Has ANYONE had a good experience with a Century Fal or CETME

[modifiedbrowning]

I have a Century FAL with an Imbel receiver. Rifle has been 100%.
Disclaimer: I bought the rifle used and the store clerk (who I trust) told me the seller was big into FALs, so I have no idea how much work, if any, it took the seller to make it reliable.

 

[evan price]

I have a Century-made FAL which is an IMBEL kit on a Century receiver. Bought it off a THR member here. It had some issues with cycling.
Total cost to fix it up right was less than $20, and an hour or so of my time.

The gas piston was undersized and had been packed with black grease. Picked up a used like new gas piston from the internet. Cleaned out the grease.

The recoil spring was twisted/bent, and the tube was packed with black grease. Replaced the recoil spring and cleaned out the black grease.

I had to lap the receiver rails where the mag went in.

I had to remove a little material where the gas piston comes through the upper above the chamber.

Presto, suddenly a gun that was a jamomatic was now 100%.

I owned an L1A1 kit Century with the Bell & Carlson butthole stock, and it was 100%. Inch gun that took metric mags- best of all worlds!

I also have built several FALs myself from parts kits on Century receivers. Now that I know what I am doing, all of them ran 100% right off of my bench.

As far as CETMEs go, I haven't owned one, but I've seen some with ground bolts and other issues. Century just slaps 'em together and makes 'em work as best they can, with no test firing.

 

[anymanusa]

my century FAL is awesome.

 

[wulfbyte]

I have a Century C91 sporter bought during the ban. I picked it up for around $350 and I've never had any problems with it. I have of course heard everyone berate Century to no end, but in my limited experience with this one rifle, I don't see a basis for it. Maybe I just got a good one.

I have always been and continue to be disappointed that they simply chopped the flash hider off the end of the barrel and there is considerable muzzle jump I believe due to that. One of these days I will thread the barrel and put on something appropriate. The only other issue of note is just cosmetic on the bolt carrier group; a minor ding and some rust stains, but as it functions perfectly and is accurate enough (about 3-4 moa) that never bothered me.

 

[hksw]

I have an R1 parts FAL (no brake) built by Century as well as a couple CETMEs (one of which is stowed away, the other used regularly). The Century rifles that I shoot seemed to function fine. The CETME on rare occasions does misfeed sending the round into the corner where the chamber and receiver meet and was welded together slightly crooked at the trunion (you can see the very slight bend if you look down the side) but it surprisingily shoots straight without any windage adjustments ever needed. Seems OK for a $300 beater.

 

[az_imuth]

I have one of the early SS CETMEs that has always been 100% and is also quite accurate. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I am a very satisfied owner of one of their M70AB2 Yugos, too. After hearing of all the CETME issues over several years, I would never purchase one without giving it a thorough going over.

 

[lamazza]

I have had 1 of each and never a problem of any sort.

 

[Z71]

I've owned a Century L1A1 for years, no issues.

Got a Century WASR-10 hi cap last year, very minor issues with the rear sight, perfectly servicable otherwise.

Just bought a Century C15 Sporter. Basicaly a military surplus M16A2 refurbed into a semi-auto only 'A2. This one is less than 2 weeks in my ownership, however it's passed muster so far. Perfectly functional and decently accurate. Looks like a new AR15A2.

I'm happy with my Century gear, but I missed the episodes with the Cetme's and French .308 MAS 49's!

 

[Don357]

I have a CETME 'Black Widow" and haven't had even a hint of a problem from it. I have a scope mounted on it and use it deer hunting. It handles commercial ammo very well and is quite accurate with it or milsurp.

 

[Trebor]

I have a Century CETME from the very first batch they assembled and sold, back *before* the price drop to $350, and the later rise on price.

The gun runs fine. The only problem I've had is the mag well was too tight at first. Once I finally got a mag in and out a couple times, that was fixed.

The wood stock set was brand new. The parts were either new or nicely reparked. The gun runs fine with a couple different kinds of mil surp ammo.

Now, it does feel a little crude compared to my custom FAL, and I don't shoot it as much as my FAL, but so far I haven't had any problems.

I admit that Century guns are a crapshoot though as the problems with them are well documented.

 

[rino451]

My Centure L1A1 Sporter runs fine. At least it does on 40+ year old (I think Austrian?) 7.62.

 

[Magnuumpwr]

I own a Century cetme and also a Century Fal L1A1 sporter. Bought the cetme new and at first seemed like a nice gun (no FTF, FTE), but as time went on discovered that it required constant cleaning to keep it operational. I even went as far as buying some spanish 308 ammo, to no avail. Now it is just a dust collector only seeing daylight to be cleaned. The Fal on the other hand I bought used for less than $250 complete. Took some blasting of the upper receiver and all parts to clean-up, but has since been extremely reliable. Wanted to check for reliability prior to refinishing, still haven't made time to get it parkerized. Here is a pic of the Fal.

 

[superhornet]

Yes, had very good luck with a CETME. Bought it for $150 and sold it for $300.......

 

[Bostekrisco]

I've had a Century CETME for about 6 years and haven't had any problems with it, other than it's kind of a PITA to clean. On the other hand, I don't shoot it very much because it doesn't really do anything I need from a gun that I don't have a gun that does better.

I've probably put ~500 rounds of mostly milsurp through it without any issues and with reasonable accuracy.

Disclaimer- I'm getting ready to sell it to fund completion of the FN PBR barreled action I just bought.

 

[NonConformist]

I had a Century C91. Its like the CETME

Other than being ugly as sin its always been 100%

 

[Liberty1776]

I've got one of the L1A1 FAL Sporters that Century assembled on an IMBEL reciever. It eats any ammo I feed it, at any gas setting. Only problem is I don't think the accuracy is all that great - maybe it's just me...

I recently scoped it, and will be trying that accuracy thingie again... Oh, and I bought it when they were real popular, and paid too much for it.