I had an introduction to shooting range session for 20+ co-workers today.
In addition to the 30+ firearms at the range was my new Norinco M4.
It had exactly 84 rounds through it prior to today.
In a 5 hour period over 1000 rounds went through it with zero failures.
Used three magazines during the session: 2 factory 30 round pinned magazine and a RRA 10 round magazine.
Were using Fiocci factory ammunition exclusively.
Shooters were using the large factory aperture sight at a 200 yard 30" diameter gong. The dry weather combined with slight wind made spotting the rounds at 200 yards easy.
Most of the shooters had never fired a gun before (or very limited exposure in their youth) and were making 60% hits within a magazine or two from a bench with front rest.
After firing the SKS almost everyone commented on its light weight and how much fun it was to shoot.
I had another shooter bring their mini 14 as a backup and the universal choice of the shooters was the M4 over the mini 14. Their observations were simply on handling and did not include accuracy comparisions.
My worries about possible "failures" of this gun were unfounded. It ran without problems even though it got pretty hot during the session.