Why does everyone crap on Century Arms?

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Tortuga

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I know a lot of people don't like them, but hear me out. I've heard a lot of people give Century Arms a hard time -- even to the point where most of the comments on their youtube page demoing their imports is largely people trashing their company. This all being said, I think it's fair to recognize:

  • This company has had some SERIOUS quality control problems with some of their weapons, but this is traditionally with their American made AKs. To be fair, I don't think there's really any great American AKs on the market. Someone here mentioned that Palmetto State Armory came out with a good one fairly recently, but I'm not personally convinced on that. Even so, that was recent.
  • A lot of people have had lousy customer service.
In my case (and this is just me), I've personally used 2 century arms AK imports. One was a WASR-10 and the other was a RH10. Not only did these weapons perform extremely well, but I personally saw great customer service. When calling the office to inquire about getting her AK before the election, they expedited shipping and I got it roughly 3 days earlier than expected! I was nervous because I heard a lot of trash talk but honestly I'm very happy with it. Even Rob Ski looked at the RH10 and was very impressed with its performance (dedicating two whole videos for it).

To clarify I do not get any kind of kickback from Century, nor do I work there. I just feel like I have to give a good American company credit where it is due. I'm very happy with my experiences there and I'm hoping this is them turning over a new leaf from their prior reputation.

So what do you guys think? Lousy company? Good experiences? Are they the Huffy of firearms?
 
If they just import the gun, its usually fine, minus the overly huge CAI billboard that far exceeds BATF requirements.

No offense, but their poor history of semi-auto builds goes WAY PAST the current US-made AKs.

My Yugo AK folder had serious issues, and just ask owners of things like a MAS49 .308 conversion how they like them.

Also, they are well known for challenges with FAL and G3 style builds.
 
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Truthfully, they have built some good guns, but EVERY SINGLE MODEL they build themselves has some glaring deficiencies that the customers discover in use. Sometimes this happens after a certain product has been out for a while, and sometimes it's right out of the gate. That reality is why they have a bad rep.

I will buy and own weapons built by century arms( have in the past and will in the future), but I will NEVER trust one I can't personally check over before purchasing. Sight unseen is just too much of a crapshoot.
 
Also, they are well known for challenges with FAL and G3 style builds.

And its one thing to botch an original design or a design that wasn't good to begin with. But to fail on a very well known and documented gun like the AK/FAL/G3?

My examples have all been fine. But all imported too. I still have a Romanian 5.45 AK.

The biggest complaints I've actually seen or heard firsthand have been with customer service. And none of those were in the last 10 or 15 years.
 
They have done a few things in the tradition of Bannerman's 30-06 Mosin and Rolling Block conversions, which don't just make the arms uncollectible but unshootable. Case in point: Century's MAS 49/56 conversions in .308 Winchester.

However I've mostly just bought as-is surplus milsurps through them, and those are no better nor worse than any other company's.
 
I have a few of theirs... an ooold AR lower that’s perfect, an R1A1 (ban version L1A1) that hates metric mags, but runs flawless with inch pattern, a WASR that seems to be reliable as a hammer, and a Cetme sporter that is picky about magazines... it likes original Cetme mags.
The R1 and Cetme both used to throw fits and needed minor massaging to run right (performed by a yahoo in his garage), and ultimately, the magazines were the biggest issue.

id buy another CAI, but not without laying hands in it first
 
i bought a 49/56 converted to 7.62x51 and it was a basket case from day one, even after two trips back for repair it never ran more than 5-6 rounds in a row. i bit the bullet and dumped it for a loss with full discloser about its failings.
 
They have had some issues in their "gunsmithing" department. The CETME I had was poorly assembled. I had to modify G3 magazines to get proper function, and it should have been caught before ever leaving the shop. Sheet metal stamping was slightly out of spec, but enough to rock the magazine forward prohibiting stripping of a round from magazine. It was obviously never test fired or tested with dummy rounds. Wonder how many copies they sent out with the identical flaw? That is shameful in my opinion. Customer service was a black hole so I gave up and just used as-is with modified magazines. Was also never a fan of their huge billboard import stamps. That being said, they did import a lot of firearms that are currently in my safe and the scale of quantity made them very affordable.
 
I think that a lot of us that were buying from Century a couple of decades ago developed a bit of a Love-Hate relationship with them.

Many of the firearms that they built/smith'd were problematic. Canted AK sights and CETME bolt carriers that were ground-to-fit to an out-of-spec condition immediately come to my mind.

I read that their 12-month(?) Warranty on those "crafted" firearms started when the product left their hand and not when the product was sold to the end-user. I do not know the truth of that, having never had to challenge them on such a warranty issue.

Some of the telephone sales staff could periodically be a bit fast & loose with accuracy of descriptions ...

... BUT ... even with all of that taken into account ...

... thank goodness for Century International Arms, say I!

They provided me & my like-minded buds (us) with beaucoup Good Stuff over the years. :)
 
As an importer, so long as they are not altering the weapon, they are fine. They didn’t make the weapons.

