Century Cetme's:still crap!

[frtyfivsevnty]

Yeah I know they're not all bad,but the three I've tried were all crap(you think I'd learn after the first two).The latest had better welds than the other two.The problem was a gound bolt and a canted trunion!They say the third times a charm,not this time!I guess it goes back to the shop and I pick up the colt enhanced 45 they had.

[gunsmith_tony]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and speculate wildly.
Were these three "rifles" built by Century Arms Int. ?

[Russ]

It really seems to be hit & miss with these.

I bought two Century CETME's a few years back and they shoot flawlessly and are surprisingly accurate. Sorry to hear your expereience. If you picked them up as an inventory item at a gun shop somewhere, that may be the answer -- they may have gotten there in the first place as a trade-in or whatever by someone else who wanted to unload some losers that had tried back when there was a more widespread problem with these/
Russ

[frtyfivsevnty]

Tony,all these rifles sucked,of course these were built by Century:D

[bykerhd]

I had the CETME urge a couple years back. I saw a table at a gun show with 5 or 6 CETMEs on it and figured I'd died and gone to heaven. Price wasn't bad !Even with Century's hit or miss workmanship, there HAD to be one there with MY name on it !.
Every one had visibly canted sights. End of the inexpensive CETME hunt for me right there. I've moved on.

[mikaldulee]

My buddy bought one recently. It's was a nightmare, but he refused to give up on it(very hard headed). Constant FTE,FTE issues...Didn't matter what magazines he used, G3, 25 rounders or Cetme, he had problems.

He went to cetmerifles.com and found a fix that finally worked. I believe it involve bending the magazine well evenly so the mag's don't wobble as much. It works fine now.

It was a major pain in the butt.

[firefuzz]

Buddy of mine bought 2, both were crap.

The first we had to put a big man on either end to get the butt stock off to clean the gunk out of it. Lot of non-factory grinding of the bolt head parts. Sent it back.

Paid the difference for one with a stainless receiver. It was crap too. Came apart easier than the first , still signs of grinding on the bolt head parts. We cleaned the hell out of that rifle. Jerked the case heads off the first 3 rounds, US milsurp, sent it back for refund. Didn't want to give refund. Canceled credit card payment.

I've owned several HK's, I really didn't like the features, but they were good reliable guns. The Century Cetme's all mostly junk, it's a crap shoot to get a good one. Stick to FALs.

Rob

[The Count]

Bought mine form SOG back when they first started hitting the mkt several years back, it's accurate, runs flawlessly and after refinishing the furniture, looks good. Sounds like I made the right decision to get one when I did.

[gunsmith_tony]

Had a feeling.

[Gary_P]

been fighting with my FTE problem for 2 years now.


just got the rear sight welded back on, thats right........... it fell off.

Biggest waste of money I ever spent.


Gary

[BattlePack]

I've always wanted one; I even have 25 G3 mags stockpiled for a future purchase. However, the more I read, the more I realize that I need to go ahead and sell the mags and not potentially waste my money on a CETME.

[Muggzy]

Mine(From SOG) runs flawlessly and is surprisingly accurate. Canted front sight
was a 30 minute fix and a new $10 pin.

45-70...man you are havin' some bad luck:sad:

[gunplumber]

When I saw ground bolt heads and pins installed in the bolt carrier to artificially change bolt gap, I made the decision not to play witht these abortions. That some have found ones that appear to work, although of unknown safety, I think is a credit to the design as much as proper assembly.

Buying a third gun when the first two were unsatisfactory does not strike me as rational. Since of course you couldn't sell the defective ones to anyone else, you will have spent more than the cost of a new, warrantied PTR-91.

