cetme rifles

[chapperjoe]

What is the deal with the 300 dollar cetme?
If I buy one, what do I get, a piece of crap or a reliable rifle?
I am unsure, 'cause there are so many threads out there.
Whats the bottom line?\
I'm looking for a semi-auto in 308, and I like the cetme's pistol grip.
My other choise would be a saiga 308, but I suspect the cetme is more accurate.

 

[boofus]

Any time you buy from Century it's a crap shoot. You might get a perfectly fine gun, or you might get a total lemon. The CETME I got from them worked but the Yugo M48 and L1A1 were total crap. The Century L1A1 practically fell apart in my hands after the first 20 shots.

 

[chapperjoe]

how?

Understand that I am not that new to guns,,,,but excuse the naive-ness:
How can you buy a gun that falls apart.
If I buy a cetme and something goes wrong with it, do i have any recourse??

 

[Risasi]

Yeah, you can send it back to Century and rag on them. Of course it goes without saying that's a total pain.

You would be better off checking to see if any stores local to you have them in stock. Then check the gun there. This includes fit and finish, nice wood stock, headspace (*important, check links below), bore, rack and dry fire. I would also take it apart in the store if they will let me. Although I wouldn't blame them if they wouldn't let me do that. But they should at least let you do the other stuff if they are reputable and you are serious.

Anyway the gun itself: Overall I was greatly impressed. Good design. Doesn't like most domestic .308 ammo. It'll rip the back end right off of Remington Core-Lokt (TM). It's made for all NATO stuff. Get a shell extractor and gunsite adjust tool at the same time you get the rifle. And if you get one, before doing anything else tear the whole thing down and clean the heck out of it.

I checked one out at a local gunshop here, everything looked good, so I picked one up. About $400 if I remember. I get 1.5MOA. It's great fun to shoot. In fact I prefer it over my HK91. The HK91 obviously is put to together better. But not that much better. Oh yeah, and the wood furniture will really grow on you.

Do I recommend this gun? Absolutely in a heartbeat. Form and function at it's best. This gun is rock and roll.

The worst problem this gun could have is the headspace being off, or a ground bolt. Please check out cetmerifles.com, Perro put together a great site. Still if you are a little leery about playing the Century Roulette wheel, also check out the PTR91. It's the same German design, about twice as much, but alegedly better built.

Links:

http://www.cetmerifles.com
http://www.tapco.com
http://www.pof-usa.com


Ammo:

Good:
Winchester = okay.
Sellier and Bellot = good.
NATO anything = Excellent

Bad:
Remington, anything = bad, casing too weak.

 

[jobu07]

I'll add onto the get one defense here. Mine has been nothing but a rock solid preformer since the day I got her. Just so long as you feed it mil-surp stuff you are golden. I picked mine up for $400 from a local gun shop, just so I could handle it first, I thought it was worth the extra say, $50 after transfer fees and such. Century isn't all bad, i mean, they'll fix it for you if you ship it back to them. Yes, a PITA, but that's the chance you take. And the wood furniture is just so much nicer than the plastic of the HK's... Scout out the inventorie's of all the local gun shops first, if you can't come across a CETME and there aren't any gun shows on the horizon, go ahead on order one. You'll love it.

 

[Dave R]

I'm kinda middle-of-the road. My CETME required some tweaking, but is now a fine rifle. Perfectly reliable, accurate (2MOA w/ iron sights) and easy (for me) to shoot well.

It had a problem that many Cenutury-built rifles have. Its triple-frame was assembled slightly off-kilter and the sights would not zero at max adjustment.

I had it fixed, and now love it.

IMHO, you should buy it with the expectation that you may have to fiddle with it, or have a gunsmith fiddle with it, or be prepared to send it back to Century. Reports of folks who have sent their CETMEs back seem to say that they are serious about a 30-day warranty. Don't try on day 31. And they tend to take about 30 days to get your rifle back to you. But when it gets back, it is fixed.