A non-Norinco 1897 copy?

[jrdudas]

My local gun store has some 1897 copies at a good price so I stopped in to see them.  They are made in China but do not say "Norinco" on them.  On the bottom of the barrel it says "Made in China" and "Quandian Industries" (I think that's the correct spelling).  Anyone have knowledge of these guns.  I currently use a Stoeger SxS but I am interested in the 1897 copies.  Of course an original would be best but the wallet is thin right now.

Thanks in advance for your repsonses.

JR

[Will Blastem]

I got one of those...It says "Kuandian China" on the bottom of the receiver. Without going into a lot of detail, let me just say this...If you are buying a Norinco 97 copy make sure it is from IAC (the importer). My  gun said Norinco on the box and it was the most expensive gun buying mistake I've ever made. The problem is that there may have been some factory seconds or just outright duds which made their way into the USA market. My gun won't fire at all. I haven't yet sent it to my gunsmith to see if it's salvageable or not. A couple of good sources for "quality" Norincos I've heard of is 
Steves Guns  http://cowboygunworks.com/
Coyote Cap Gunworks  http://cowboygunworks.com/
Dusty Bunch Shooters http://www.dustybunch.org/
Cowboy Gun Works http://cowboygunworks.com/

I have only had direct experience with Steve's Guns , aka Nate Kiowa Jones. Excellent quality products and work. I have heard many excellent reports from others on various forums about the others I have listed.

[Marauder]

IAC imports the guns from the company that Norinco used to import.

TTN imports a slightly different version from a different company.
http://www.ttnintinc.com/

[arkiebob]

Interesting.  I have had a Kuandian for about a year and it functions 100% and has a pretty smooth action.

[Abilene]

Marauder, I think that website for TTN has been kaput for some time now.  Actually, I don't know that TTN exists any more under that name.  I think that all the TTN '97's that are marked "TTN" were made at least a couple years ago.  Cimarron just received 300 new '97's (with a couple thousand more to come) from the same factory that previously were marked as TTN  (as mentioned, a different factory than makes the '97's for IAC).  These are marked Cimarron Repeating Arms on the barrel and they say manufactured by Polytech.  So I guess Polytech is sort of a new name for TTN, or something like that.  I believe EMF also got a smaller amount of those new ones (and maybe Taylor's as well?  I think they were both previously selling the TTN marked '97's).

By the way, the owners manual on these new '97's say that they are designed to be able to slam-fire.  I don't know if the previous TTN '97's would slam-fire or not.  I don't think the Norinco/IAC guns will.