Norinco KL-3B .177 Caliber Review

Overall Rating

Inexpensive
Light Weight
Sturdy
Side Lever

Ridiculous trigger pull (hence the low handling score)
Rough internals
Requires TLC to become decent
Ugly paint

I bought this rifle for about $30 in .22 and after reading some forums I realized I should probably have gone for .177 since people claim it's more accurate. Going into this, I knew I was going to take it apart and tune it up following a guide on http://www.charliedatuna.com/

Before beginning the tune, I took it out back and shot it a couple times. WOW, the trigger was ridiculous! It must have been a 35lb pull, no joke. I had to try with the safety on thinking that maybe they had installed it backwards. No, just a really tough trigger.

I followed the guide the best I could, sanding away at just about everything to get the internals smooth. Then I lubed everything with the recommended oils and sanded&stained the stock. I slapped the rifle back together and took her out back. This time the trigger pull was around 10lbs and I got none of the nasty crunching sounds while cocking it. It was actually very smooth. I tried mounting a Daisy Powerline scope but this rifle has barrel droop, which has its uses when using open sights but is bad for scope use. The scope would not adjust enough to line up with the low point of impact. I ended up trying a Daisy 4x scope from Walmart for $7 and just like on my Diana 24, it worked! The scope is at its limit for vertical correction but that's fine, it works.

I've put about 400 shots through it now and its holding up just fine with the trigger settling down some more to about 7-8lbs. That's still tough enough that my finger gets tired after a half hour of shooting. Accuracy isn't great, with about quarter size groups at 50ft but that's plenty good for me considering what I paid for this rifle. I use JSB Exacts 5.52 for the quarter size groups and RWS Pointed pellets for everything else. The RWS Superpoints get me around 1.5-2 inch groups at 50 feet but they're cheaper. I also tried RWS Superdomes but they're the worst of all. I think it has to do with the fact that most .22 pellets seem to fit loosely in the rifle. The JSBs are the tightest fitting.

I would recommend this rifle if you plan on tuning it. Otherwise, the trigger makes it just about unshootable. One more thing, the stock on mine had no wood filler or damage... I think I got lucky. It's not a very nice wood though and it's pretty soft so be careful.