So I picked up a Century C308 on an impulse about a year ago when Cabela's had them on sale. After .mil discount, taxes, and Virginia State Police fee it ran something like $502 out the door, which I figured was a pretty good deal for just about any semiautomatic 7.62 rifle. I didn't/still don't know a ton about the HK-style roller locked rifles, and was never a huge fan, but again, the price seemed right and I've grown to enjoy shooting it. For those who aren't familiar, the C308 is a CETME style rifle built with surplused CETME parts and new barrels, receivers, FCGs, and furniture. The parts I can definitely tell are surplus seem to be the bolt/carrier group and sights and probably more. Supposedly PTR had a hand in building or supporting these, but I'm not sure how true that is. Yeah, Century, I know, I know.

Anywho, I trotted it out to the range yesterday to run a few mags through it. As of yesterday afternoon the gun has exactly 680 rounds through it; most being surplus ammo (Hirtenberger, Malay L2A2) but with a couple hundred rounds of newly manufactured ZQ1 and Winchester M80. I'd had exactly one failure up until yesterday; a classic stovepipe jam with the Hirt ammo. Quick rack of the charging handle and back in business. Yesterday I was firing my fourth mag of the day of Malaysian L2A2 ammo, which heretofore had proven to be perfectly reliable and surprisingly accurate, when I had a strange stoppage on the last round of the mag. It's a little hard to explain, and I know my pictures are shitty, but basically the last round fired normally and the casing tried to get ejected, rotated 180 degrees but somehow didn't get ejected, wound up backwards in the firing channel, and had the bolt reciprocate down on it forcing it bassackwards into the chamber and crushing the case mouth. This is what it looked like after I retracted and locked the charging handle:
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Aside from taking a minute for a "WTF" moment and taking pictures, it took all of about 30 seconds to fetch a cleaning rod and knock the offending case out of the chamber with minimal resistance, but it was one of the stranger hangups I've ever seen. As far as circumstances, it was a warm but not overly hot day, and I hadn't been doing mag dumps or anything prior to get the thing offensively hot. If it wasn't just a bizarre stroke of fate I'd have to guess it was a magazine issue, as I was shooting new (to me) magazines, but all of them arrived packed in grease paper and looking basically brand new. I have marked the mag for future reference just in case it happens again. This gun hasn't been used very hard at all, and I clean pretty much everything after each range outing. I'd hate to think the ammo is to blame because as I mentioned it's proven to be pretty accurate in this gun and is easily available and affordable. FWIW I put the rifle aside for half an hour or so to cool off or whatever, then ran another 20 rounds through it in about two minutes with no issues.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Is there anything I can do to prevent it, or is it just one of those one-off random occurrences?

Interasting. It didn't bounce of something and land back in the ejection port did it? If it's only done that once I probably  wouldn't be concerned about it.

That happened to me once with an s&w mp22 pistol several years ago. Like a 1 in a bajillion chance but I had 2 people watch it happen.

I had a Zenith MP5A3 clone eat a Blazer aluminum case. It somehow forced it down back the receiver channel and into the grip assembly. I didn't know this, checked the chamber and bore, and kept shooting, after 2-3 more stoppages it ran several hundred without failure. I found it a few weeks later at my next range trip after I heard something rattling.

I did consider this, but I'm not inclined to think that's what happened. I was shooting with my strong (right) hand on the pistol grip and trigger, and support hand under the rifle holding the buttstock, so I don't think it could have bounced off my arm. The latticework in the background of the pictures is about 3 feet from the ejection port when firing, so I don't think the spent casing would have the time to be ejected, bounce off the latticework, and fly straight back into the port before the bolt closing. Also it tends to eject more to about 2 o'clock. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've ever seen, but pretty close to it.

I'm leaning towards this being a one-off weirdo event, but I may try the same ammo/mag combination next weekend to see what happens.

ETA

Ha, funny you should say that. About ten years ago I had a ban-era Romanian WASR-2 5.45mm that had a disconcerting tendency to eat spent casings and retain them inside the receiver. I have no idea how it happened or better yet how it continued to work after doing so, but it did.

Short stroke would be my guess. Weak ammo, debris in the trunnion, think of anything that would slow down the bolt carrier group.
Could also be an extractor issue, check extractor spring tension.

Just as an aside, are the C308s good to go? I held off on buying one until some time went by to check.

OP I once had a 223 case separate and half stayed stuck and the other half got stuck above the bolt carrier group in my AR. I lost that three gun stage.

I've had that happen with a pistol before.

