Norinco JW 25A .22 Rimfire

There are some guns that just look right, the standard German army rifle of WWII the venerable Mauser K98k is one of those guns. Real WWII guns are hard to find now and the full-bore cartridge, the 7.92x57mm is a bit of a beast. You can however shoot and have fun with a slightly scaled down version in .22lr.

K98k Look-a-like

Henry Krank of Leeds brings in the Norinco JW-25A from China. The gun looks like a K98k but is based upon the old Bruno Model 2 action in rimfire calibre. The Model 2 went on to become the CZ 452.

The JW-25A comes with a detachable five shot magazine that comes out of the bottom of the stock. The real K98k has an internal magazine loaded from the top with an open bolt. I prefer the JW-25A way, the magazine release catch is in front of the mag, pull it back towards the butt and the magazine can be taken out. Being five shot it sits flush with the woodwork. The woodwork has been made to resemble the Mauser, it has the same steel butt plate, two steel action bands on the front of the stock with a screw out short cleaning rod and even the attachment to fit a bayonet.  I understand repro bayonets even fit, as do K98k leather slings, the rear stock has the slot and aluminium ferrule and the second steel band has the slot for the front sling. All details to make you think it is a Mauser K98k.

Strip Down

The finish of the metal work and wood is adequate,for under three hundred and fifty quid you do not expect Walnut and Venom blueing. The real selling point of the gun is it’s looks, every shooter who saw me with it liked it - everyone. So it’s appeal is proven, and when you shoot it you are very pleasantly surprised too. The trigger is not the best in the world with a lot of drag. It came in at 5lb 3oz or 2.33kg. I did suspect a CZ trigger kit may fit but when I stripped it down I found the Bruno Model 2 is not the same as the CZ452 in the trigger department.

Speaking of stripping, that is not a short job as just like the real K98k it has two steel pins holding the front steel bands on which have to be knocked out, the top section of wood work can then be removed along with the bayonet fitting. Two screws and a wood screw have to be removed next before the action can be worked on. The bolt has a right hand throw and has a manual safety catch at the rear, pulling the catch back by the small lever on the right hand side will set the safety and cover up a small red dot on top of the bolt. Pushing the lever forwards takes the safety off.

Sights

The action has a 57mm and 33mm long 11mm scope rail front to back with a 35mm gap in the middle for the ejection port. The rifle has open sights, again made to look like the Mauser. The rear notch sight is a V on an elevator ramp. A spring loaded catch on the sight has to be pushed in so it can slide up and down. It is calibrated from 25 to 200 meters. For accuracy testing I wanted to fit a scope of some sort, not a 50 mag side-wheel, 56mm objective jobbo but something that was in fitting with a K98k. I came up with a Weaver 4x38 Rimfire scope,

Weaver glass as we all know is very good and a fixed four mag with no fiddly bits would look like an old WWII scope. Thanks to Will at Edgar Brothers for sorting it at very short notice. I went for Sportsmatch HST46C mounts for the 25mm tube Weaver, firstly because Sportsmatch mounts are the best and also because they are 11mm and cut out in the middle so I could see and still use the open sights.

As expected they fitted perfectly, the Weaver certainly did suit the gun very well and gave it the look of a WWII sniper rifle. The crude pressed steel five shot box magazine supplied with the rifle can be augmented by purchasing CZ 452 magazines, both the five shot and ten shot fit the JW-25A. All of the Chinese .22 barrels I have tested have been good and the one fitted to the JW-25A was no exception. My initial testing was chopping splinters of wood in the sand of the backstop shot from the standing position at 50m. It made areal change to shoot at 50m with a four mag scope.

Accuracy

Off the bags on a bench I tested a variety of ammo. My best group was a stonking 12.2mm five shots center to center with Geco subsonic at 50m. The worst was actually using Eley Match EPS at 35mm; as with all guns try a variety of ammo to find the one your barrel likes the most. The dozen or so other groups were 23 to 28mm, so around an inch would be the norm at 50m. This opened out to 75-80mm at 100m, this was with a poor trigger and a four mag scope so I was well happy with that.

Bearing in mind I own a few .22 semi-auto rimfires including an AR version,I found I was having just as much fun shooting with the bolt action of the JW-25A. I have a reset rabbits head made out of steel checker plate and this took a real bashing. It does save you money plinking with a bolt action, as getting through rounds with a 25 shot AR mag takes literally seconds. Using the five or even ten shot magazine you can fit in this gun slows the round count down somewhat.

Little Gem

I cannot rate this little gem highly enough, if you want an out of the ordinary plinker capable of keeping you in fun mode for a long time for not a lot of money, then the JW-25A is the one.

Many thanks to Henry Krank for help with this article.