[gunplumber]

Originally posted by ggiilliiee
hey zombie killer ....wanna fix that ejection problem ......???this may be it .....look at ejector trip lever ...when you run the bolt back by hand look at the ejector face (when pulling by hand)..ill bet the lever is not coming up into the slot on the underside of the bolt...look to see as it just emerges from the bolt face slot with a probe or fingy ...push down on it ...you may find your problem..i had to build up the back top surface of the trip lever(with weld) to get it to come up into the bolt slot (ALL THE WAY)...untill i did this .mine didnt eject worth a f%@#...it do now!!!!!!!! ...far more violent than a stock fal ....it really sucks when the smiths DONT FINISH THE JOB..there is a little more to smithing than just screwing parts together ..98% just dont get it or they just dont have the skill to do it .and you still pay a premium price for mediocre....or less.....

Oh yeah - its "MR EJECTION" again . . .(GRIN) <--- Note "Friendly Grin"

DUDE! - why are you modifying correct, in-spec parts? The problem is the height of the shelf and therefore the entire trigger pack.

Yeah, what you describe will "fix" it, but its working around the defect, not correcting it.

[ftierson]

I have two originally purchased from AIM (CAI put-togethers)...

Neither have ground bolt heads, HS in spec, and both function and shoot extremely well. When they first arrived, I had to cycle the action many times to loosen it up a little, and the trigger packs and buttstocks had to be driven off the gun to clean them, but that worked itself out quickly. The first 20 rounds through each gun resulted in some failure to eject problems, but both rifles have been flawless in their functioning after cleaning the bores (and flutes in chamber) carefully and spending some time working the action (as mentioned).

I'm happy with the two I received. But then, given many of the comments that I've heard about these rifles, my luck must have been different than my normal luck with the two that I received.

Personally, I don't think that I'd buy another unless I could inspect it carefully before buying...

Forrest

[ggiilliiee]

he he ..hey gp ...yeah i know ...im not happy unless im covered in chips ....i only did it because i would have had to rebuild everything else on the rifle ..a hesse ...he he need i say more ..works flawlessly now and have had 8 pieces of brass in the air at once ....my god is the ejection violent now ..dont know which is more dangerous ...standing in front of the gun when its going off or standing on he port side ..he he .how are you coming with the over travel thing ....was the link stable enough ?? seems like a good fix:|

[TheOtherChris]

I bought 2 nearly 3 years ago from FAC.
Both were cast SS receivered rifles assembled by the Angry Beavers.
Had original wood and ran great.
Neither had ground bolts and headspace was still good.

Only issues I had were the following:

I don't care for the paddle wheel sights, but have gotten used to it;
G3 mags were hard to seat, so I took a little off of the bottom of the mag wells;
One rifle had a buffer that was impossible to remove without destroying the wood buttstock. I called Harlan and he sent me another buffer.
EDIT to add that it takes a hammer to remove the pins for disassembly.

I know others have not been as fortunate, but if you get a good one, the CETMEs are a lot of fun.

Another note: You do not want to be sitting on the right side of one of these at the range. They REALLY throw the brass!:eek:

[frtyfivsevnty]

Yeah I tried 3 but I got them all from places I knew I could return yhem without a hassle so I wouldn't get stuck with them.I planned on getting a PTR any way.I returned this last one and got a enhanced colt for a few bucks more. PS.GP I would have had you build me a nice clone but I live in commie NY!:]

[CRShooter32]

I took the CETME plunge back in Feb., checked many before finding one that looked okay, that being no ground bolt head, straight sights, and no twisted cocking tube, headspace is well within spec.

Century buttstock had to be broken to get it off, replaced with new wood, scrubbed it twice. Took it to the range, got 60 rounds off, thing feeds from aluminum G3 mags, Thermolds, and those $15 30 rounders form FAC, only problem, after ejection, bolt jammed in the reciever, twice. Checked with CETMErifles.com, was told it is a break in issue that several CETMErifle.com members had, and to give it another good scrubbing. Hopefully that took care of that issue, 'cause this rifle is accurate as hell, and a hoot to shoot.