My guess is that it was a random malfunction and you will never see that particular malf ever again.

PTR is a great option. A lot less hit or miss in my opinion

I honestly didn't know much about them when I picked it up, but the C308s seem to be generally well received as compared to previous Century CETME/G3 style builds. As mentioned mine is at 680 rounds with two FTEs so far, which isn't ideal but is honestly better than I was expecting. The welds aren't terribly impressive but aren't horrible, and I had no issues zeroing the iron sights (though the CETME style front sight is pretty weird - more of an artifact of the design than Century nonsense). It likes the ZQ1 and L2A2 ammo, printing consistently 2.5" 5 shot groups with some in the 1.75" range at 100 yards every once in a while. Recoil is a tad stout off the bench but the chevron brake is pretty effective in minimizing muzzle rise. The optics rail seems welded on true, didn't have any problems zeroing a cheap PA red dot and magnifier.

Things I don't like about it are that Century really cheaped out on the handguard, which doesn't even have a heat shield, so it gets toasty after a couple mags. Surplus G3 handguards with the heat shield are cheap, I just haven't picked one up yet. The charging handle tends to bind a bit when it heats up, so you have to put some effort into charging or locking open the gun after a few mags, but it isn't unusable. The trigger is long and heavy and creepy, and though I have pretty large hands the button mag release is still less friendly than a paddle release which isn't included.

Overall I think it was a solid buy for the $502 I paid for it, but I haven't kept up with current pricing. If it's getting into the $650-700 range I'd definitely go the PTR route as others have suggested.

Thanks.

I picked up one for $499 last year and couldn’t be happier with it. Pulled the factory furniture off of it and put on a refinished wood Cetme set.

This happened with a C308 I had years ago. Spent casings ended up backwards in the receiver. I thought I was crazy telling that story.

I took it back and they shook a burned, broken ring out of the upper and gave me my money back. I have no idea what that part was, but it was apparently critical enough that they refunded me instead of doing a repair under warranty.

Really? And it was a C308, not one of ones marketed as a CETME? Ok, so maybe I'm not alone.

Admittedly I haven't taken it back out to the range since this happened; I'll pencil in some time for this weekend and see if I can make it happen again. Fingers crossed, I can't; I'd really rather not deal with Century's warranty department (even if they'll even look at it).

My Greek sar 8 started having pretty much the same symptoms awhile back.
I replaced the extracor, extractor spring, and ejector.
No problems since then.

Pull your cocking handle rearward while looking into the ejection port. When the face of the bolt head becomes visible watch as the ejector rises up into the slot under the head and stop pulling rearward when the ejector is visible in the bolt face counter bore.  The top of the ejector should be very close to touching the top of the slot. If it is, the jam was a fluke.  If it is low in the slot the FCG is too low in the action.  It is also possible that there is vertical slop in the FCG where it is only low occasionally in the firing cycle.

Sometimes it's easy to diagnose problems in forums if there is only one or two problems. It's much harder when there are more than 10 things going on at once. I bought a used C308 that had been giving the original owner fits for a couple of years fr $400.  Nothing he tried to do seemed to help.  Here is a link to the thread and all of the problems I discovered this rifle had after I got it into my shop.

http://www.militaryfirearm.com/Forum/showthread.php?34030-Century-C308-The-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

After the 10 or 12 problems were repaired or replaced the rifle shoots very sweet.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Rz7Z2mbzo

@Holescreek, thank you for the very detailed response. I'm just seeing your post now and don't have the rifle on me at the moment, but I'll check it out as you recommend; however, after the shameful showing yesterday I suspect I may have more problems on my hands.

I brought four full mags of L2A2 ammo with me yesterday and set up at the 200/250/300 range, and fired all rounds off the bench. In terms of accuracy I was pleased as usual (though this may be due to the low expectations I had/continue to have) and had no issues consistently smacking plates at 250 and 300. Also, I'm not sure if this is related, but the trigger seems to have smoothed out and lightened up, which made for a pretty pleasant shooting experience - more or less. Admittedly I had not done a complete detail strip and clean since I originally purchased the gun, so I broke it down completely in between my OP and yesterday's range trip and gave it a solid scrubdown. I didn't notice anything unusual in terms of broken parts or excessive wear-and-tear but I'm not an expert on the platform.

Onto the issues: I experienced four separate failures in the 80 rounds I fired. I was shooting at a moderate pace (one shot every 3-4 seconds, on average) and set aside the gun for about 20 minutes after the first two magazines before continuing. It was around 80 degrees and approximately 600 feet above sea level. All failures involved FTE.

