Century C-15 Sporter

[KiltedClaymore]

anyone own one? care to tell me why/why not to get one? even though Century puts them together, they are made of all US surplus parts. only thing new is the lower reciever, and how bad (knock on wood) could they screw something simple like a M-16 lower?

 

[Z71]

I just bought one a couple weeks back. I like it just fine.

Supposidly these are made from Colt M16A2 rifles surplused out of some South American country's arsenal.

Not a bunch of factual info floating around the net about these rifles.

My Century C15 has new lower receiver(forged), new stock/handguard/grip, new springs, maybe a new barrel(fat barrel, no marks, not in the usual A2 configuration), probably a new trigger assembly.

Looks like most of the rest is used Colt parts. Some of the used parts are not refinished, but most of the used parts are. The rifle appears just not quite new! More like a refurbed and refinished milsurp than a brandnew rifle.

The only used/worn part on my gun that bugs me is the front sling swivel. The swivel is refinished along with the sight base and barrel, however it is well worn. Other parts show wear too, but nothing to cry about.

I love mine. Works just fine, eats cheap ammo, accurate, looks great.

If you think of it as a brandnew rifle, you may be dissappointed. If you consider it a refurbed military rifle, you will probably like it.

I looked at two of these my dealer had in stock, and chose the one with the tightest receiver fit. Neither one was just horribly floppy, but I've heard some were fairly loose fitting. The "Accu-Wedge" mine came with does a fair job of tighting things up.

I consider mine a refurbed rifle that works as well as a new rifle.

 

[Onmilo]

The lower receiver, barrel assembly, and lower receiver fire control group are provided to Century by DPMS.
The small parts, bolt catch, mag catch, etc. are surplus as is the furniture.
Some of the stocks appear all beat to heck and others appear as new.

Bolt carriers are M16 that have been rather crudely machined into a commercial AR15 type.
Bolts appear to be a mix of surplus and new commercial.
I have seen Colt bolts and I have seen D marked DPMS commercial bolts in these rifles.

The front sight tower is new and comes with the barrel from DPMS, the front swivel is surplus and Century is most likely using whatever they pull from a parts bin.

I have inspected one of these rifles right from the box that had a 600 meter rear sight adjustment wheel.
A2 non detachable carry handle rifles use an 800 meter maximum elevation wheel.

The more of these rifles I have handled and inspected, the more convinced I am that these are simply USGI surplus upper receivers assembled using a mixture of surplus GI and new commercial replacement parts.

 

[natescout]

im thinking about trading my daewoo dr-200 for one. is that a good trade ?

 

[RP88]

as with anything surplus, you run the risk of getting screwed in the quality of the parts. Could get semi-quality parts, could get quality crap. For the price, you could just get something brand-new that is lighter and has better quality in general (Olympic basic, Del-ton, and some mid-level used ARs come to mind). I'm gonna give the current trendy answer: "no, save up for a Del-ton kit. They're only _____ bucks more than that, and are much better"

 

[DeadHorrorFan]

im thinking about trading my daewoo dr-200 for one. is that a good trade ?

Absolutely not. The Daewoo's aren't imported anymore, are worth more, and are getting collectible.

 

[Z71]

Mine definately has used parts in the fire control group! The hammer and trigger pins for instance. The hammer itself is used.

The front sight base and flash hider are used parts as well. Although the barrel I would presume to be new. The flash hider has no washer, the barrel has no place to mount a grenade launcher. The bore is a 1/7 twist, and appears to be chromed. Not a single letter or number stamped anywhere I can see on the barrel.

The bolt carrier on mine is remachined, but rather well done, and not immediatly noticable.

One thing I have noticed about these are that no two descriptions agree on whats new, and whats used parts.

My personal thoughts are that these maybe were imported in as cut barreled, destroyed receiver parts kits. Century, or someone Century contracted for the job, built the parts into legal "sporters".

Another thing I thought odd, was that Century doesn't seem to have these listed anywhere in their online catalog?

I wouldn't buy one sight unseen. I can honestly say that mine is an excellent preformer so far, firing about 400 rounds trouble free. I do think I may invest in a small parts kit, especialy a firing pin.

 

[texfed]

I've only seen one that came in on a trade...I test fired it and checked all the measurements on it. All dimensions were milspec. It would definitely be a good, safe shooter, but..................what a homely, cobbed up, ugly rifle. The finish was rough, the flash suppressor looked like something off ebay, someone made up, and pinned on and all the other parts had been around the block.
We traded for it cheap and sold it cheap and somone got a rifle that shot great but looked and was cheap!
In the old days, I'd compare it to a good used Rambler Ambassador verses a new Camaro!

 

[Z71]

The one I bought has a regular flash-hider. Used GI I imagine. No sign of a pin or anything like that.

The finish looks quite decent too. The opinions on these vary so much that it's almost impossible to tell whats what!

I can say that I've seen two of these in person, and bought one of them. Both were identical with new furniture and fat barrels, regular GI flash hiders.

I just went to Centurys webstore. They now show Law enforcement only M16 A2 rifles in burst fire and full auto, but no C15 sporters.

http://tombstonearms.com/Pictures.cfm?ID=-2130909445 here is a link to a C15 identical to what I bought.

 

[NonConformist]

One thing I have noticed about these are that no two descriptions agree on whats new, and whats used parts.

That is Century's MO. I had a C-91 sporter and they couldnt tell me what parts were compliance or other parts as each rifle is different in that area

 

[bonza]

I was just on the Century site a few seconds ago & they are listed there.

Here's the info: Product #RI965, Condition Excellent. Centurion 15 Sporter Cal 223. U.S. Manufactured Reciever with 2 20 rnd mags.

For some reason they are listed in the 'Rifles' section, but not the 'Semi-Auto Rifles".

