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Norinco 223


oddjob

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Just got back from the range for a final-final sight in before the nationals (not that it would help). I was using W-W, Federal and found some Norinco in the closet. Bottom line was that the Norinco 55 grn 223 grouped the best at 150 (1" group) and 200 yds (little bigger). I was using WW 64 grn stuff as a comparison. Has anyone else here gotten good luck with Norinco ammo?? I noticed (and my partner) that the Norinco has a little more "pop" to it as well. I didn't try it at 300 yds. I was a bit surprised at this.

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I always liked it and it was very hot. I got good accuracy out of it but the cases were worthless to reload. Some had holes eroded through the side of the case for the entire length of the body of the case but not the neck. Never saw any ill effects on the gun! I have not shot it in years though.

Guy

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Ok this does not apply for .223, but I thought I could mention this anyhow.

I use Norinco 9mm in my G17 to shoot IPSC PD. I bought this ammo very cheap and like it very much. It always works, is accurate enough and indeed is quite hot too. In my G17 it makes PF 150 ....

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Oddjob,

I would use some discretion with the Norince 223. Certain lots of powder have a tendency to detonate rather than burn. That may be the "pop" you are hearing. I would advise against using it for match ammo. Several other brands will be safer and give you just as much practical accuracy.

Erik

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Does your Norinco .223 ammo look like the ones in the pic below?

FWIW my experience with them is quite different then yours in that I found them to be very inaccurate. Most shooters I know up here in Canada who uses these recent production ammo are getting no better then 2 MOA. Plus they smell bad too. :unsure:

However I have found them to be hotter then my normal Winchester Q3131 loads.

When my 11.5" Bushmaster was having some short stroking problem with some other factory ammo, it never had any problem with the Norincos.

556x45mm-Pyramid.jpg

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I just shot the last box of 20rd from a half of a 1600 round case of what I think was Norinco (it had an orange box) that I bought back in the 90s. I had no problems with it.

Anyone know where to get Norinco now? The cheap Federal XM193 seems to be gone for the most part, and the price on Win Q3131A is too high right now.

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The cheap Federal XM193 seems to be gone for the most part,

Odd, I found a fairly large amount of Lot 61 Fed XM193 at a local shop for about $100/500. I picked up 1000 rounds. If you want, I could lay in a few thousand, and if you are headed to the nationals, I could sell them to ya there for cost (plus tax unfortunately). There is a pretty good reloading place in Texas that sells reloads for something like $160/1000 shipped(to the west coast anyway) fmj or soft point. It was fairly accurate stuff when I shot it.

When I clocked the XM193 out of my 20" mini-14 match barrel, it was getting an avg of about 3420 fps. Might be the tight chamber though..

I also picked up some reloaded stuff from Mid South, 60 gr Hornady TAP bullets for like $160/1000 (then add shipping), it was #$7.79/box of 50 and was loaded by 3-D. I shot it recently at 200 yards and it was doing better than the XM193. I think about 3"@200 yards. My velocity reading was about 2880 fps.

Vince

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Odd, I found a fairly large amount of Lot 61 Fed XM193 at a local shop for about $100/500. I picked up 1000 rounds. If you want, I could lay in a few thousand, and if you are headed to the nationals, I could sell them to ya there for cost (plus tax unfortunately).

Hey, Vince ... thanks, but when I said, "Cheap," I mean the $140-$160 per 1000 rounds that I was paying a few months ago. I can still find it okay for $200 per thousand, even figuring shipping. I can get Q3131A for that much too, but I'd rather spend a lot less. :lol:

The XM193 is out of stock at WholesaleHunter.com, but their most recent price was $79.95 per 500 rounds. So that was about $160 plus about $15 shipping, which is not bad at all. The only time I've done better is when Galyan's puts Q3131A on sale for $3 per box of 20 rounds, plus you get the 10% discount for buying more than ten boxes at a time. $135 for 1000 rounds of the best M193 clone you get is not bad at all, but it's been a while since they did it. I doubt if we'll see those prices again until the various contractors catch up with the demand in the southwest Asia.

I once got Win USA Q3131 for $2 per box of 20 rounds at Wal*Mart once. I have no idea why they were doing it, but it was before I owned an AR and I still bought a bunch of it. If I knew then what I know now, I would have rented a U-Haul truck and bought every box they had.

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Hey, Vince ... thanks, but when I said, "Cheap," I mean the $140-$160 per 1000 rounds that I was paying a few months ago. I can still find it okay for $200 per thousand, even figuring shipping. I can get Q3131A for that much too, but I'd rather spend a lot less.

Ok.. :) That stuff from TX was pretty good ammo, and reasonably priced. You may want to look into it since it might be cheaper to ship to you than to me way out west.. :D

Vince

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