[Slater]

Anyone had any positive or negative experiences with this particular shotgun?

[JNewell]

The answer to your question is yes. :D The reliability of these guns seems to have gone up, and there are several generations of these on the new and used markets. The best place I know of to get the big picture is on the forum run over on www.sassnet.com in the SASSWire forum. A search there will bring up a ton of info on newer and older versions.

[Slater]

Thanks for the link. From reading the various posts over there it seems that the Winchester 97 clones are in their 6th generation already. The newer generations seem to be a considerable improvement over early ones.

[JNewell]

That has been my impression, and the few I've seen in shops around here are all Gen 6, so they're probably not that hard to find.

The funny thing is, I thought that Norinco had been banned. They must have found a way around it.

[Slater]

Evidently the current brand name is "Interstate Arms", so maybe they're simply bringing them in under a different name.

[Intel6]

I have one of the Trench clones and found that it is a well made SG and shoots well. It was a bit stiff at first but after firing a few hundrede rounds through it it smoothed up and I am extremely happy with it.

[jason10mm]

I got one a year or so ago (not sure what gen it is). The loading gate is RAZOR sharp, enough to slice my thumb on several occasions. Other than that, it is a very close copy to my 1897.

[Chuck Jennings]

The only new norincos allowed are their shotguns.

[Slater]

http://www.sassnet.com/SASSNET/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=103665#000000

This is a thread over on the SASS site that has some "gee whiz" info on the IAC/Norinco imports.

[Logan5]

Thanks, that's a really interesting read. It makes me wonder which performance issues mine (#00004xx) has that I don't even know about yet...