Century Galil/Golani range report

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Well, I took the new Galil out to the range today. I bought the rifle yesterday at the Missoula Gun Show. Rifle is a Century Golani Galil copy. Workmanship looked very good, so despite have the Century name on it, I decided to buy. Mine is the 18 inch model, and it came with two steel mage - one refinished and one nasty one.

The bad news: I only brought the refinished mag with me to the range, and I am hoping this is a magazine problem.

The rifle would not fire more tha one round without a stoppage. Ammo was new WW 55gn FMJBT - i.e. M193 equivalent. A round would fire, but the empty was not thrown clear, resulting in a stovepipe or simialr stoppage every single round. I tried a variety of milsurp with the same result. If I loaded one in the chamber,m then revove the mag, rounds were ejected right and forward about 10 feet - so it's either a problem with the mad, or the mad well is cut wrong. I'll have to try a different mag to know for sure. After paying $925 I am not happy. You'd think they trest fire the rifle.

The good new:

The rifle is extremely accurate. I had no problem putting 10 rounds into 2 inches at 100 yards with iron sights. The trigger has lots of creep, and could really use help, but is pretty typical for a military trigger.

The sights are great, and in spite of the rear sight being on the top cover, I didn't notice any change in impactt after removing and replace the toip cover. Good thing, because several jams required field stripping to clear the action.

As the rifle sits right now, it is totally unacceptable. If the mag is at fault, I can live with that. I am rebuilding the other magazine and have ordered some NIB Israeli Orlites for further testing.

More to follow.
 
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Wel, cleaned the Golani/Galil and it was bone dry, including the magazines. I got mag number two cleaned up and ready for a retest tomorrow. We'll see if lube makes any difference.

Anyone else having issues with their Century Galil?
 
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I rebuilt and tried the other magazine. No joy. After careful analysis, it appears that there isn't enough port pressure to drive the bolt all the way rearward, leeding to misfeeds and stovepipes. I was unable to remove the front sight block to measure the gas port, But it is either misaligned or too small.

I have a call into Century. Too bad, because other than the reliability issue, it is a very nice rifle. Leave it to Century to FU an AK derivative. Why can Chinese laborers build AK in the villiage shot that are 100% reliable, and yet CAI can't manage it with surplus Israeli parts and CNC machined receivers.

They must have a special breed of monkey - one lacking both intelligence and mechanical aptitude.
 
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Tod,

I am sorry to hear this and I hope you get it resolved quickly and easily.

If down the road you do not, if nothing else maybe a Saiga/Redjacket conversion may meet your need in either .308, .223 or x39. He sure has some nice stuff and the only AK derivative I have been as happy with my old Norinco .223 and Bulgarian SAR-93....which I foolishly sold in my time of need for ridiculous prices that I don't want to mention.

Wishing you luck!

TOU
 
It really sucks, because years ago I had an IMI Galil that was the cat's pajamas. This one is really accurate and feels really good. The Folding stock is one of the best (Basically the FN folder without the extra catch).

As noted, who else but Century could screw up the AK and make it not reliable.

I will be talking to tech support tomorrow. I've heard from several people who all say their Golani's work fine. I did manage to get some gunk out of the gas port, but it doesn't seem like it was enough to gum up the works.
The front sight block is on really tight, otherwise I'd pull it and ream the gas port and probably solve the problem.

I hope Century can take care of the problem, but really, for $925 you'd think they could ship something that works.

If they don't take care oif this, expect me to make it my mission in life to make sure why they should never buy anything from CAI.

I am going to try another test fire tomorrow, and will take photos and post a review on my web site.
 
That stinks. Mine runs fine, with either the new or old magazine.

Another possibility, could your ejector be too short or bent?

Keep us posted.
 
Sorry to hear about yours. Mine has been good (once I got it to stop doubling and tripling on me).
 
I spoke to CIA today, and have a RMA number. Shipping the rifle back to Century for a fix. Ejector looked fine, and the rifle ejects if there's only a couple of rounds in the mag. I noticed the bolt wasn't coming back all the way with a full mag, and this tends to confirm there's not enough gas pressure.