[MWDG3]

Originally posted by gunplumber
DUDE! - why are you modifying correct, in-spec parts? The problem is the height of the shelf and therefore the entire trigger pack.

Yeah, what you describe will "fix" it, but its working around the defect, not correcting it.

Like hacking on mags to make them fit. :uhoh:

[dignotov]

I had one (CAI CETME). It sucked. I now have a PTR and am very happy. I kept the poplar furniture though.

[ggiilliiee]

mwdg3..ya your rite but it was prefferable to add 1/8 to the lever instead of de-welding the entire reciever and re bending it to the correct specs.(hesse)..just wanted to fix the problem not create more.he he ..this was also about 3.5 years ago wasnt much for build help then...back hen you had to make your own ledges ..i opted for a hardened cross pin ..anyway it ran before i did it and runs (REALLY) good now .

[Sumoj275]

Well I must admit that I have one after I got the PTR-91K. My father bought one used and it checked out on headspace, un-ground bolt head, and generally in great shape except the paint and the open areas of the receiver welded area. The funny thing is that it will not take HK mags. Anyway, in a trade with my father I got the CETME and retro fitted it and put new wood on it when Tapco had their sale. To say the least I can hit the 200 yrd gong that is about torso size. I am vey happy but I want the open areas welded and refinished.

Take care

[randyj]

i bought one last year, no ground bolt, in spec bolt space, straight sights, good welds.
knowing its a less then 50/50 shot at gettin a good one.
took 3 cleanings to get all the crap out of it.
took 60 rounds before it started to cycle, another 60 of various jams. but since then it has run perfect for over 2000 rounds. doesn't matter if i use cetme or alloy hk mags.
every time i run a couple hundred through it it puts a big grin on my face.

best 300 bucks i ever spent on a rifle.

randy

[themightybowhunter]

I bought a CIA CETME in January that was fresh from the assembly line. I also had to cycle it 1 million times (ok it was just 3 or4 thousand) to get it to run. They parkerize the reciever and thus on the inside creates way too much friction for the bolt to run smoothly. I'm not sure how accurate it is. The one time I shot it I was shooting after sunset at 50 yards and accidently used the 400 yd target. So they were all a foot or more high but otherwise left / right was on center. I bought 8 G3 mags with US floorplate and follower from FAC and they've worked flawlessly. I'm glad I bought it since that was the only issue. I did put wood furniture back on it because I love the look. And today I picked up a bayonet from FAC (with the bayonet lug) and plan on installing it as soon as I thread it.

[C404]

After reading these reviews, I must of got lucky. I bought a cia cetme from sog a couple years ago. It was painted black and came full of crud. The bore wasn't the greatest. But I have never had a malfunction and the sights are straight. The muzzle brake seems to work pretty good. Not a bad gun to just blast with.

[WiFAL]

I bought one of the dreaded Century Cetme Black Widows as they are called on Cetmerifles.com but only after reading everything on that site about Cetmes.

I found one with good welds, no ground bolt and great headspace. It was stiff as all get out when I bought it but I took it all apart, cleaned everything, cycled the action a zillion times and slammed home G3 mags until my palms hurt.

Now the rifle hand cycles fine. G3 mags snap right in. The thing runs like a champ.

I don't care for the rear sight either but the most amazing thing is how little recoil there is. It's about the same as a Yugo SKS.

I like mine but only enough to own one. If it wasn't the same caliber as a FAL I wouldn't own one at all.

[K.O.A.M.]

I sent my basically non functional CETME to Jim Meredith at PCS global. He swapped out the furniture, put on a flash hider and got the action running nice and smooth. If you have one already and want to put a few bucks into it to make it almost as cool as a FAL, he's the man to talk to.

[rotty]

Just got one for a customer a little bit ago, one of the new ones listed in SOG with the synthetic furniture and bayo......i did a thourough strip/clean and he took it out with some SA and it shot great for him, hes a happy camper!