As a manufacturer, they are trash (ranked just slightly above the now defunct I.O.).
 
Ive seen the Century Arms "drunk monkey" builds (this is what they are labelled from a more FAL-centric message board) FAL builds...AK gas blocks that were visibly off-center, and CETME's that would be better used in combat as a club. I've also seen their rifles shoot wonderfully.

NOW...with that being said...is this something you would bet on? Or would you spend about 200-300 more and go to DSA or similar for a working FAL?
 
his company has had some SERIOUS quality control problems with some of their weapons, but this is traditionally with their American made AKs
They used to hack up many other things, including taking old Mausers and selling them in sporter configuration. In my case, they screwed the barrel into the receiver crooked. Literally crooked.

And don't get me started on how they made a cottage industry out of reselling worn out CETMEs and making them appear legit by grinding the tail of the bolt so that they'd show the correct bolt gap.
 
The few Zastava LK M70 bolt action rifles I own that have a CAI import stamp function just as well as the ones I own that have an Interarms stamp.

The wooden stocks aren't as nice as the ones with Interarms stamps, but that's not a CAI issue. The wood stock finish for the Interarms models had a set of standards above & beyond the standard specifications for the standard Zastava LK M70 rifles that were manufactured with Zastava stamps of the same time period with Interarms stamps, that ceased when Interarms imploded. The CAI imported Zastava LK M70 rifles have the same wooden stocks as the standard Zastava LK M70 rifles with wood stocks.
 
...ok I am thankful for what they do. And they do bring in lots of neat stuff. But im leery of anything they actually manufacture or work on in any substantial way.
I got that outta the way. Grab some popcorn


1) My CETME started life with damn near NO bolt gap and a rear sight with no tension (just spun around loosely).

2) My wasr from 05: the magwell was cut bad, the front sight assembly was noticeably clocked to the left and the rear as well. (Was reliable and accurate just looked bad and made the iron sights almost useless, thank God for the scope rail.)

3) Several FAL rifles. The 2 metrics were badly put together but salvageable.
The 3 Inch patterns I owned.... Holy fornicating bull droppings.

A- The headspace was at the outer limits of almost unsafeish (think nearly swallowing a field gauge on one and a touch long but safe on the others)
B- The lower was hacked to put that thumbhole stock on 2 of em and one was unmolested for some reason.
C- The feed ramps were cut so bad on all 3 wouldn't feed and had to be welded and recut.
D- The mag catches on two were too low on 2 and cut wrong, the other was cut at the right height but not deep enough.
E- They cut the threads off the muzzle (I know why and can accept it but it looked like they cut it with a beaver going through a withdrawal.).
F- Barrel not washer timed on 1. Others had metric barrels washer timed.
G- Ejector block was just a touch low causing ejection problems on one. Only solved this aggravating mystery after fixing the front mag catch issue.

4) My 93 5.56 clone.
Again with just minimal bolt gap.

5) My Golan
Bad receiver feed ramps, bad locking lugs, bad scope mount cuts, loose topcover. Could hit a 55 gallon drum at 500 yds single shot.
Returned to century with prejudice and a certified letter.

Bought all of these cheap because of the problems.
 
Oh God I completely forgot about my flipping useless MAS49-56 that they chopped a halfish inch off the chamber end of the rifle barrel and recut a 308 chamber into it.
Then just stuffed em into boxes and shipped em, some surprisingly work, not mine.

Balks and sizes with ANY useful load I've tried. From premium norma, hornady, herters, tula, wolf, surplus, hertenberger, cbc, some mysterious French 308, Radway-green, Remington, Winchester all sized up.
 
They were great back in the late 80' and 90's when they imported Finnish Mosin's by the pound and by the ton.
I used to get 5 wired together in a bundle, M-91's, M-27's, M28's, 91/30's 100$ with postage....and ,later M-39's, but not bundled at 69$ each. the only thing that was missing "as advertised" was the rust they should have had, maybe a cleaning rod, or a front sight, maybe a screw, if it was missing anything at all.
No internet to research them very well with, back then, just inexpensive and appealing due to superior accuracy and Chinese 7.62x54r being cheap.
I saw how old Winchesters, Springfeilds, Mausers and such had gone to collectors, I could see that would eventually happen with Mosin's.
 
Century only built 1 good AK, and that was the Milled Polish, the rest are total garbage. Century put their name on perfectly good pistols, Romanian Draco’s, and did not alter them in any way. Century also built their own version, So be careful. Century built the VZ 2008, which really isn’t that bad either, if the trigger resets for you. Century did not build the RH-10 or Wasr line, only milled out the mag well to take 30rd mags. The crooked sight issues are not century’s fault, but the sloppy, or tight mag fit issues are. Do not buy a Century built AK!
 
You definitely have to like gambling if you buy anything that Century Arms actually built themselves. When they work, they usually work well. When they do not work, it can be a nightmare to get them to function. And it has been that way since at least the late 90's.
 
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