IAC (Norinco) "Winchester" 1987 12 ga

[AethelstanAegen]

I'm looking into possibly buying my first shotgun. I've fired shotguns in the past and have quite a bit of experience with my father's Mossberg 500. I've been looking for something a little different than I often see. In the course of buying my first 1911 I stumbled on a reproduction of another of J.M. Browning's creations, the IAC imported Norinco "Winchester" 1897 12 ga.

Does anyone have any experience with one these? I'm mostly interested in the reliability, overall fit and finish and general impressions anyone has who's seen one in person.

I'm also interested to know what the choke situation is with one of these...I've seen an intriguing "buck and ball" type 12ga round that reminds me a lot of what I used to fire out of my blackpowder Springfield .69 musket. IIRC the particular round would not work well with a choke and so I'm hoping this 1897 has a removable choke.

Thank you for your help!

Edit: I thought it might be worth mentioning that I'm looking at a seller who has them for around $349. Does that seem a reasonable price?

 

[Duelist]

Stay away from the IAC 1897s. My friend's discharged and blew a hole in his ceiling while he was unloading it.

 

[GCBurner]

The prices are pretty reasonable on these. Note that they are pretty much exact duplicates of the Winchester, and have the same "bugs" or "features" as the original, including the lack of a trigger disconnector, so that if you hold down the trigger while working the pump, it will fire each time the bolt closes, without having to release and repull the trigger. The plus is that you can fire almost as fast as with a semi-auto, the minus is that if you forget to release the trigger, you can shoot without intending it.

 

[Red Cent]

If it is the latest generation of the Norinco, it is a decent replica. Polish the internals and reduce the hammer spring tension and it will perform admirably.
Buy a manual. It amazes me that this was originally produced before 1900. I would love to go back in time and visit the place where they machined (or however they did it) the parts. The internals look very complicated at first but with a manual tutoring someone with a modicum of mechanical ability can become very proficient working on the '97.
I have a Norinco 93/97 and two solid frame original M97s. Used to have seven or eight.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

Thanks for the information guys.

GCBurner, I'm aware that the '97s are capable of slam fire which doesn't worry me but it's good to be aware of and thus careful. I suspect that may have been the cause of Duelist's friend's accidental discharge.

Red Cent, did you polish the internals yourself or did you send it out to a gunsmith? If you did it yourself are there any good tutorials available and if you sent it out, where did you send it? I've heard that having some work done on the internals is advisable on the norincos (especially if you plan to shoot competitvely, such as SASS).

 

[zhyla]

My main concern with this is while they're cool and cheap, this isn't the easiest design to take down and clean.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

Does anyone know if these repro 1897 shotguns can use pretty much any 2 3/4" shells or does the design prevent certain types? I'm also curious what kind of chokes come on these guns and might they prevent firing say a slug or a round ball (such as the buck and ball type ammo from Centurion)? Many thanks.

 

[bigfatdave]

Stay away from the IAC 1897s. My friend's discharged and blew a hole in his ceiling while he was unloading it.

Obviously entirely the fault of the gun.