Norinco JW-15A

[happyhunter]

I bought one of those plastic stocked, black JW-15s with the 16" threaded barrel. It came as a package with Outdoor Optics 3-9x40mm scope. Thought I'd do a quick review of what it took to get the thing shooting well to save anybody else who buys one some grief.

First, the thing is a Chinese copy of a ZKM451 (Brno model 1), but don't expect anywhere near the finished machining of the original Brno. The little JW is has a finish that fits the price

Step One. Clean off all the preserving oil gunk they drown the gun in. You may as well completely disassemble it to do this as the sweat shop workers who assemble these things aren't the best at it. Mine had the scope arse about and the action screws where half tight, While your at it, throw the scope in the bin as it's next to useless.. more on that later.

Anyway, first 50 shots I put through the rifle, as it came from the ship, it sprayed out like after a night on the curry. I put most of this down to the $2 optics and couldn't even manage a 4" group at 10 yards.. seriously, it was that bad.
So next day I completely pulled the rifle apart, took to the stock with a sharp chisel and hacked away like a lunatic until the barrel was fully floated. After re-assembly, I made sure all screws were tight, like real tight.

One thing you need to do to properly mount a scope is loose the iron sights. These things have a small length of pull and if you mount a reasonable length variable scope it bangs up against the rear tang and you can't get it forward enough to get proper eye relief to shoot prone.

Anyways, grease removed, iron sights gone tata, barrel floated, assembled properly and my spare Nikko GC 3-9x40mm mounted. This is what it looks like now. Hows it shoot? Check the next page

[happyhunter]

Ammo at hand was 40 grain Winnie reds, 40 grain Winnie subs, 36 grain Winnie Lazers (do they still make those?), 40 grain CCI subs and 40 grain Highland (Armscor) subs. The Winnie reds win (top right), with consistent 10-12 mm groups @ 50 meters.

[happyhunter]

From the manual. The factory states a maximum 70mm 4 shot group at 50 meters.

[NukeBOMB88]

Yeah I've got the JW-15E and it's a top little rifle. Shoots .75-.50 Moa at 50 metres and has done so for the last ten years or so. Only has a Nikko Stirling gameking on it butts taken 100's , possibly 1000's or rabbits , foxes, hares , cats, sparrows, starlings and Myna birds. Doesn't miss a beat

[Oldbloke]

I might have to sell my Model 2 Brno and buy a Norinco.

[BRNO_Bigot]

I might have to sell my Model 2 Brno and buy a Norinco.

Yes, you'll have to -sell it to me.

And there's nothing wrong with those tiny little groups, either, although it means you're throwing away targets that haven't been properly used.

[happyhunter]

I might have to sell my Model 2 Brno and buy a Norinco.

haha. I bought the Norinco because the short barrel is easy to handle spotlighting from a vehicle. My model 2 is a ripper and it's getting some rest for a while until the novelty of this toy wears off.

[Flash]

Anyway, first 50 shots I put through the rifle, as it came from the ship, it sprayed out like after a night on the curry. I put most of this down to the $2 optics and couldn't even manage a 4" group at 10 yards.. seriously, it was that bad.

I bought a Norinco recently.
I'm only about 20 minutes from Springvale range, but I like the bush so off to the forest I went, target in hand.

It was shooting like s**t. The scope adjustments weren't doing anything, so had a bit of fun for an hour and came home.
Walking the 30 minutes back to where the car was parked, halfway, a Sambar Doe stood up 20m away from me looking at me through a bush. I stopped still and we looked at each other for 10 seconds before she gave a honk and ran off. Wrong rifle in hand.

I didn't bother getting the faulty scope swapped over under warranty and just bought a new one. A 3-9X40 but I also needed high mounts to be able to work the bolt. The scope sits too high for my liking, but them's the breaks.
I also noted the barrel isn't floated, but haven't done anything about that yet. Will see how it shoots with the new scope first.

Working the bolt when I first got the rifle, they feel really rough.
I just spent some time cycling it for a little while each day, and it's much smoother now.

I'm going for a drive into the forest again over the weekend with 5 different brands of ammo to give it another go.
It's a good excuse to revisit that spot and look for deer activity while I'm there.

[NukeBOMB88]

Anyway, first 50 shots I put through the rifle, as it came from the ship, it sprayed out like after a night on the curry. I put most of this down to the $2 optics and couldn't even manage a 4" group at 10 yards.. seriously, it was that bad.

I bought a Norinco recently.
I'm only about 20 minutes from Springvale range, but I like the bush so off to the forest I went, target in hand.

It was shooting like s**t. The scope adjustments weren't doing anything, so had a bit of fun for an hour and came home.
Walking the 30 minutes back to where the car was parked, halfway, a Sambar Doe stood up 20m away from me looking at me through a bush. I stopped still and we looked at each other for 10 seconds before she gave a honk and ran off. Wrong rifle in hand.