Over on UZItalk, there's a section on Galils. Standard gas port size in 0.050, but some rifles need as much as 0.070 to be reliable. I wish I could get the gas block off and measure, bit it appears to be a very tight press fit, with the roll pins there for decoration. I have it boxed up for shipping and will send it off tomorrow.

I'll report on what happens next. Stay tuned.
 
My Golani and it's trip back to Vermont

Well, I guess mine was like a lot of them. Had the same problem of failure to extract and jamming second round into face of receiver. Called Century in Florida and they gave me an RMA to Vermont where they are assembled anyway. Got it back in 2 weeks and had a conversation with the tech who worked on it. He said "headspace" was off and he changed out bolts. Don't know what else he may have done but it functions fine now. Got a Hesse Galil that shoots too, so I'm selling the Century.
 
I know I saw their employment advertisement on this forum before. IIRC they were hiring people for $12.00 with absolutely NO experience. That's probably a big reason on why century guns suck.
 
I don't think it's a head space issue here. Go gauge goes in fine, wonlt lock on the no-go.

I put a wide piece of painters tape on the side of the receiver and test fired. The Bolt isn't coming back far enough. That seem to suggest a problem with port pressure.

Got my rifle boxed up to ship tomorrow. I hope it only takes a couple of weeks to fix.

Of course test firing would have illuminated this issue right away.
 
golani jamming

i just finished with one of these on my bench and i must say there were a host of problems with it. the first was mag wobble,it was causing the weapon to not strip rounds properly.....the cure is to add a small weld to to the magazine where it locks in to the mag release,this will take up the clearance(which is about an 1/8 in on these mags) and it cures the stripping problem due to the fact that if the mag isnt locked up tight,it isnt a true cure all but it will avoid the mess of reworking the mag release lever.next off take a brass bore brush to the inside of the gas tube....get rid of the parkerizing in there,you will be amazed how much bettter the weapon will cycle. after that polish the feed ramp(i mean shiny smooth and perfect) it helps them strip so nice it is a huge improvement...after that look and see if the breech is squared off or it has a slight rounding...if you see a sharp edge it needs to go away(have your gunsmith relieve it....dont try it at home....i am a gunsmith and it is a pain to get the relief right) and finally check the gas piston,if it wobbles then it aint right....all that will do is cause the bolt carrier to twist during closing and wear unevenly(the one i just finished was a full turn out of being tight once i put that back to right the firearm hasnt missed a beat.i ran 100 test rounds through it without any failure and it functioned flawlessly....
 
Same problem

I had the same problem with my ORF built Micro Galil....

Long story short I was using underpowered PMC bronze ammo... I made the switch to steel cased brown bear and never had a problem since.

The underpowered ammo wasn't causing a full stroke for the bolt carrier, so the brass didnt have time to eject, and they got caught in between the bolt face and the trunion.

Brown Bear!
 
I received a replacement from Century that has been 100%. Around 5k rounds through it so far with no problems.
 
I picked up one from Henderson Defense. They "certify" their Golanis. I took it to the range yesterday and it shoots straight and feeds properly. I didn't have any failures until about round 75. Then I got a failure to extract after every round. Oddly, I let the rifle cool down and sighted in my AR and when I went back to shooting the Golani, it started the failure to extract problem.

I shot steel cased, .223 Tula hollow points. No lacquered finish, they look like the black/grey cased Wolf, not the green lacquered ones. The casing was in the chamber pretty tight. But why after 75 rounds? Hmmmm. I'm hesitant to shoot brass cased because they ruin the cases when ejecting with a nice ding. But, I know, I need to try other ammo.

Any suggestions? Do you think it was because the chamber was dirty? I gave it a decent cleaning before I shot it but I'm not sure which cleaning brush type to use in it.
 
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Those baboons at century couldnt build a house of cards.i was tempted to buy their c93 clone,but if they can mess up an ak design, imagine what they can do with the more complicated roller locking bolt system.buying their parts guns is like buying a car with 300,000 miles on it !
 
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