imports.

The 1911s are not bad guns, not great, but not bad. The Achilles heel is the barrel, with good insides, but rather lousy rotten n'er-do-well outsides. The fit on those make the GI 1911's look like Clarke Custom Guns best bullseye guns....

The hammers are soft. The sears are soft. Ok for duty, never get a lasting target trigger. We had a lot of disconnector issues - soft metal there too. Slide stops...

So, if you keep it stock, and use it for "that truck .45" its fine. If you want it to shoot straight, and have a lasting trigger, you'll invest a few hundred into a barrel, and lockwork parts. Add three fifty to it, and you've got a great GI length .45 auto. Not decent, not ok, but GREAT. The frames and slides are sound, the rest is rather... so-so.

As they came - they were reliable shooters, just sloppy and had terrible triggers, so judge the worthiness on that.

If the price was right, I'd own one.

And they all had a sort of "sanded" finish, like most of the Norinco stuff.

And, FWIW, the original Home Depot brand stuff, all had "King Keng Fu, China" on it. I know, cuz I've got one their drill presses that is labeled EXACTLY that way. Norinco was just the marketing arm of the whole affair, with KKF doing the actual forging/casting of the parts and assembly. To the best of my knowledge, a lot of the "Ohio Forge" stuff sold by Home Depot "in the day" was just KKF re-badged to be "Americanized".

I had a Norinco fully machined AK-47 semi auto, folding stock, and it was a thing of near precision, with a terrible finish. Re-did the wood, it looked a lot better. The metal, that sanded finish they had... really cant fix that with homebrew stuff, unless you care to do a total refinish and plate it with GunKote or such.

[jocko]

nice rep[ort CJB. We sold Norinco's back on our gun dealing days and most of whatu said here was just not known back then but to my knowledge we never had any come back either, and again probalby most bought the gun and shoot them very seldom, therefore to them they were Ok guns.

I don't think back 35 years ago people understoodd metalurgy as they do today either. I think many though all guns that looked like 1911"s were the same, which we know today is not true.

Would I rather stick a Norinco 45 in my glove box over a clarke 45, ????U betcha. and have alot of beer money left over to.

[doc540]

stop it

the more I handle it and look at it, the better it seems as a truck gun :o

[Bawanna]

I was very much afraid this would happen. A 1911 is like a snake in the long grass and me thinks you just got bit my friend.

You better look for something else to sell to make ends meet. Maybe the lawn mower or some other useless expensive article that everyone hates to own.

[CJB]

I don't think back 35 years ago people understoodd metalurgy

Fuzzy math... Jocko.... more like 18-20 year ago.

This was a time when Kings Gunworks was supplying cast parts that were oversize in all respect, and that was as good as you could get in aftermarket.

There was no Ed Brown. Wilson was just beginning to get things on the market, but their quality was still being worked out. Etc etc.. there just wasn't the aftermarket like we have it today.

Used to be, you'd get a slide stop, you had to fit the pin!! and also fit everything else with needle files!!

Grip safeties were just beginning to get sold... So at least you had a choice besides "Kings". That "Kings" was the old Kings out of California, not China.

There was also an outfit that sold parts.... a bunch of ladies as I recall. Can't remember the name at the moment. It was that, or (almost) nothin.

We had Pachmeyer followers... woo..... We had Wilson magazines...woo....

Slim pickins for the .45 shooter back in the day. You wanted some of what is almost standard fare today, you had to go to Austin Behlert, Jim Clarke, Bob Day, or somebody similar.

We have evolved a long long way in the last 20 years. Not all of it I like, but most of it is good stuff - especially the metallurgy.

The crowd I ran with back then was into Bullseye and Metallic Silhouette shooting. The practical shooting crowd was a thing of the west coast of the USA mostly. The nice thing... I got first hand experience fitting parts... needle files, surface grinder, Bridgeport mill... it made for an experience that just cant be bought with cash money. We even had an EDM machine when the only folks doing EDM work were Mag-Na-Port. I wish I knew then, what I know now....

[CJB]

I was very much afraid this would happen.....You better look for something else to sell.....the lawn mower or some other useless expensive article

Sell the ol' lady... keep the 1911~~!!!!!!

[doc540]

Only thing strange I noticed was the barrel.

After handling my Colt and BarSto barrels, this Norinco barrel sure seems a little, huh, light.

[CJB]

Take the upper off the frame. Take out the recoil spring stuff. Just slide and barrel and bushing. How much fore-aft play does the barrel have in the slide? How much sideways play is present, at the hood area?

Assemble the gun with no recoil spring stuff...

With a dowel in the slide.... how much up-down play is there in its fit?

That's what I used to take note of. Also, the amount of bashing the front of the recoil locking area gets... on the barrel surfaces. Sometimes the barrel would be bashed beyond recognition, but the gun would still work!!!

[mr surveyor]

has the bidding war ended yet????

[doc540]

has the bidding war ended yet????

Hasn't started yet. ;)

Just put it on GB and have a local ad coming out Monday.

It'll just be "recovery" money since I've already mailed payment for the K-22.:o

[mr surveyor]

you should recover very nicely.

[doc540]

Might have it sold!

Got a PM on another forum that they'll take it, but no real money's on the table yet.

[mr surveyor]

good for you:)

[Bawanna]

Damn.

[Barth]

All this .45 talk has me itching for Storm Lake to fix my
5.10" extended, dual ported, black Isonite QPQ on stainless steel match barrel for my P220.
They got my 4.4" OEM barrel and theirs back last week.
I've got 500 rounds of HST and Ranger T 230 gr just waiting to be lit off.

I'm excited to see how the ported barrel works!!

[Barth]

Bar Sto should be wrapping up manufacturing of my
triple ported extended stainless match barrel for my P239/357.
If they are successful in opening the chamber for 100% JHP feeding
I'm going to be soooooooo pleased with this gun.
Big Dot sights, 7.0 lbs DA SRT trigger and hogue rubber finger grove grips - Oh My.
Plus I got a bunch of OEM 8 round extended mags too.