i was shooting my $35 norinco .45acp this week.

[greencobra]

first time out in a while. and seriously, for a chinese pistol made from recycled railroad track (who said the chinese don't recycle?) it shoots well. and i forgot how accurate it was...considering there was no care when they dropped in the barrel. i'd like to show a target but to lazy to go out and get it. i had a friend who went to gunsmith school practice on it. he tuned it (well, best he could), trigger job, beaver tail, long recoil spring guide. i'll never get rid of it. lou biondo cerakoted it 2 tone and put those pissa sights on for me. the rear is a round notch. super sight picture. i took the plastic grips and tossed 'em. your seeing just a pair of rubber pachmayr's. but there's a sweet set of esmeralda's waiting in the wings. i designed them, she laser etched them 25 years ago. a one of. i've showed it before here, but here it is again. i like showing off my curiosities.

 

[KMM696]

I got one of those Norinco's back in the early 90's - been excellent. They're a weird combination from the factory of perfection in some places, and garbage in others. I tossed the original plastic grips after I melted one of them with a common gun cleaner. On the outside, the barrel looks like it was produced by the Soviets, in Stalingrad, in 1943 - but it shoots fine. The only place on the slide or frame where the chinese didn't perfectly follow the 1911A1 plans is the holes for the grip screw bushings were metric threaded, so if you need to replace a bushing it needs to be an oversized one and retapped. You can probably guess how I know that. It's had most of the fire control parts replaced, too.

I should have replaced the sights years ago - my eyes aren't up to the standard ones. I should also spend the money I wasn't willing to then on a good ambi safety. All the cheap ones I tried didn't hold up to a lefty. You've reminded me it hasn't seen daylight at the range in several years - Thanks!!!

 

[greencobra]

someone pm'd me, "come on, 35 bucks?" ok, ok, i've told the tale before. the price may vary a bit from telling to telling, but yeah, i hold to the $35. so, the story behind my 35 dollar norinco...

when i lived in colorado, there was this giant gun show in denver every few months, maybe 4x a year. f***ing huge show. my boss picked me up at my apartment and was crying his wife laid down the law...he couldn't buy another gun unless he sold one. hell, he didn't own that many anyway.. the gun he carried was this norinco pictured above. it looked different of course, stock from the dealer. he asked if i wanted to buy it. we had been out shooting several times and i was familiar with this norinco of his. it hadn't had trigger work but i remembered it to be a nice shooting 1911. heavy as all get up but still cool and never had any failures in the thousands of rounds i'd seen him put through it. i said yeah, i'd like to buy it but i really didn't have any cash on me. i did everything with a debit card. the boss asked what did i have in my pocket and i'm looking...about 36 bucks with the small change i spied in a bowl on the kitchen counter.. he sold it to me for what i had in my pocket at that moment. this was 1995 i believe.

come on you say, why didn't he just buy another gun and not tell the wife. well, this guy was a devout mormon. nice guy and the most straight up person i ever met. lying to the wife was not in his make up. while i was a passenger in his vehicle, he made me adhere to some weird to me restrictions. like no alcohol or caffeinated beverages in the car. it was close to a 2 hour ride to denver with water. couldn't sip a beer or soda as he drove. as was the norm when i went up with other people, the passengers drank beer and munched snacks on the ride back.

ok, that was the story behind it.

 

[KMM696]

I think I paid $200 for mine. That was still a good price then for a functioning 1911. It was, looking back on it my first carry gun until a 4Runner with actual side bolsters on the seats convinced me I needed a different pistol. Your boss sounds like a committed gun guy, even if his collection was small. If the rules said I had to sell one to buy one, I can certainly see getting rid of one on the way to the show, just to make the hunt for the next gun more enjoyable.

 

[greencobra]

I think I paid $200 for mine.

iirc, they hit the shelves at ~ $229 and i think that was late '80's. people went nuts and bought them up. my friends, usually in multiples. me, i hopped on that train (see what it did...train...railroad tracks...) later than most. i still don't think i'd own one if it hadn't been for the deal, or as i call it, "the steal."

 

[Marty McFly]

I paid 425 otd . Fun guns

 

[nordic alien]

i paid $500 for a stock colt 45 acp way back in the 90's

 

[not new guy]

+1 for using pissa

 

[Glockster30]

+2 for ripping off a devout Mormon.

 

[Mountain]

Rail track steel is probably better than most metals used by gun manufacturers.

 

[greencobra]

i paid $500 for a stock colt 45 acp way back in the 90's

yep, i paid 455 for a series 70 gold cup then. a stock govt model was around 425. of course prices varied from dealer to dealer.

again, i've told this before. i bought a colt 1911 used as a suicide weapon for $200 from the victims wife after the cops gave her the gun back. she wanted to just give it to me but i had to give her something was my reasoning. made in 1953, beautiful colt 1911. i made it into an ipsc gun. wish i kept it original now. i sold it many years ago when i left the sport.

 

[Realtor MA]

At the time that was $34 more than book value.

 

[greencobra]

Rail track steel is probably better than most metals used by gun manufacturers.

lou at bec was showing me an article in a shooting magazine about the materials (rr tracks) used when i was down there once. they seem to be highly regarded and are series 70, without that hammer block safety. who was it, clinton, that blocked the sale of the norincos in the u.s.? what a shame.

 

[nordic alien]

yep, i paid 455 for a series 70 gold cup then. a stock govt model was around 425. of course prices varied from dealer to dealer.

again, i've told this before. i bought a colt 1911 used as a suicide weapon for $200 from the victims wife after the cops gave her the gun back. she wanted to just give it to me but i had to give her something was my reasoning. made in 1953, beautiful colt 1911. i made it into an ipsc gun. wish i kept it original now. i sold it many years ago when i left the sport.

did you put a notch in it lol, bought my gold cup in the 80's for $500