Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Norinco

NTM rifle came in today, Norinco JW-15. Seems a solid gun but lacking somewhat cosmetically for those who care about such minutia.
Stock appears to be sprayed lacquer maybe? Wet looking high gloss. Dreadful but functional.
The fitting of the bottom metal is almost unbelievably poor, the metal is well below the stock line.
Trigger is impressively good, breaks like a glass straw after some take-up.
Iron sights adjustable for elevation only. Bluing is a bit thin in a couple small spots but pretty good for a gun 30+ years old.
Steel magazine, I like that. Factory swivels.
Needs a good cleaning and "autopsy" type inspection.
This should be a fun gun to play with. I'll put a scope on for accuracy testing, obviously.
Been looking for one of these for about 6 months I guess. Not hard to find. However, finding one for around he price I wanted to pay was a different. Good to be patient!

Back in the 90's my gunsmith got ahold of one of these rifles. He polished up the action and gave it a trigger job and installed some target sights. That rifle shot some impressive groups.

I think they retailed a little north of a hundred bucks back then.

Dan

My father in law has one and it is a great shooter. He got it for Christmas. Out the door price was $100. Took him a while to find a spare mag after Clinton banned them.

Rough as a corn cob but the ones I have/had shoot....whats not to like if you get it for the right$$. One that I have is a loaner .22 for kids that are ready to try squirrel hunting with a .22.

PennDog

I wanted to stay under $300 purchasing one. I have just under $250 in this including shipping and xfer.

I believe whomever fitted this bottom metal now works as a Bat Chef in Wuhan.

Back when the JW-15 was being imported I often saw them available for $69.00 but they were so ugly and ill finished that I could never bring myself to own one, although they did seem to generally shoot ok.


Kengs NS 522 - https://www.gunsamerica.com/977719180/KENG-S-NS-522-TARGET-22LR-BOLT-ACTION.htm

Here is the sleeper though - Kengs NS 522, if you ever see one of these for a reasonable price don't hesitate buy it. Just be sure that it has the magazine with it the rifles are scarce but the magazines are like hens teeth.
They have an action that is a cross design between an Anschutz and a Walther, they had a hammer forged barrel and they shot great. I had two of them and I used one for a smallbore silhouette rifle for a season and my scores with it were as good as I was shooting with my Anschutz 54 sporter.

They too became illegal to import under the Clinton ban.


drover

First I've herd of one. Very cool.

What would you consider a reasonable price, if I may ask?

They sold for around $200 when they were available so I would go somewhere around $400 for a nice one today. Like I mentioned though magazines are the issue, they are a pretty rare firearm and magazines were never overly available even when they were being imported.

drover

My mom bought one for me around 1992. I was on a youth shooting team and the coach ran a little gas station and sold guns there as well. I think she paid about $150. The gun shot well, and I used it for the 6yrs or so I was on the team. The only issues I had with it were one of the magazines doesn't want to feed properly when fully loaded and the safety lever is hard as hell to push on. I still have the rifle and probably always will since it was a gift.

I'd sure like to find a couple of the norinco Woodsmans.....

I've wondered that too. Looks to me like someone could import them from Canada...maybe Joe Salter? I guess there's a law on the books somewhere since Slick stopped them from being imported into the US.

I have a bunch of Norinco JW-15 magazines I would like to sell. 3 5-rounders and 5 10-rounders.

The magazines I was referring to as being rare are the ones for the Kengs NS 522, I do not recall them being the same as used in the JW-15 but it has been a long time since I owned the NS-522 so I could be misremembering. I believe that the JW-15 magazine is the same as is used in the CZ-452.

drover

It is, except it is plastic of course. . The mag from my 457 works as well.

Original Norinco mags are fetching $40-$50. Fortunate to have an extra CZ mag from when I put a single shot adapter in the 457.

What kind of gun is that?

Norinco clone of the Colt Woodsmen. I'm not sure how many, if any, were imported to the US, somebody else will know that. Everyone I have come across has been in Canada.

Thanks.

I have a 452 and the Norinco magazines will not quite work in it. I think they could be tweaked and made to fit, but they will not lock in place.

I've got a Norinco copy of the Browning SA22. Haven't shot it in a couple of years but it functioned well and was more than tin-can accurate.