 

[Z71]

Found them! Wonder how I missed them earlier? I had looked all through the catalog section.

Looks like Century is busy re-furbing there own online store!

 

[texfed]

Century is a love/hate kinda place. I've been up to their receiving warehouse in VT years ago..it's mind blowing.
They may have modernized since then, but back then..their "rigging/assembly" area was like a whole bunch of 'cooter brown's workbenches' put together. I couldn't figure out how they got stuff done....and if you ordered a rifle, well, let's just say there was no consistency. But the price was right and they were always ready to exchange things.

 

[jad0110]

Bolt carriers are M16 that have been rather crudely machined into a commercial AR15 type.

From what I have gathered from reading online and talking to friends, this is the most common weak point on the C15s. I'd say you pretty much have to plan on getting a new bolt carrier when buying a C15. And if you are gonna do that, you may as well get something like a Stag, which are very nice ARs but are quite reasonably priced. And if you wanted to assemble your own from a kit, I highly recommend Del-Ton. You can put together your own rifle this way for not much more than a C15. For example, my Del-Ton mid-length A4 flattop kit with stripped Doublestar lower from buds, RRA 2 stage trigger group, detachable carry handle, chrome lined barrel, 2 20 and 2 30 round mags cost $800. With shipping and taxes added in, it cost about $850. To buy a similar rifle pre-assembled would probably cost at least a grand.

Plus, I only paid sales tax on the kit from Del-Ton and not all the components like I would a complete rifle at a gunshop. If you aren't a resident of NC, you wouldn't pay tax on a Del-Ton kit. Yes, NC charges sales tax on internet sales to businesses in-state :banghead: <stoopid>.

 

[Z71]

The re-machine work on my carrier ain't that badly done!

The first time I opened the rifle up and pulled the bolt assembly out, I looked for the "sloppy" ground carrier. Didn't notice anything odd. I read that these were for sure reground, so I looked again. Yes, the carrier has been re-machined to match a AR15 bolt carrier, but mainly noticable by virtue of having no finish where they did it. Even the machine marks look like the original Colt machine work. It does look like they may have cleaned up the sharp edges with a bit of die grinder work, but nothing un-sightly or overly crude.

My rifle has a used hammer too. I've read that they had done some re-work to the hammers as well. However, I can't see where anything has been ground or machined off my hammer? Looking at comparison pics online, my hammer profile doesn't match either a full auto or a semi-auto hammer! I wonder if a burst-fire hammer is different from either a full auto or semi-auto hammer? I have no clue!

I had been planning on building my own AR-15 A2 heavy barrel. But any which way I figured it the deal was going to cost about $750. Thats just about the same as Del-ton lists their rifles for online!

For me, the C15 for less than $600 was an expediant way to get into what I wanted in an AR with no wait, no muss, no fuss, and minimal effort. I also like the mil-surp factor, as at least some of the rifle used to be a genuine Colt M16A2. Perfectly happy with mine.

The Century C15 rifles seem to share some traits with Century's WASR-10 AK clones. Like the early ones were roughly made and so-so quality. Both my WASR-10 I bought new late last year, and my new C15 are just fine. Century apparently takes a bit of time and hard knocks to get their production up to snuff on the refurbs they peddle. I don't know that the poor Century folks will ever live down the CETME rifle fiasco. Although I've heard that even the Cetme rifles they still sell are pretty decent now.

 

[KiltedClaymore]

hmm...i'd like one except for the fact that .223 is so darn expencive. i could reload, but i dont have the time to reload 200+ rounds after every time i take it out!

 

[mr..plow]

you can get a quality AR with KNOWN US parts for about $100-$150 Stag is one..

 

[Z71]

Order me a couple cases of them $150 dollar Stags! I'll put it on my credit card!

 

[KiltedClaymore]

^for real^

lowest price ive ever seen for a semi-auto M-16/M-4 (excluding the C-15) is about $700-800.

 

[nalioth]

lowest price ive ever seen for an M-16/M-4 (excluding the C-15) is about $700-800

You should hurry with your NFA paperwork, then, eh?

That's a damned fine price for a transferable M-16

 

[Onmilo]

For those guys that are jumping up to defend the rifle, understand I am not against the Century rifles.
I feel they are a very good way for shooters on a budget to aquire an M16 type sporting rifle.

The rifle is still a modular one and the small flaws can be fixed or replaced as the owners tastes and budget allow.

However, if the buyer has some additional funds to spend initially, there are soime better choices on the market right now.

AR15 rifle market is one area of the retail firearm trade that is both a buyers and a sellers market.

 

[kcmarine]

You should hurry with your NFA paperwork, then, eh?

That's a damned fine price for a transferable M-16.

Way to modify his post. He said semi- auto. Don't nit pick a poster's vernacular.

 

[nalioth]

You should hurry with your NFA paperwork, then, eh?

That's a damned fine price for a transferable M-16.

Way to modify his post. He said semi- auto. Don't nit pick a poster's vernacular.

Yeah, it says "semi auto" AFTER he edited it.

Nobody modified anything. That is some low down stuff to be accusing folks of.

 

[KiltedClaymore]

he is right. i did modify. to make NALIOTH happy. heaven forbid i call a AR-15 an M-16. being more of a com-bloc kind of guy, im not quite attuned to the minute details of the AR vocabulary. thats why i like the communists, because an AK is an AK no matter if its full or semi auto.

 

[nalioth]

heaven forbid i call a AR-15 an M-16

Heaven forbid I have a Black Cat firecracker in my pocket and call it a stick of dynamite.

Neither are the same, although they share a similarity. One is illegal to possess without permits, and the other is legal to own w/o permitting of any kind.

Words and how we use them do make a difference.