As mentioned before, I hummed and hawed over refinishing
this lower for the perfect Mk18 with A1 lower clone build, but it wasn’t worth
the possible legal headache that would surely accompany that endeavor.
So I took a can of flat black Krylon primer and hosed down
the lower to cover up the original glossy grey finish. At least the paint is easily removable if the
need ever arises.
So the finish looks great in these photos, but it soon
degraded into a semi-gloss after handling the thing when I installed the AR
Stoner LPK. The factory markings are also
all clearly visible in person compared to what appeared in the photos.
A comparison between the A1 profile lower above and a
standard A2 profile lower before.
I was planning on using this lower for my Mk18 Mod 0 clone,
but more on that later and how it was not meant to be.
Looks great, too bad it didn’t work out.
The inexpensive AR Stoner LPK. Packed in some sort of oil, everything I
needed was included. I’ve read some
reviews of this kit and some customers indicated their kit was missing parts,
but thankfully mine came with everything.
The first hiccup I noticed was the AR Stoner A2 grip. It didn’t fit the Norc lower so I tried to
see if it would fit a standard A2 lower and I found it did not fit my Colt
LE6920 lower. Guess the grip is the one
not in spec, but it wasn’t a huge deal because I have a bag full of various
unused A2 grips from other LPKs.
As you can see, not all A2 grips are built the same. This one from who knows where isn’t perfectly
contoured to the lower.
This A2 grip fits perfectly to the Colt lower. It didn’t matter because I was going to use
an A1 grip that actually did fit the Norinco lower. These are all the parts I thought I would
need to get the Norc lower up and running for my Mk18 clone.
The AR Stoner LPK packed in bacon grease. Kidding, it’s not bacon grease, but seeing as
how these parts could have easily come from off short, who knows what it is.
As with a recent lower build I did recently, it helped to
lay out all the parts against my matt to make sure I had all the parts I would
need to complete the lower.
Things were going smoothly and I felt confident enough not
to refer to Youtube videos for guidance.
Mag fit fine and fell freely when the mag release button was
depressed.
Next up was the bolt catch roll pin but first a little
dab of CLP to ease its entry. I’ve
recently read that some people will file one end of the pin as well to give it
more of a taper.
I got the pin started and left it part way in to install the
bolt catch, bolt catch spring, bolt catch plunger.
Once everything was in place, it was just a matter of
tapping in the roll pin completely.
Next up was the front take down pin, spring and detent, my second
speed bump in this build. In the
following pictures, it looks like everything went smoothly. What I didn’t take a picture of was the
spring and detent flying off into space and landing somewhere in the shag
carpet which lines the floor of my gun room.
Why? Because I did everything
like normal, but I didn’t test fit the takedown pin to make sure it fit the
receiver. I just assumed it would, but
it didn’t.
Anyway, after a lot of cursing, I managed to recover the spring and detent and I set them aside. I inspected the front takedown pin as well as the rear from the AR Stoner LPK and found that neither of them fit the Norinco lower. Was it the kit or the lower that was out of spec? I noticed a little paint and bled into the holes, so I scraped off the paint and it still didn’t fit. I tested the pins on a lower I knew was spec – my Colt LE6920, and the pins slide right in. It was the Norc lower that had slightly smaller holes. So out came the file (didn’t take photos) and at this point, I was beyond caring since I paid so little for the lower. I managed to remove enough material that the pins finally fit. Cleaned it all up, coated the pins with CLP and test fit them before trying to install the take down spring and detent again.
The trigger assembly was pretty straight forward and the
hammer and trigger pins fit perfectly.
The problem was the selector. I
was planning on using an AR Stoner ambi selector switch, which has worked for
every lower I’ve built so far.
Inexpensive, and looks very close to the factory Colt ambi, except both
tabs are the same length. The
problem? I couldn’t put it into
safe. I wasn’t sure if it was the trigger
from the AR Stoner LPK or if it was the lower, so I tried to Google it but didn’t
find anything. I did find once example
of a Norinco CQ311 for sale where the owner had said that the rifle was stuck
in fire and could not be put in safe. So
I decided to inspect the lower compared to a standard LE6920.
The standard LE6920 lower selecter switch hole.
The Norinco CQ311 lower selector switch hole. As you can seem part of the trigger is visible here, so at first I assumed the trigger was out of spec. I was thinking about filing it down, but that was not happening. It was pretty hard steel and I didn't have the right tools.
Since I was at my wits end trying to remove material from
the AR Stoner trigger with my crappy little files, I wondered what the factory
Norinco CQ311 selector looked like. I
then remembered that my lower did come with a few parts and I wondered why the
owner had included the selector and a few other bits. Glad I didn’t throw it out, I dug out my
spare parts box and found the factory selector and found a notch cut into the
damn thing. It appears that the location
of the selector hole in the Norinco is lower, hence the notch in the selector
to allow for more movement. WTF, why
bother??? They could have avoided this
just by making the hole in the standard location.
