I remember the 1970's nickel a round surplus ammo and all of it's hang fires from Century. Surplus guns were defanately from the lowest dregs of the barrel too. CA appeared in Shotgun News in every issue. I ate it up.
My dealing with them were always fine. I had a Cetme that ran 100%. And came across & host of AKs that worked perfectly. You need to understand the phenomena of “Fake” reviewing. In the world of the “interwebs” came people who have NEVER touch the product, yet they will bash it AS THEY HAVE READ! It’s actually a sort of brain disease, where these people actually BELIEVE they are helping others by lying that they have had bad dealing with said manufacturer. While many of the accounts are accurate (remember Century was HIGE!), I’d bet close to 50% were these Fake Interweb Revewers.
I think it's pretty unfair to totally dump on Century because they do different things, some of which they're pretty good at, like importing, and some of which they've had problems with, like final assembly, manufacture, and dealing. Furthermore, watching some of the things they've had problems with, I've seen what seem to be good-faith efforts to improve. I haven't done any business with them as a dealer, or purchased any firearm where they were the manufacturer, but a number of my imports were brought in by them. I would consider doing business with them, or purchasing one of their products, but I'd probably exercise a bit more discretion than usual, just due to their history and reputation in some areas.
Perhaps now, but CAI set the bar pretty low in the 80s and 90s; well before interweb slander was a thing. (There was plenty of bulletin board flaming, on those venues, though.)
My one experience with them was a Romy AK that came broken out of the box with a binding gas piston. It would chamber a round and fire it but then the action would freeze closed. You could kick it open to extract the spent case (AKs are fun that way), but that's of course not a long term solution. Their warranty process was like pulling teeth, but to their credit, two months later I had a working rifle. But they clearly never test fired their gun, and it lived up to its build quality reputation. That was the last I ever dealt with them. A few years later they caught my eye with some $550 C308s on Bud's, but that pain in the butt experience with my AK pushed me away from it.
Back years ago they made decent guns when the price of the gun kits were cheap. But as the gun kits got less & less & the quality of them got totally terrible (remember these are de-milled reject guns to start with) Century was still trying to build good guns with junk parts. On top of that the AK boom took off about that time & they were running as fast as they could. I did buy a WASR 10 from them before the boom took off & it was a semi-quality gun(it was fired 2 rounds before it left the company's hands). It looked like S**T but it would hit what I aimed at. Now they are buying pieces of junk guns & trying to put something together out of all the reject junk parts. There is no way I would buy from them these days.
Anyone remember the Tantals in 5.45x39 with 5.56 bore barrels that keyholed. They'd only replace them if a claim was made within one year of manufacture. I saw a bunch of really poorly made CETMEs. The newer ones seem much better made to their credit.
i have a Canik 9MM, and i could not be happier with the way they handled my request for a lighter RSA. they sent me one and did not want the OEM back. the only issues i have had with Century Arms, is the out of stock of some items that i'd like to have, like magazines (finally got them), and a spring that i need. but they too have to wait for the parts to be shipped to them from the factories. just like, The Glock Store. i had to wait WEEKS for a few parts, all due to covid, and a backlog of orders. so for me, CAI, has been great.
You are correct to a degree. But they were not even CLOSE to the size or out put of that during their HI point....which was right after the Billary Clinton AWB expired. I’m actually writing a book on this era in the Gun World...which gave to the drastic rise of the Build Culture.
CAI has imported a huge amount of surplus, most of which has been awesome. It’s when they’ve built or modified guns themselves that the results have often been problematic.
Bravo for the book. AWB expired in 2004, so the "Amazon Review" had not quite gotten started yet. That was the infancy of the use e-commerce against competitors sort of things, too. Which really kicks in around 2006-2008, where the next best thing to be first to the e-commerce party is to slag off those who got there before you. The Second Depression only encouraged the practice. In a declining consumer market, even the sleazy are desperate for "customers." Was in information Warfare from '98 to 2016, so I saw a lot of this first hand.
Yes, I said internet reviewing...but false reviewing has been around for a very long time. I got my Cetme used in early ‘05, from a friend who purchased it new from Century. Although I had heard of Century, that is when I really started learning about them. And immediately I was exposed to the hate of them. And yes, several cases which I later found were completely false reviews.
Myself and a few friends had the Century Arms CETME. Out of 5 of them: 2 were problem free, 2 had to go back to CAI for repair before they would work and the 5th was so out of spec that it was very unsafe to even try to shoot it. And yes Century Arms started getting a bad reputation before the days of the internet.
Their import guns are OK, I have a few, no issue. I don't think Century still build in-house, they subcontracted out C93, CETME in 223, and maybe later FALs, seems like less trouble, but I'm still not brave enough to buy one. I had maybe 4 Century FALs in the past, 2 needed work on barrel time, one I could not even break loose the barrel at 200 ft-lbs and gave up.
In 2009 I bought a Century Arms AR-15 Rifle. The guy at the gun store said it was a CA lower and upper built with Colt parts. I bought it knowing CA had a spotty reputation, but I must say that rifle was just fine. It shot reliably and accuracy was acceptable. My son-in-law has it now. That was the only thing I ever bought from them.
A few years ago a friend told me ownership changed hands, and he was hired to sell a lot of their guns, mostly older ones,,,,I got a few and was very pleased. Over the years I have picked up more of their guns from different sources,,, all used and am very pleased with all of them. Then I got a couple of their 12 ga shotties brand new,,, nice gun,,Sold one to a ‘friend’ and he did some work on it.. put it on a diet,,,,,,very, very nice,,,he even got a permit for it.
You just answered your own question. They're the Taurus of the rifle world. Much of what they sell is junk, and some of what they sell is merely "okay." And it's hit or miss which one you will get. And if you need their help, forget it; they're just not dependable on customer service. Companies like Ruger, Smith& Wesson, and Vortex Optics have earned cult followings through their stellar customer service. Beat me to it, but this is my go to response on this topic. I would love to own a MAS 49/56, but Century butchered them to the point that the guns are downright unreliable. By comparison, the rather rare, unmolested (i.e. still in their original 7.65mm French chamber) are supposedly quite good, comparable to the M1 Garand (PERISH THE THOUGHT!) rifles. They also command a heft a price premium. If Century had just kept their booger-hooking mitts off them...
My MAS 49/56 runs pretty well, now that I dialed in an adjustable gas valve. It's the same problem that the French armories had when they tried to convert similar guns to 7.62 NATO. The chamber is a bit rough, but I've shot worse.
Bought a couple surplus guns from them. They worked fine. I do wish they hadn't electropencilled a novel on the side of my MR73. I don't see why they added "Manurhin MR73 Cal.357Magnum Made in France" down the barrel when all that was already stamped on by the factory in a much more attractive fashion.
I had a Century R1A1 that had an Imbel receiver and ran like a champ. Very accurate but whatta barge pole.
I bought a Century bubba'ed M96 Mauser from them back in the 80s. What they did to the gun placed them in my permanent Black List.