FAILURE 1: Magazine 1: Failed extraction/double feed

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FAILURE 2: Magazine 3: Failed extraction/double feed

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FAILURE 3: Magazine 3: Stovepipe

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FAILURE 4: Magazine 4: Failed extraction (last round)

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As mentioned, this gun had been detail-stripped, meticulously cleaned, and generously lubed before the range outing. One thing I noticed that seemed a little unusual is that most of the brass I recovered didn't seem to have the dented cases and slightly crushed mouths I'm normally used to. Brass ejected (when it did eject) consistently to 1:30-2:00; I don't know if this is normal or what. As @BigBoss01 suggested, I'll probably start by picking up a new extractor, extractor spring, and ejector, and go from there; I really don't want to deal with Century CS on this (if there is such a thing).

Thanks again to everyone for your inputs. While it's not a nice or expensive rifle I enjoy shooting it and would like to keep it running more or less regularly. This last range outing took me from two failures in 680 rounds to six failures in 760 rounds, which is pretty abysmal; at this point, though, it at least seems clear that there is something wrong.

Edited to correct math.

The c308 is a blowback weapon. All the extractor does is hold the cartridge to the bolt face until the ejector can kick it out. A weak extractor spring or damaged extractor lip will allow the brass to drop out before the ejector can kick it.  Your double feeds are likely a result of the brass falling off the bolt face.

I got a C308 as partial payment when I sold my PSL.  I was going to sell it, but after shooting it I am very pleased with it.  Runs 100%, never seen it jam.  Reasonable accuracy, looks good.  Supposedly PTR assembled these.

Major downside is the awful CETME sights.  However, the factory receiver rail is done nicely and its easy to mount an optic.

I like mine.

Did you have to modify the CETME stock set?

Those malfs are EXACTLY what my rifle was doing. Hopefully those new parts will get it sorted. They sorted mine out and instantly.

If you can wiggle the extractor the spring is fooked.

Sometimes strange malfunctions will bend the spring.

I know nothing of this model but when you say HK roller lock design and failure to extract/eject in the same post, extractor spring is the first thought that comes to mind.

Ok, extractor, extractor spring, and ejector have been ordered. Thanks again for the help everyone; I'll update when everything is installed and I can hit the range again.

Hopefully I can get it up and running soon since I have a few more cans of L2A2 inbound

I've been running through that Malaysian stuff pretty fast working out the details on my bullpup build. I really like not caring where the brass goes since I can't reload it.

Fixed, and that needs it's own thread with details please.

Did you see that brass dance on the bench around the 0:22 mark?

I've never seen an ejector go bad. Typically the shelf it sits in just gets spread open a bit too wide and it gets so sloppy that  it looses effectiveness and eventually jumps out of the bolt slot.

Curious why my video post didn't work? I clicked on the YouTube button and inserted the link.

YouTube embed button only works for paid members. Non-paying folk have to make due with hotlinking videos instead.

I guess that makes sense to someone else.  Thanks!

Alright, parts should be in tomorrow, and I stuffed my modest number of mags today. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I almost inevitably ask "how the eff does this work?"

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So, mixed news. Got in the new extractor, extractor spring, and ejector from HKParts and spent Friday trying to install them. The extractor and spring went in without much argument, but the ejector that came out of the gun has a small hole that a spring loops through that is absent on the new ejector I received; as a result I wasn't able to install it.  Original ejector pictured on bottom, with little spring above:

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I hit the range yesterday with the new extractor/spring and the old ejector. I had three failures in 100 rounds; one stovepipe and two similar to those posted earlier with a FTE and attempt to feed another round. I guess that's a lower rate of problems than I had last week, but still not encouraging.

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The ejector bought from RTG is for an HK, not a cetme.

Did you ever look at the ejector height in the bolt face? Or wobble in the shelf?

I believe the CETME was the second generation of the G3ish rifles offered by Century.

The C308 I had had actually diopter sights on top and a ported cylindrical muzzle break. Then CETMEs were all the rage, and those had the flip up notch rear sights. Now they're back to making "C308s" again which have the CETME sights... Or at least all the ones I've seen do.

I could be completely wrong about the generations, but there IS variation in the sights between the CETME and C308 product lines.

This is my understanding and it may be wrong.

There are 2 versions of C308 by century. This does not include the Century Cetme model. The current product is the 2nd Generation and is most readily distinguished by the welded pic rail on top of the receiver.