I’d dug out the bag of spares that came with the lower but
set it aside and continued on with my build.
The factory Norinco selector worked fine and I was able to put it in safe. Sucks I couldn't use my ambi selector, but at least this way I could put it on safe if I needed to.
Everything else just dropped right in until.........
I got to the carbine buffer tube. The threads on my AR Stoner carbine buffer
did not match the threads on the Norinco CQ311 lower. More Googling led to next pleasant surprise
about the Norinco CQ311, they used metric threads and I would be able to get
maybe 2 threads in of the mil-spec carbine buffer tube (it didn’t matter if it
was mil-spec or comm-spec) and that was it.
Where the hell was I going to get a metric threaded carbine buffer? When I thought back to the Norinco CQ-A I had
years ago, which was a carbine, I wondered if it had metric threads. But then I remembered that it came with acomm-spec
buffer tube and I was able to install a mil-spec buffer tube on it…which meant
it would be incompatible to the CQ311.
I considered re-threading the lower to accept a standard mil-spec buffer tube, or even just forcing it on, but then I decided to try one of my rifle length receiver extensions. Still no go. I then noticed the A2 stock that came with the lower. One of the reasons I bought the lower was because it came with an A2 stock that was probably worth more alone than what I paid for the entire package. Anyway, the A2 stock that came with it had a receiver extension in it, so for $hits and giggles, I decided to try it and it spun right on. I guess it must have been the factory CQ311 receiver extension, and I didn’t remember reading anywhere that the CQ311 with the A1 lower ever came in a carbine configuration.
Of course it required a 13mm wrench to tighten it on, lol!
I tried to fit my old A1 stock that I’d purchased ages ago,
but it didn’t fit. It never fit any of
my other A2 received extensions so I’ll have to go into it one of these days
and sand out some of the material. It
might have changed shape internally over the years, or maybe absorbed some
moisture or oil and the material expanded or something. Either way, I didn’t bother with it this time
around.
The rest of the stock assembly went on just fine without a hitch and the rear take down went in fine after I had previously sanded out the non-spec hole.
Surprisingly, the buttstock screw was the same spec as a standard A2 stock. Weird.
Of course, this build would not be complete with at least
one more problem. One that I have yet to
resolve, the grip screw. The lower did
not come with a grip screw, and the one from my LPK did not fit. Nor did any of the other standard grip screws
I had from my bag of A2 grips. It turns
out the standard size grip screw is 1/4x28 thread pitch and Norinco decided to
not go with this screw size. Goddamn
Fukking communists, lol!
I did a little more reading and it turns out that it is
probably a metric screw size, however no information was available for the
exact metric thread pitch. I went to
Home Depot and brought home and assortment of metric and imperial screws. 1/4x28 didn’t fit and the next size down was
1/4x20 and it didn’t fit. I tried a standard
M5 screw and it slipped right through. I
was able to get two turns with a standard M6-1.0mm (what seems to be the
standard at the local hardware stores) but eventually it did not go further
in.
I’ve since learned that that metric screws, particularly M6
screws come in M6-1.0mm, which seems to be the most popular, then there are
M6-0.5mm and M6-0.75mm.
I called all the
local fastener shops in town and no one carried anything beyond M6-1.0mm.
There was a shop in the US that had M6-0.75mm
for $4.50 USD each but charged $25 shipping.
I found an M6-0.75mm on Fleabay for $2.50 shipped, so I ordered
one.
I couldn’t find an M6-0.5mm.
Anyway, the wait begins as it’s coming from China so it will
probably take two months to get here.
So, to summarize, the Norinco CQ-311 lower is a complete pain
in the dick to deal with. Most standard
AR lower parts will fit, keep in mind the issues I ran into.
My
example had holes for the takedown pins that did not fit standard size takedown
pins and had to be filed a bit to accept them.
I’m not talking a huge margin here, but some filing was required, it’s
not like I had to get the drill press out and hog it out, just a bit of filing
and the pins eventually dropped in.
The
fire control switch appears to be located lower in the receiver compared to the
standard. This requires you to either notch
the selector switch to allow it to go into safe, or remove material from the
trigger to allow a standard selector to switch into safe. Or, just use the selector that comes with the
CQ-311.
The
receiver extension is metric, so a standard AR carbine buffer tube or rifle
length receiver extension will not fit unless it miraculously has metric
threads.
Lastly,
the grip screw. It is not the standard
1/4x28 sizing, it’s metric, and likely M6-0.75mm or even M6-0.50mm. I still have to figure that out and a
possible solution is shipping from China and should be here in another month,
lol!
Still,
despite all of this, there aren’t that many other options for A1 lowers in
Canada. I know there are a couple of large
takedown-pin Colts out there, and I suppose I can source the adapter for it, but
this came along for a great price….and now I know why, lol!
