Bubbafied Norinco

[1911Tuner]

A good friend picked up another Norinco not long ago. He had fairly frequent, but intermittent failures to return to battery...with hardball. He brought it all the way from another state to let me have a look. He comes about 3-4 times a year to visit and shoot the plate racks and drink coffee and do all that male bondin' stuff. Time was in short supply...so I did the standard tweaks, and made it better...but it still failed to go to battery on the last round often...and the top round from slidelock occasionally.

He brought it back on his next trip last Friday. The problem wasn't nearly as bad with the hybrid magazines...which he has 10 of...but often enough that I wasn't satisfied with it. So, I "borrowed" the gun and sent him home.

On closer inspection, I found evidence of a "Ramp Job" in which somebody polished it...apparently with their fingertip, followed by a long, drawn-out session with a Dremel and a buffing wheel. The feed ramp had a very slight, but definite "hump" just below the corner...and a slight, but detectable rounding of the top corner. Not much...but just enough to make it hard to see and enough to throw the bullet nose straight into the mid-point of the barrel ramp.

I had to recut the feed ramp...and yes, Lub, I used a scrape...and lower the barrel bed just a smidge in order to get the required gap and to reform the lost corner. Scraping a feed ramp in is tedious, and it took me about an hour point five...not including the polishing and removal of the scrape marks.

Turning my attention to the barrel...which was a near-new stock Norinco take-off from his other pistol that got a new Kart...I blended the lower edge of the ramp into the barrel bed...which required a stone because the chrome is too hard to scrape through...widened it a little...and polished it with a cratex wheel. Astonishingly, the headspace checked out to be the best that I've ever seen in a Norinco with an OEM barrel...though it wasn't original to the gun.

Took the gun to the range for a test-run and 252 rounds of assorted ammo, ranging from factory ball to hollowpoint to lead truncated cone and lead swc...and it acted like a perfect turkey. It went: "Gobble Gobble Gobble" and made an ol' Gunny proud. :cool:

Now, the damage to the feed ramp was very slight...thankfully...much less than many that I've seen and repaired after Dremel Dan finished up with his version of a super ramp and throat job...so, I guess the moral of the story is:

TAKE THAT FLIPPIN' DREMEL OUT IN THE STREET AND BEAT ON IT WITH A BIG, HEAVY HAMMER SO YOU CAN'T TOUCH A FEED RAMP WITH IT!!!!


As you were...

[twin oaks]

How about taking the idiots who do dremel jobs outside for a light hammer whacking?

Personally, I prefer using a cordless drill.:D

[Ken Grant]

Why not a DIE GRINDER :confused: :D

[twin oaks]

Because it's too hard to get the wheel in itty bitty places. But I agree, they do work well for blending of frame parts, and hammer hook/ sear angles. :butthead:

[saltydog]

Tuner,

If I have the terminology right, the barrel bed is the rounded concave area of the frame forward of the lower feed ramp ?

What is the proper clearance ?

Would you measure it with the link pin installed and the barrel in its most elevated position, or lowest ?

I guess you'd use drill rod to measure the depth of a rounded surface ?

You do a good job painting pictures with words...sometimes I just can't see the forest for the trees.

Thanks for your patience.

salty.

[1911Tuner]

If I have the terminology right, the barrel bed is the rounded concave area of the frame forward of the lower feed ramp ?

Kee-rect!

The gap, measured with the barrel in the frame with the slidestop pin through the link and the barrel pushed full rearward and down is .035 inch...or roughly a 32nd inch.
It can be a little more, but not less. The gap is horizontal...from the top corner of the feed ramp to the lower edge of the barrel ramp.

If you're referring to the clearance between the bottom of the barrel and the top of the frame bed...about the thickness of cigarette paper. Not many show this clearance though...but not really necessary as long as the barrel doesn't hit the frame bed before it hits the vertical impact surface.

[saltydog]

Got it. Thanks.

salty.