Picked up an unfired but 'used' Century Tantal today. Was a local impulse buy, didnt have any 5.45 ammo so ran over to Acadamy and picked up 120 rounds of Monarch 60gr and hit the range. Only check I did prior to buying was taking a 5.56 round and pushing it into a AR muzzle to see the rifling marks, the push it in the Tantal barrel and the bullet didnt go in as far so i took a chance on it.

Sights were close and zero'd everything up in a 30 rounds, pasted the target (no keyholes) then dumped another 60 rounds in a row. Walked out, crossed my fingers and again no obvious keyholes, couple could maybe be called slightly oval but I was using a shoot-and-see stick on target and its hard to tell with those sometimes. Walked back and fired the last 30 rounds off target into the white backer and the holes all looked clean to me. It appears I got a 'good' one, for now anyhow. Fun shooter, bought it for my 13 year old to shoot mainly, he loves AKs and the lower recoil and big noise will make him happy I think. Cheap ammo will make me happy, he has fallen in live with my Garand and one could go broke plinking with 30-06.

This one is a the dreaded TTL serial number, but there is also a C in there (TTL C018xx), there was no tag on it so I dont know the actual manufacture date or barrel twist. I did a quick cleaning rod/patch check and got a little over 1:8 after four tries, its four groove as well. On thing I'm curious about it is the part number on the box, its RI1602-RC, person I bought it from claims it came direct from Century in the last six months. I have only seen model numbers that end with X, the 1602-X comes up as a legir part number. Just wondering what the 'RC' means as opposed to the 'X.'

Overall its pretty nicely built, had no feed issues with the supplied mags, 1 polish plastic and one polish steel, accuracy is good enough, trying off a front rest I was able to keep 5 round groups in 2 inches or so at 50 yards, which is about what I can do with my good' 7.62 AK with standard sights. Parkerizing is all dark except for the bolt carrier which is gray, fit and finish is decent, not sure who makes the receiver (it just has Century on it), and no numbers match. Its a pretty cool rifle for the money, I'll try to call Century Monday to see when it was made.

It sounds like you got one of the newer barrels 1:8 twist. Someone could have sent an older one back it was refurbed and the new barrel added and sent out to be resold. Consider yourself lucky.