Guest Reviewer: Shaun Arntsen’s take on the Type 81

Words By: Shaun Arntsen          Photos By: Shaun Arntsen / Wally F.

……….I had the opportunity to review Tactical Imports new Norinco Type 81 the last week. Over all I was impressed by the over all function and design of the rifle…

………..When I got the rifle the pistol grip was loose. This was easily corrected by disassembling the rifle and moving the nut that it screws into. The stamped receiver is in good shape with a better finish than you see on most Norinco rifles. Folding stock is easily folded to the right and easily folded back out, great cheek weld on the stock for sight picture alignment. Also a convenient cleaning kit is located in the “butt” of the rifle. Trigger was surprisingly good. Feels pretty standard weighing in I would guess at 7 lbs.(7.5 lbs on a trigger gauge), the reset is clean and short making follows ups a joy to shoot.

……….Sights are interesting. They have a T style iron sights. The rear looking like a T and the front a standard full hood AK. This front sight is designed to be used in CQB with both eyes open. I find the rear T allows for slightly better alignment of that sight picture. Accuracy is to be expected for a Chinese surplus service rifle. I was using Czech 124 grain surplus ammo and was getting 1 ½- 2 inch groups from a modified supported kneeling at 25m. I have been unable to take it out to a 100m distance to really get a gauge on the accuracy but I’m gonna put it around 4-6 MOA. For what’s its designed for, close in engagement distances inside 100m that will do just fine. You wont be winning awards in a 3 gun match with it that’s for certain. But for a fun plinking sporting rifle for Canadian use this thing is perfect and a lot of fun to shoot.

……….Safety is sort of like a AR in that it can be reached with the thumb however it was awkward and backwards from the AR so it takes some brain rewiring when running drills on it, but once you got it down its no issue. Function. The Type 81 Is a short stroke gas piston. It has 3 gas settings: 0) for using rifle grenade. This setting doesn’t allow gas to cycle the action. 1 or normal is the standard setting and 2 Adverse is for use during or after heavy fouling or use. The bolt carrier is similar to an AK. The rifle breaks down in the same format as an AK and in most aspects is the same. The mags have a follower and there is bolt catch to hold the bolt back on the last round. Performance. I conducted so drills, emergency reloads, tact reloads, transitions etc at a range of 10 meters on standard IDPA/IPSC targets. I was using iron sights and was able to effectively reload from A (HSGI) taco in 3 seconds making emergency reloads and placing well aimed shots COM with both eyes open. I test fired 2 different rifles firing approximately 300 rounds through both without a single malfunction.

……….Manipulation wise the rifle is handled virtually exactly the same as other AK variants with the biggest difference being the bolt staying open on the last round. Price point is $999.00 CDN at the time of the article and I feel it’s a great value for what you get. The type 81 Isn’t going to win any awards for accuracy any time soon however for a reliable plinker that shoots cheap ammo it’s a great purchase and I would recommend it. Even as a camp/ Bush gun it has a great place. And well if the zombies rise and walk the earth you defiantly have a great self defense rifle that I’m sure will last a long time if maintained.

……….Shaun Arntsen is an Afghanistan combat Veteran where he served with 3 PPCLI.  He is now an accomplished photographer and firearms enthusiast.  You can contact him at Athena Media Group and view his body of work on Instagram HERE.

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

Words By: Wally F.          Photos By: Wally F.

……….North Sylva has been in the Canadian firearms scene for over 60 years. It’s said that one in five firearms sold in Canada are imported by them. Being a distributor for Colt Canada, H&K, IWI, FN America, KRISS, and a whole bunch of other manufacturers, I won’t touch on every single new thing coming up, but I’ll hit all the points folks hopefully are looking for. I’m not going to make you read all the way to the end of the article to get the answers to a whole bunch of peoples questions. IWI had a great booth at SHOT Show this year. There was a ton of talk around the TS-12 Semi-auto 15+1 shotgun, the Tavor 7 .308 battle rifle, and the Masada 9mm striker fire pistol (although not on display at SHOT).

……….Folks up here in Canada are also eager to get more information on the status of the M+M M10X DMR. For those not in the know, the M10X was submitted to the RCMP Firearms Labs for testing and classification. In October 2017 the RCMP gave the M10X a non-restricted classification. North Sylva has been courting the manufacturer since 2013 on a process to get the rifle into Canadian shooters hands. At time of writing the M10X DMR is slated to be in Canadian hands approximately by May 2018 at minimum advertised price of $1999 CDN.