I didn't bother getting the faulty scope swapped over under warranty and just bought a new one. A 3-9X40 but I also needed high mounts to be able to work the bolt. The scope sits too high for my liking, but them's the breaks.
I also noted the barrel isn't floated, but haven't done anything about that yet. Will see how it shoots with the new scope first.

Working the bolt when I first got the rifle, they feel really rough.
I just spent some time cycling it for a little while each day, and it's much smoother now.

I'm going for a drive into the forest again over the weekend with 5 different brands of ammo to give it another go.
It's a good excuse to revisit that spot and look for deer activity while I'm there.

I've put a cheek riser on my Norinco mate cause the scope was too high, also they have a pressure point where the stock is actually supposed to touch the barrel at the front sling stud and removing that can stuff the accuracy

[deye243]

to the op yes they do still sell the Winchester lasers

[happyhunter]

.

[simmo]

I brought one of these last year as a cheap plinker and occasional rabbit gun if I was to find somewhere to shoot them.

Had very mediocre results group wise but it showed promise with Winchester super sonic ammo. However there was a very irritating issues with feeding ammo out of the magazine.

I ended up disposing of it because I couldn't be arsed with the the games but in hind sight I should have persisted and fully stripped it back and cleaned it right out.

[happyhunter]

The JW seems to get better as it wears in with use. Mine was also feeding ammo a bit rough but a little tuning of the magazine tabs with pliers seems to have smoothed it out.

[Buddy77]

HI
Im looking to buy my 1st 22 and these keep getting a mention. Whats the go if my store doesn't supply them would i need to buy in from an interstate store? and if i have major issues who do i send back to for warranty if there is any ?

I understand the quality is a flip of coin with these.

[happyhunter]

HI
Im looking to buy my 1st 22 and these keep getting a mention. Whats the go if my store doesn't supply them would i need to buy in from an interstate store? and if i have major issues who do i send back to for warranty if there is any ?

I understand the quality is a flip of coin with these.

If you decide to buy from an interstate shop the transfer will need to be done through your local gun dealer.

The quality is fine. They have been around a long time and based on a proven design.

[deye243]

I found another rimfire forum the other night and them KIWI"S are mad on these rifles , there isn't much they haven't done to them

[Buddy77]

One of the biggest attractions to me for this firearm is the gunsmithing that can be learnt of a relatively cheap firearm without the care of making the gun worse due to the cost of inital purchase. Ive been reading alot from the Kiwi forums about faults and level of quality and from what i see the gunsmithing section here has alot of information that can rectify these problems.

One thing ive heard most JW-15 owners do is "float" the barrel BUT! ive also read doin this can actually make it worse and that a pressure point in some cases need to be added. I dont really understand how you would find the pressure point and what you would do to rectify it. So off to do some more reading.

[Title_II]

Yanks can't import Norinco. Thanks Clinton!

I need to email Trump and tell him to put that on his list of stuff to fix.

[Wm.Traynor]

One thing ive heard most JW-15 owners do is "float" the barrel BUT! ive also read doin this can actually make it worse I'm guessing that they bed the action too. and that a pressure point in some cases need to be added. I dont really understand how you would find the pressure point IMO, forget it. Float the barrel and bed the action. and what you would do to rectify it. So off to do some more reading.

[happyhunter]

Yanks can't import Norinco. Thanks Clinton!

I need to email Trump and tell him to put that on his list of stuff to fix.

..yeah.. and thank Bush Jnr for expanding the ban on Norinco imports back in 2003.

I wouldn't put to much hope in the new POTUS. He no like China one bit.

Political rubbish aside, shame you can't buy JW-15s. They are great guns for the money.

[Gwion]

One thing ive heard most JW-15 owners do is "float" the barrel BUT! ive also read doin this can actually make it worse I'm guessing that they bed the action too. and that a pressure point in some cases need to be added. I dont really understand how you would find the pressure point IMO, forget it. Float the barrel and bed the action. and what you would do to rectify it. So off to do some more reading.

Bedding action and floating the barrel doesn't always work. My Sportco 22lr didn't like a floating barrel one bit, even with the action bedded. After experimenting with shims in the barrel channel, i found the right pressure point and epoxied some bracing in there. Improved rifle consistency out of sight.

I was emailing a custom gun maker in the States a few years ago and his theory was that the best accuracy comes from a fully bedded action and barrel; that is all along the barrel channel, effectively making the barrel shorter and stiffer and tightening the harmonics. He seemed to think that floating was the most common form of accurising because it was the cheapest, easiest thing to do on the production line. He had some nice rifles and solid comp results to back up his theory. I might trial it on a rifle one day.

