Norinco 223 Ammo

I have some old Norinco .223 Remington I bought back when I had an AR-15 and it has been stored away since I sold it. Now I have a Stevens 200 .223 heavy barrel and I went to the range yesterday for the first time to shot it and sight it in. Everything went well, except for the crappy factory trigger, and it shoots great. I used about 6 factory loads and got the hits to the center and then shot 3 of the Norinco rounds. The last one would not extract and I had to knock it out with a cleaning rod. The round was not stuck, the extractor just would not grab the rim. I then thought this was 5.56 MM and the pressures were too high. Then I found the ammo boxes and all are marked ".223 Remington". I then wrote this off to a undersized head since it was ChiCom. Then I later examined the cases and found the primers to have the classic cratering, but the primer is barely flattened. I am not sure how you can have a primer so strong it will not flatten out but will still crater. I don't think I am going to shoot this stuff in my bolt action rifle anymore and I doubt the brass in good enough to knock the bullets out and salvage. Has anyone else had any experience with Norinco and pressure problems?

If your AR had the standard 5.56 chamber, it handled the Norico w/o problems. The tighter 223 chamber with shorter lead is what is causing your problems. Sell off the Norinco.