colonel

Hi, I have been reading that people have found success installing a stainless steel springfield barrel on a 1911 norinco. My question is do you have to put a stainless steel sa barrel or can I also use a blued sa barrel on the Norinco?

cohee

What is wrong with your Norico barrel?

Wild Bill Caldwell

Makes no difference to a norinco if there is a stainless or plain carbon steel barrel in the slide....How the barrel fits the frame , slide , and the slide stop is another question

Wild Bill

Wild Bill Caldwell

cohee....what has happened to JohnT and one eyed joe....Prayin all is well with those two

Wild Bill

colonel

The Norinco barrel is peening on the upper barrel lugs deforming if you will the slide is okay.

colonel

I have tried an sa barrel that i have on a sa 1911 all that I would need to do with that one is file down where the barrel hood hits the breech a bit.

cohee

I am putting words in the mouth of my betters, but a competant smith should be able to fit any brand barrel to any M1911.

In the particular case of your Springfield barrel and your Norinco 1911, a good smith could 'try' the fit and pronounce it good or bad.

I have tinkered on many Norks and as far as I can tell the only two issues are barrel lugs and the extreme hardness of the slides and frames.

After messing up two RIA barrels ($35 apiece back when) trying to fit a Nork, I send the gun to a competant smith who gently chided me for attempting things that I did not understand and using cheap parts. He expertly installed a Storm Lake barrel and turned my beater into a tack driver.

colonel

That is a good idea to send it to a competent gunsmith. I just got in touch with one and he said that by mid-august I can send the Nork and he will make things right. Thank you so much.

JohnnyT

If your barrel lugs look like the ones pictured below...with the upper half of the lug showing straight-line deformation and a "stair-stepped" appearance...you've got one of the early Norincos that didn't provide enough vertical lug engagement. A drop-in barrel will do the same thing, except the harder steel will probably cause the lugs to crack instead of peening.

A hard fit barrel with an oversized lower lug will address that, but because of the more severe tilt at the rear, you'll need a taller rear sight to compensate for the pistol shooting low.

Also...even at best...the 2nd and 3rd lugs will have reduced vertical engagement, and if you don't happen to get lucky and have the first lug...which is the strongest and most supported...in horizontal engagement...you'll run into the same thing.

I got one of the early ones, and was able to lower the frame rails far enough to get the vertical specs that I needed. It was labor intensive because I also had to cut the floor of the frame rails down, and the bottom of the slide rails in order to lower the slide and to get it onto the frame. I also had to draw-file the top of the frame in order to get the slide center rail to clear it.

In the end, I had to lower the slide a full 64th of an inch. It took a lot of time. I had a friend with one that had the same problem. The pistol was unreliable and eating barrel lugs while-u-wait. I finally wound up with about 25 hours in the gun, and dubbed it "The Norinco from Hell."
That one nearly weaned me from taking on a Norinco because I was afraid I'd get another one just like it. Now, whenever I see one that checks out with bad vertical lug engagement, I pass. These Norincos can be repaired and brought into spec...but if you pay a pistolsmith to do it correctly, you'll have more in the gun than it's worth.

Does your barrel look like this? The damage here was done within 200 rounds of PMC hardball.

Wild Bill Caldwell

JohnT....Good to see You still up and kickin....Good post....As I've said before , if a 1911 is in SPEC it has to run , now with that said I'm sure somebody will come back with "mine was in spec and didn't run" and that is OK , I've been wrong before concernin things I took to be the STONE COLD TRUTH....Way back in time I came to beleive that maybe the most important tool a HAND smithin 1911s could have were the official Goverment drawin 's for the 1911 , then enough knowledge, wisdom and experience and precision tools to correctly measure the pistol to see if all parts are Spec....Takes a lot of time but it can save a lot of parts and time...

Send Me a PM with your phone number one more time ,need to run something by You

Wild Bill

JohnnyT

Yeah. I've run into that, too. Problem is...they think that the gun is within spec...but closer lookin' says otherwise. For the ones that are, the problem is usually the magazine. Said it before...Wish I had a dollar for every delinquent 1911 pistol that I've "fixed" by just handin' the owner a few of my magazines.

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