as already mentioned the M70 is onea the best ya can get and at the Century price is a bargain..... ya can either refinish yourself or send it to Macs shootin irons for a super nice finish at around $130 he parks em then moly resins everything for that price......
Century cuts costs where they can thats why ya got the rifle at $425 instead of $1000 it woulda cost otherwise...... I build custom high end Yugo's and even on a basic rifle we can't even begin to come close to Cenyurys price on em as #1 we have to pay the $300 - $400 for the virgin parts set just to start with while they paid $10 for the same parts sets then their labor is working for $5.25 an hour........ ya wanna go offer ANY gun builder $5.25 per hour and see how fast he shows ya the door? The basic lowest shop rate right now is $45 per hour. here is a break down I did for someone on another forum so ignore referances to options he had mentioned... he was complaining about the bolt carrier being left in the white rather than refinished too.... also these figures are for if your starting with a regular parts set as Century does as opposed to the virgin kits we start with etc...
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The Yugo bolts and bolt carriers are stainless steel so they will always be in the "white" Century just hires your lowest level workers ya know the guys ya see standin in front of the day labor shops in the big cities? Thats the Century labor pool.... The thing is ya really can't build a Yugo for what Century sells em for not with the price of kits shyrocketing the way they have, Century isn't payin the kit prices we are though so they can knock off a couple hundred bucks right off the top, next they are getting the new Green mountain barrels at $60 each due to the volume they can buy while we are payin $80 ea for the same barrels The Yugos we build almost double what century can sell em for simply because we are not working for $5.25 per hour (nor is any builder) and we are takin more time with buildin each gun But when I'm done with one they will shoot under 2" from the machine rest with over the counter ammo at 100 yards every single time and if I shut off the gas turnin em into a manual straight pull bolt action they will easily go MOA and with quality ammo Sub MOA, The Century guns are a cheap way to get the basic parts...... do the math lets say for an underfolder..
Parts set = $250
New barrel = $80
Reciever = $95
Rivet set = $10
US 922R compliance parts = $60
Your already up to $495 just in the components, now lets assume ya already have a full blown gun machine shop with the jigs etcs... ya still are going to spend 2 hours demilling the parts set (and remember this is not just removing barrel and old rivets ya are now including stripping the old barrel for its components thats where the second hour of demill time comes in and 2 hours is being optimistic that ya don't encounter any Issues...... like seized sight block or gas block pins etc...) so lets go with the industry average of
Basic demil = $45
Barrel demil = $45
so now your up to $585
now ya will need to media blast all the parts another hour plus "shop items" this is reffering to blast media generally $10
so now your at $640
Now ya will need to assemble the barrel this usually takes about an hour and a half as ya gotta press everything on to set the distance for your gas block then press off the gas block and drill the gas port then press everything back on check it 3 times to be sure everything is lined up straight then drill your pin holes and install the pins set headspace and drill barrel pin hole so lets add the 1.5 hours
so now your at $707.50
And ya still haven't even begun to assemble the reciever yet so lets just jump right to gettin the reciever riveted up at the basic $135 bargain price for assembling an underfolder and pressing the barrel back in etc..
SO thats $842.50
Now ya needa restamp all the numbers from the reciever as ya mentioned that option thats another hour so...
$887.50
Now ya gotta refinish the whole shootin match the standard rate is $130 for a proffesional job its parked then sprayed with moly resin (Macs Shootin irons rate) so..
$1017.50
Wow the Century built Yugo at $425 is a hell of a bargain ain't it? Now if ya want it have all the profesional work done its gonna cost ya more when ya buy the Century version ya are opting for function over havin all the fine details done..... Now with ours I also square the barrels to the bolt faces and bring all components dead on inspec etc... plus we swap out the original twin wire recoil assembly for a milled one and add a Redstar FCG tuned to the customers requested trigger style (single or double stage, pull weights from 1.5lbs to 4 lbs then everything is Loctited etc... and yea this all adds up to even more $$) still yet. Shops take a beating all the time on doing a full blown as new build, many will take shortcuts ya will never know about..... Me I never do, not even on a basic just rivet it together build Rommy kit thats why I am usually swamped each year I take a few months off from runnin onea my trucks over the road to do all the builds that have stacked up for others etc... I don't even consider doin any finish work as its too time consuming to be honest I don't know how Mac turns out the unbelievably nice work he does for the prices he charges...
Anyhow if a builder actually charged for everything that actually goes into a nice total build with new barrel etc... there ya go and most charge a higher shop rate than $45 an hour (this is coverin all the expenses to run a shop ya don't even want to know what our power bill is each month with 2 CNCs as well as 3 manual mills plus the lathes, powered presses, sheet metal shear and brake blast furnace etc.. insurance ATF paperwork etc etc etc..... so if Century hired more competant workers so that they could turn out a prettier Yugo then sure it would be nicer alot nicer ya also wouldn't be gettin it at $425 either
I'm plannin on gettin one of theires when the synthetic stocks show up just to get the parts!!! I'll take it all apart and rebuild it myself but $399 for all the components! I can't even get em for that price Wink