……….As for the IWI TS-12 semi-auto shotgun. It is extremely unlikely that it will ever make its way to Canada. As its primary ammunition carriage system is based off of the X-Rail shotgun magazine system which I believe the RCMP already deems as a prohibited item, the chances that the sci-fi looking TS-12 will ever come to Canada are next to none. The Masada striker fire pistol, the first in IWI’s line up is a good looking 9mm service pistol, but at last check the Masada is still having some production delays. Since the Masada’s barrel length is 104mm which is 2mm short of the legal length in Canada this will factor into the wait time. As a result it may be a while before Canadians can get their hands on the Masada, no ETA for export just yet. The Tavor 7 .308 bull-pup battle rifle had a great showing earlier this year in Las Vegas.  If the RCMP gives their stamp of approval, this .308 calibre rifle is going to be coveted in the Canadian market, not only for it’s compact build, which combined with the .308 round will be very useful in the back-country, on hunting excursions, and wilderness protection. The US release has been delayed until May/June and North Sylva is currently waiting for a sample from IWI.

……….While the Type 97 rifle has been in Canada for awhile, the Gen 2 rifle has been in Canada and available for quite some time. I’m surprised more people don’t have this bull-pup in their collection as well. Now with an integrated 1913 picatinny rail, KAC-style flip-up iron sights, and updated design. This rifle looks sexy compared to it’s predecessor. If you don’t have one of these in your collection, you truly are missing out on a gem of a rifle to shoot.

……….North Sylva also carries a full line of Meprolight optics for your firearms. Their line-up of pistol aftermarket sights is pretty awesome, especially the uniquely designed FT Sight system and Micro RDS pistol sight that has QD release with built in iron sights. As always their line-up of award winning electro optical and magnified sights like the battle proven M21 and MOR sights and their Mepro 4x magnified sights are all available now.

……….I wrote earlier this year about the prevalence of first focal length variable magnification scopes being more popular and in more reasonable price ranges. Now EOTech is getting into that game as well with the new Vudu line of scopes. With a crisp wide and zoom-in reticle that is useful at magnification you are getting a feature packed optic for a very competitive price, especially when you compare the Vudu against the Night Forces and Schmidt and Benders of the world.

……….In the next month or so North Sylva will be getting a limited Colt Canada run of three-hundred SA15.7 and two-hundred SA20 rifles. This run of Colts will also have an engraving on the lower receiver that will be exclusive to North Sylva’s run of the SA15.7 and SA20s.

……….While the snow is slow to melt this year in Canada there is plenty of hot new firearms and accessories ready to launch very soon from companies across the country. North Sylva is one of those companies ready to bring Canadian shooters the products they want, and 2018 is starting to shape up to be a very good year.

For your regular cravings in the firearms world in Canada and beyond be sure to follow TV-PressPass on Facebook and myself Wally F. on Instagram.

Reporting for TV-PressPass

Wally F.

It is a .223 bullpup with a 19” barrel that uses a short stroke gas piston and a rotating bolt, along with a reciprocating charging handle. At its core, the Type 97 is a civilian version of the Chinese QBZ-95 rifle; standard issue to the Peoples Liberation Army.

With a retail price just under a $1000, the T97 is the robust, capable black-rifle that any Canadian can afford to own and shoot, despite our flawed firearms legislation.

This is the latest version, imported by North Sylva as the T97NSR, manufactured by EMI (aka Norinco) in the People’s Republic of China.

Rather than the proprietary 5.8x42mm cartridge, the Type 97 has been converted to 5.56x45mm for the Canadian market. Along with commonly available ammunition, the T97 also benefits from STANAG magazine compatibility rather than using the curved rock-in magazines specific to the military’s rifles.

The design of the Type 97 really reflects a 90s idea of small arms. Any kind of “modularity” is built around proprietary parts. There is a scope rail, but it’s specific to Chinese military optics. There is a flash hider, but not only is it pinned and welded, it uses a non-standard metric thread. As the product of a communist country: user experience comes second to the requirements of manufacture. Concepts like ambidexterity, customization, and standardization with other small arms are not prioritized.

The most glaring ergonomic flaw is the safety. It is positioned on the back of the rifle just below the shooters cheek and requires a full 180 degree rotation from Safe to Fire. The most recent QBZ rifles have been updated with a safety at the pistol grip (similar to an AR-15 or Tavor) but for years the entire family including the T97 have been stuck with this almost inaccessible safety.

Another design unique to the T97 rifle is the magazine release. Having been retrofit with a STANAG magazine well, the release lever leaves something to be desired. A button about the size of a pencil eraser sits on the right side of the rifle, leaving the shooter to go through a variety of contortions to remove and re-insert a magazine.

Some users reach their reaction hand into their arm-pit and release the magazine with their index finger, while others imitate a PLA manual of arms by using their firing hand to strip the magazine. (This is what I found most natural)

But that doesn’t mean there is no expanding the platform. The core of the rifle can be stripped away from almost all its plastic components, which certainly opens the door for industrious local entrepreneurs to produce aftermarket chassis systems, one of which is already in the testing stage: