At the gunshow that I attended over the weekend (a new show in Lebanon, PA - a pretty good show I thought) it seemed that every other vendor had a Cetme on his table.  Prices on the guns were $369. no matter who was selling them - there was no more than $5 deviation in price.  The wood on every example that I looked at was PRETTY DARN GOOD.  Metal work & metal finish varied from fair to pretty bad.

Anyways, I was pretty impressed with the gun for less than $400.  In fact. I'm thinking that I should have taken a chance & bought one.  The next time that I see one for that price...I'll be tempted.

Can anybody tell me if there is anything that I should "look for" when buying a Cetme?  Or, is a Cetme a Cetme?  Are they reliable?  Accurate?  Any opinions would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Not too many comments on CETME's here, as I don't have one, but I was at that same show and saw lots of variation on their price.  One guy had about 6-7 on his table for $339.  This was late in the day on Saturday, the show was dead and I overheard many dealers complaining about it.  If you were there earlier, could be he dropped his prices.  Seemed like it would have been a good show to make a deal (it was completely dead at 2-3pm Sat afternoon), but I am broke :(.

Anywho, about the rifle, a good place for info is here (I won't bother rehasing it all...):

www.cetme.org/mbr.html

and a fairly active CETME forum is here:

www.gunboards.com/forums/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Headlines&BID=30&SID=884920

Rocko

 I don't have one yet either . I have looked into them a little bit though .
These guns seem to be rather hit or miss .
Look at the sights , sometimes the front one is crooked . I saw one really cheap at the INDY 1500 gun show a month ago . The front sight
was cocked way to the left .

I believe another thing to check is the mag release . If it is very tight or does not work this is a bad sign .
Apparently mags should drop fairly easily .

Milled receivers are better . AS usual .

A recent add on Gun Broker .com stated that
" Cetmes had just been Banned "
I don't know if this is true or not .
Prices seem to be dropping from what I see from a year ago .
                  Good luck .

www.southernohiogun.com/

$300 for a CETME and their return policy is MUCH better than any gun show dealer.  If you're not happy, return it.  Comes with 2 hi-cap mags as well.

I know you'll get one now!  Do a search in the forums atleast 3 months back and you'll see reviews of this gun sold by this company.  They were all happy, except for the grime that required cleaning.

I'll be at Bucks County Fish & Game with a friend on Wednesday morning if you'd like to shoot mine. I have one of the original repro's made from unissued rifles on the stainless steel receiver, but it;ll give you a feel fro what they are like to shoot.

Quoted: I'll be at Bucks County Fish & Game with a friend on Wednesday morning if you'd like to shoot mine. I have one of the original repro's made from unissued rifles on the stainless steel receiver, but it;ll give you a feel fro what they are like to shoot.

How much did something like that go for?

I bought mine from SOG, and I'm happy.  Everything seems good, but I have only taken it to the range once.  The barrel looks perfect, and the recoil is very mild (like a 7.62x39).  I lacked an adequate sight adjustment tool, but it looks like I'll be able to adjust it to a reasonable zero.  Here's some things to look for....

1. Front sight cocked to one side.

2. Muzzle break pin slightly protruding into barrel.  Some were attached by drilling a hole, driving in a pressfit pin, and then high temp soldering.  Unfortunately some of these pins were slighly too deep.  This will devastate accuracy and can be dangerous.  It should be visible.

3. Cracks in the receiver near one of the welds.  I read about this, but I can't recall the details.  The bottom line is that you need to keep an eye on this after firing 50 - 100 rounds.  If a crack develops, it needs to be rewelded.

I think it's one of the best bargains around.  For $300-$350 you get a military grade semi-automatic .308 with two 20 round mags (mine came with a mag holder and a 5 round mag as well.  Twenty round magazines can be had for about $6-$7 each.  There is no gas system.  The locked roller mechanism, together with the muzzle break, make for a mild recoil.  But the muzzle break tends to make it one of  the loudest rifles on the range.

My wife's cousin summed it up like this:


C  -  is for the comfort that it gives me.
E  -  is for the everyone's it bests.
T  -  is for a total domination (of my vicinity).
M  -  is for a muzzle blast that clears the bench.
E  -  is for excuses that I'll give the wife.

It looks like most of the "junky" CETME's are in general circulation.  I'd buy one from an online source & have it sent to my FFL.  SOG is good about returns.

Richardson

The first pass of CETME builds by Century on the SW stainless receivers went for about $100 more than the current run of guns.

i bought one several months ago. I LOVE IT! Not as accurate as my fal. kicks a little harder than the fal. But has serious style points

Not to mention mags are 4.00 each. Some things to look at.

Good bore.

cycle the chrging handle a few times and feel for any binding. <century had some problems here>

Parts are available on the cheap at tapco. Mine was right the day i bought it and shoots like a dream.

Quoted:   Milled receivers are better ...       Good luck .

Good luck is right, I don't think anyone ever made a milled receiver...

I bought one from SOG about a month ago. It is worth the $300 I paid for mine.  They told me then that they had a warehouse full of them, it is unlikely that the source will dry up before the damand.

Tapco has good deals on mags and some parts.

DavidC - thanks for the invite, but I can't be @ BCF&G on Wednesday.  I'm still a member there, but haven't used the club since moving to Lancaster about 3 months ago.  

For ~$300., I'll probably buy the next Cetme that I see.  It sounds like the "tilted" front site is a common problem, which I'll certainly pay attention to before buying.  

Thanks all for the comments.  Anybody else?

Tames recoil with the roller lock 308 feels like 223. Very easy to shoot exellent sights for quick pick-up. Now the bad news, mangles brass might be able to reload 2%