[Wm.Traynor]

Gwion,
Don't let me discourage you from your experiment. FWIW however, I come from a background where Every barrel floats and has done since the Omark was introduced. Fifty years ago?
I do agree that barrel floating is cheap c.f. fully bedded. But is it more accurate? The only way to find out would be to fully bed first, try it out, then float it and observe the results.
One more thing. If you want to "effectively" shorten the barrel, how about the so-called "glue job"? A few inches of barrel are epoxied in to the barrel channel, while the rest floats.
Just thought of something else. In the case where floating does not work in a rimfire. Try different ammo. Study the shape of the group for vertical dispersion. Recrown? Failing all that, give up and do what you did to the Sportco.

Would love to know how that project goes

[Gwion]

Gwion,
Don't let me discourage you from your experiment. FWIW however, I come from a background where Every barrel floats and has done since the Omark was introduced. Fifty years ago?
I do agree that barrel floating is cheap c.f. fully bedded. But is it more accurate? The only way to find out would be to fully bed first, try it out, then float it and observe the results.
One more thing. If you want to "effectively" shorten the barrel, how about the so-called "glue job"? A few inches of barrel are epoxied in to the barrel channel, while the rest floats.
Just thought of something else. In the case where floating does not work in a rimfire. Try different ammo. Study the shape of the group for vertical dispersion. Recrown? Failing all that, give up and do what you did to the Sportco.

Would love to know how that project goes

I was thinking of going the other way around when i rebarrel the Zasty with my new wildcat (if and when funds ever allow!). Rebarrel with light profile 1:14 twist 22cal barrel. Float barrel from 1 inch forward of action. Run full load development to find best accuracy. Bed barrel to end of barrel channel and do another round of load development to see if better accuracy is achieved. Depending on results, i can either leave it or refloat it. Will cost bugger all but a bit of time.

I know the practice of floating has been common wisdom for many many years, i just think it's interesting that this particular custom gun maker thought that a proper stock made of well seasoned and sealed timber, fully bedded, would give better accuracy than floating. His theory, not mine, but i am happy to test it. He did clarify that this only relates to centerfire for some reason and that either floating or pressure bedding is the way to go with rimfire.

I was going to mention gluing in my last post. Apparently the AI rifles are glued in, again flying in the face of common wisdom that the barreled action needs some ability to recoil under battery in the bedding. This is one that i'm not so keed to play with as once it's glued properly it would be a big job to roll back if needed.

The Sporty came out pretty good. Had it re-crowned, a few old farmyard gun smithing screw-ups repaired and tried upwards of a dozen ammo types through it (as many as i could source locally). After pressure bedding it went from around 1" at 25m to one hole at 25m with Winchester PPmax. It's still no target rifle but can easily drop 5 into well under the inch at 50m. I also put a pillar in the back screw and bedded the action to just forward of the barrel lug.

I quite enjoy playing around with all these different theories that get bandied about and seeing what actually work for me and my rifles.

[in2anity]

Does anyone know if these come in left handed versions?

[in2anity]

Does anyone know if these come in left handed versions?

To answer my own question, no they don't, OSA got back to me. - my mate who is lefty really struggles with my right handed bolts...

[Gwion]

CZ & Lithgow are the cheapest lefty rimfires you can get. Unless Zasty do one, but i'm pretty sure they only do lefty centerfires. Took ages to choose a lefty 22lr. I ended up with a Browning T-bolt.

edit: Nope... Savage do the Mark II in lefty 22lr as well.

[Barrettmr]

I wouldn't touch a savage rimfire again with a barge pole, the one that I do have is only marginally accurate for a about 40 rounds, and then it shotguns. A cleaning patch reveals very LARGE flake of lead stuck in the barrel.

Hence the CZ

[happyhunter]

Does anyone know if these come in left handed versions?

To answer my own question, no they don't, OSA got back to me. - my mate who is lefty really struggles with my right handed bolts...

Are you looking for a rifle for your mate? The CZ452 is still made in left hand configuration. The other option is buy a straight pull rifle. Both of you will be able to shoot it without difficulty.

[in2anity]

Are you looking for a rifle for your mate? The CZ452 is still made in left hand configuration. The other option is buy a straight pull rifle. Both of you will be able to shoot it without difficulty.

... or a lever, although we already have levers and rolling blocks, so perhaps a straight pull for something different. Maybe something to look into cheers

[happyhunter]

Are you looking for a rifle for your mate? The CZ452 is still made in left hand configuration. The other option is buy a straight pull rifle. Both of you will be able to shoot it without difficulty.

... or a lever, although we already have levers and rolling blocks, so perhaps a straight pull for something different. Maybe something to look into cheers

Lever 22s are ok for plinking, but for those longer precise head shots on bunnies a bolt gun does it better.