F/A Norinco?

Were there any f/a Norincos imported?
Reason I ask, I went to Las Vegas recently and my brother and I went out plinking. While we were out some other plinkers and ourselves talked and shared info on our firearms. One of them had a Norinco that definitely had the f/a parts installed. This Norinco's bolt was beat at the rear, in fact the whole of the internals were a little beat. It was either worn out because of tremendous use or it was a little softer then it needed to be. The owner showed us it would fire single shot in f/a and the following chambered round that didn't fire had a slight dent in it's primer. When he cycled the action by hand it appeared the bolt wasn't locked up before the hammer came to strike the firing pin. Are bolts in the semiauto Norincos softer? Jeff

I have a couple of norinco's ,but I never noticed any unusual wear on the bolts.I have a couple of spare bolt assemblies that look just as good as the ones I have in my rifles.

Yours are fully automatics?
Jeff

I don't think any were imported, but I think some were legally converted before the 86 ban. With the exception of some Vietnam bring backs.

Mine never ding the primers and his fired in semi with no problems no dings, though the pin was starting to mush. It did have the free floating firing pin. The bolt carrier coming forward is what actuates the sear in front of the hammer for it to release after the first shot. This actuator is on a third pin located between the hammer pin and the magwell.
While watching him manually operating it the hammer would release just before the bolt rotated and hit the largest protrusion not yet flattened by the hammer.

I didn't think of pre-86, I didn't think it prudent to handle it at the time cause I thought there weren't any f/a Norincos imported. I suppose it could of been a pre conversion. You would think a smith would put a proper bolt in a conversion.
Jeff

I don't have a F/A SKS.I misunderstood your question.

This was an AK, I've never seen a F/A SKS
Jeff

Sounds like a botched FA conversion, if the parts are not timed properly (hole drilled in wrong spot, welded up FA slot in carrier too far forward, etc.) the auto sear will release the hammer before the bolt is locked up, not after.

After 1968 you couldn't legally import NFA stuff except as dealer samples. Prior to 1986 you could convert a semi auto to full with the proper paperwork filed.

If the AK was a properly registered legal one it would be worth upwards of $5-7K these days, you would think someone dropping that much coin on a FA gun would spend the few bucks to get it fixed and working properly. My bet is Bubba converted it in his garage with a hand drill and screwed it up. Still gets him in hot water with the Feds and he doesn't even have a functioning rifle.

...I didn't think it prudent to handle it at the time...
+1 Sounds like a smart move on your part, if your lucks like mine cops woulda pulled up soon as you held it.

i dont know if any were "imported" but i know for a fact that a decent ammount of chicom AK's made it in as fully trasfurrable class 3's. including norinco/polytech marked stuff. they make up the majority of the class 3 AK's

I think I remember reading something somewhere about some Chinese AK's coming over with the dreaded "3rd hole" in place.
No full-auto parts, just the hole for the pin(and the pin too?) there. Maybe I'm hallucinating tho'... :huh_small

I have a MAK 90 imported by a company called CJA which stands for China Jing An. While looking up info on this company, I discovered that they got in deep doodoo with the BATF for bringing in full auto AK's for civilian sale. I seem to remember that some were North Korean origin, which would seem unbelievable, but that is what the info said. This is on the internet somewhere, but I would have to hunt it down again, as I cannot remember the website. I am sure that there could have been some Norinco's involved. Who knows?

I have a MAK 90 imported by a company called CJA which stands for China Jing An. While looking up info on this company, I discovered that they got in deep doodoo with the BATF for bringing in full auto AK's for civilian sale. I seem to remember that some were North Korean origin, which would seem unbelievable, but that is what the info said. This is on the internet somewhere, but I would have to hunt it down again, as I cannot remember the website. I am sure that there could have been some Norinco's involved. Who knows?

Was it this?
http://www.ak47world.com/clinton.html

I found it. It is here:
www.chicom47.net/Importers/ImportCompanies.htm
My MAK90 has the CJA import mark.

I think I remember reading something somewhere about some Chinese AK's coming over with the dreaded "3rd hole" in place.
No full-auto parts, just the hole for the pin(and the pin too?) there. Maybe I'm hallucinating tho'... :huh_small
No, you're remembering just fine. The third hole was present and plugged with essentially a second center support tube and rivet. I always suspected the Chinese figured why make new rifles for sale when they can take a bunch being stored in a military warehouse and convert them to semi auto? Unfortunately, ATF has a rule that "once an MG, always an MG" so even though it would have been far easier to drill new holes in a semi auto AK they declared them MGs and made the importer recall them. Don't recall the markings offhand, but our local farm store had a few for sale. As soon as I saw the third hole I passed. You still find them for private sale occasionally so the importer never did get them all back.

About 10-14 years ago a guy in the D.C. area was visited by the ATF to inspect his Chinese AK. He wanted to hide it or BS the ATF but was convinced to give it up by a third party.
The Norinco AK was indeed a factory FA.
I assume it slipped through the cracks along with quite a few more.