I didn't think Norinco made a .223, I thought all their ammo was made for the 7.62.

Can anyone tell me what year that was from and when we stopped importing it? I'm thinking it was around 1989-1990.

I don't know what year that was from, but I remember shooting a lot of it.

BIG FLASH AMMO.  It was pretty fun to shoot.

I think the stuff was imported up until the early-mid 90's. I bought several cases of the stuff and what I have has the "93" headstamps, so I know it was still coming in as late as  1993. It seems the stuff started getting scarce at roughly the same time as the "Assault Weapons Ban" in 1994 or thereabouts.

I have used this as informal plinking ammo in a Mini-14 and have almost shot up the last I bought. Surprisingly I have never had any problems with it and it seems pretty hot, although I never bothered to chrono the stuff. I haven't shot it in any AR's but my Mini loves it and that ammo and gun has killed numerous soda cans over the years. All in all I'd rather have it than Wolf if it was still imported.

-Charging Handle

duh, I never even looked at the headstamp, these are '93 too.

I used to buy thousands of rounds of this stuff back in the mid 80's for $1.79 a box.  Shot it through a Daewoo Max 2 and never had a problem with it. Great shooting and very reliable.  I heard alot of people say don't use it but I never had a problem with it.
[:)]

This thread just goes to show that you need to expand your horizons.

Norinco made MANY, MANY .223 AK-47 type rifles.

Why?  Because the Chinese are capitalists at heart, in a communist package. Boil it down, and business comes first.

They saw a demand for inexpensive 5.56MM ammo, and filled it. Remember, they were offering cheap "surplus" ammo before the swarms of 5.56 surplus was available.

Meplat-

I'm just about to use up the last of the Norinco .223 that I bought for plinking several years ago.  

I think that a 2000 rd crate cost me around $175 or so and performed without problems.  Stuff is decently accurate out of my 16" HBar Bushy upper too.  Not very dirty either and I'd much rather shoot brass case than the Russian steel cases.

I have a case of that stuff. 1800 rounds per case IIRC.

I have yet to shoot any of it.

It was the first case of .223 ammo I purchased.

i wish we could still get it

I still have 2 cases of it. Bofum 92 production.