I recently had the high bid on 60 boxes (1,200 rounds) of NORINCO 223 Remington ammunition. This ammo used to be frequently imported into the USA;
however, it was banned in the early 1990s (93 or 94 depending upon two different sources) by President William J.
Clinton. Despite the fact that he banned all importation of Chinese
ammunition and I think firearms too, Clinton extended most favored
nation trading status to that country.
Back to the
ammo: One of the most frequent questions raised about this ammo is
whether or not the projectiles (bullets) are steel core. I tried to find out by doing an online search and found several firearms forums in which there were threads that posed the same question. The thing was, the answers were not definitive and there thus was a lot of controversy as to whether or not the bullets are steel core. So, I decided to find out myself and did a video while doing the finding out. The video will
answer that question - at least with regard to the NORINCO 223 REM ammo that I
just received.
The answer - watch the video for it - was kind of, sort of almost definitely what I had expected. Some things I read while researching the question online (before I did my test) were that: This the bullets are 55 grain, it uses full metal jacket bullets, it has high quality reloadable brass cases, it is boxer primed, it is pretty accurate, it is not prone to misfires and it is essentially manufactured to the same specs as M193 ammunition. I took in all that with a grain of salt; some of that may be correct and other things mentioned may be incorrect.
Here is what I learned when I did the video and looked over the ammo boxes:Whether or not it is steel core (watch the video to see if steel core). What NORINCO claims it to be: it is 223 REM, it is brass cased & boxer primed, it is reloadable brass, it is "non corrosive". It was made in the the P.R. China (People's Republic of Chine). All that was stated on the boxes. What is not stated on the boxes is the grain weight of the projectiles and that they are FMJ.
Note that I put quotation marks around "non corrosive". That is because that is what was printed on the box - non, then a space, followed by corrosive. In English it would be noncorrosive to be correct. So I leave it to you to decide if NORINCO was saying is noncorrosive or if they were they pulling a fast one and saying it actually is corrosive but misleading us with the word non preceding corrosive but apart from it. Of course, it could merely be a foul up in the translation when they wrote up the words to be placed onto the boxes nor that the bullets are FMJ.
In the event it does not show here, this is the web address for the video: https://youtu.be/Urfu405bqzE
All the best,
Glenn B
