I'm looking at buying my first AK variant this weekend. A guy locally is willing to sell me a tantal with wire folding stock for 500 dollars with half a spam can of ammo and 2 magazines. He says its made by Century arms and that he has never shot it but the owner before him ran a couple thousand mil surp through it. I have never heard anything good of century arms so i'm a little hesitant though i do want the gun. Any of yall with more experience have any advice or things to watch out for? And sorry of this has been covered i couldn't find it in a search, so my apologies.

Thanks

There is one major thing to check for with a Century built Tantal, keyholing. They had a number of Tantals that they built with the wrong caliber or twist rate barrel and they keyhole like mad.
I'd highly recommend setting up a time to test fire it at a target before purchasing it.

I will echo what he said above, and add that if it doesn't keyhole, you are getting the current steal of the century(no pun intended!).  With decent milsurp mags going in the $25 to $40/each range, and easily over $100 of ammo at today's prices, you are basically getting the rifle for about $325-$350.  Hell of a deal, at that price if it keyholes, buy a new barrel and replace it and you are still WAY ahead of the game.  Plus I love my tantals, so I am biased.

Could a person just use the "Bullet Test" determine if it is a keyhole tantal? I'm seeing them at gunshows for 575.00 out the door. The one I seen was a TTL -C serial number and I did not have a bullet to check barrel. Test firing was not an option, any other ways to tell? I walked away from this seller as he said "I'll take 25 bucks off because I don't have the box".

I dont think there's a definative list of what serial numbers were effected and Ive read some were good and elsewhere that same range was bad etc. While keyholing is annoying it isnt the end of the world. You can still shoot paperplates at 50 yards, just looks like you're playing BATTLESHIP instead of shooting.

For $500 with the mags and ammo. I'd buy it. CDNN has Bulgarian mags for $17 IIRC, TAPCOs work just fine for range shooting and they're $12ish

I have a Century built Tantal that I'm going to be using for a project build, and I absolutely love it so far.  1993 and no keyholing, runs like an inline 6 BMW engine.

Is there any other way to determine which barrel it has . I also found a local one . Same gun , same concern , but may not be able to test fire due to it being a retail store.

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Mine is not chrome lined, I would look for rust from possible improper cleaning after shooting 7N6.

That is a good deal for a Tantal!  I bought one last year and I have really enjoyed it so far and
I've had no problems with it.  Most of the keyholing issues are with the older Century Arms models.
From what I understand, they used a .223 barrel on the those Tantals and this was the source
of the keyholing problems.  I read somewhere that if your serial number starts with a Y prefix
that you have one of the newer models and you are good to go.  I know it is true in my case at
least.

I have one of the earlier ones but never fired it. If it does keyhole what's the cost to rebarrel?
If I shoot indoors to test it out is the distance too close to tell if it keyholes?

Here are my findings concerning the Century Tantal keyholing issue.

When the Century Arms International Tantals were originally introduced (in early 2007) they were using U.S. made .223 barrels with 1x9 twist and had "TTL' serial numbers built on D.C. Industries receivers. Over the next 18 to 24 months, Century started experimenting with various twists (i.e. 1x9, 1x7) in "TTL" and a few very early "Y" serial numbered weapons using D.C. Industries and NoDak receivers and still had problems due to the .223 bore of the barrels. In approximately May/June 2009, Century started using the correct 5.45 barrels with 1x8 twist barrels all using NoDak receivers with "Y0020xx" serial numbers.

My Tantal is a "Y0020xx" serial number NoDak receiver built in Aug 2009 with a correct U.S. mfg. 5.45 barrel w/o chrome lining (I believe it measures .219 or .220) with 1x8 twist and has not had any keyhole problems using surplus corrosive or modern ammo.

From all indications and reviews, the new "TTL-C" serial numbered weapons appear to be using the correct 5.45 barrel with 1x8 twist. My simple rule of thumb...the "C" in the serial number stands for "correct".

As a side note, I purchased an early D.C. Industries Tantal complete receiver (TTL006xx) from an individual that was going to change-out the original .223 barrel, but lost interest. I used that receiver to finish building an older original "matching numbers" Tantal parts kit with factory chrome-lined barrel. She is most definitely an accurate shooter and loves any ammo I feed her & no keyhole issues.

Century Arms built Tantal's with NoDak receivers beginning with "Z" serial numbers should have the correct barrels as well.