CETME rifle for $319 w/ wood, what to look for?

[hartzpad]

I found a post-ban CETME at a local shop for $319. It is a Century gun with great looking wood and a pinned muzzle blast enhancer (the worthless Century muzzle brakes). I plan to go back and check the bolt gap with my feeler gauges. IIRC, I should be looking for close to .08"? If they won't let me break it down, how do I check for a ground bolt? I figure for $300, if it doesn't work, I can put some work into it to get it to work or just sell it. CETME's are getting rare, especially nice ones with good wood furniture and most CETME's I see have cheap plastic furniture and a cut barrel w/ no muzzle brake or flash surpressor. Anything else to look for? It has been about two years since I had a bad HK clone from Hesse, I'm hoping I can do better with this CETME.

I plan to install a bayo lug, cut off the muzzle brake and thread the barrel for an HK/CETME flash supressor (if there aren't threads under MB). It also comes with a real CETME magazine, those are getting harder to find as well.

 

[jobu07]

Make sure to check the rear sight arpeture for a proper weld. Some of them have those nasty goobery welds on each corner that makes me feel like it'l fall off. They should have nice clean weld down the length of it.

Just one more thing to look for.

I also think the muzzle break is going to be internally pinned. So if you grind the pins on each side (3 and 9 o'clock I think) you can then unscrew the brake and install a suppressor on the existing threads. I dont' know how to change out the lug, however.

 

[longhorngunman]

You got the right idea. I'd definetly break it down and check for a ground bolt, it the store owner refuses then explain why. If he still won't let you check it, run don't walk away from it. Take a .308 cartridge and check the muzzle, make sure the bullet catches the lands on the shoulder. A bullet will protrude about 3/8" in my Cetme mine also has some pitting in the barrel but this sucker has shot 1MOA before, and is actually more accurate than my RRA AR15! Make sure you can cyle the charging handle without to much effort. It will be stronger than than most other semiautos due to it's delayed blowback action and real strong recoil spring. Check the extractor and make sure it ain't broke. For even more info check out www.cetmerifles.com . Great site for all things CETME. If it checks out I'd buy it! I paid a total of $332 for mine about a year ago and have been very happy with it. It ain't no HK 91 or DSA FAL in terms of fit and finish, but mine has been very reliable and fun. Plus, you can get the surplus G3 aluminum mags that will fit the Cetme for about $2 bucks, I don't think there is a cheaper mag deal to be found.

 

[Sunray]

"...hoping I can do better with this CETME..." It's from Century. They don't know what QC is. Look it over very carefully. And like longhorngunman says, if the guy won't let you take it apart, pass.

 

[ceetee]

There's a CETME forum over at "gunboards dot com" that has a lot of interesting info.

On removing the Muzzle brake, it's blind-pinned at the six o'clock position. The first thing you have to do is Dremel the existing brake until you see the difference in color between pin metal and brake metel. Go slowly! Some of the time you have to go almost to the barrel threads to get it. Then, turn the barrel "rightside up" and whack it a couple times with a rubber mallet. The pin should fall out, or at least protrude to the point where you can grab it.

Then, just unscrew the brake, and screw on an original CETME brake. Done.

There are more complete instructions on the CETME forum. (Either one.)