Is it worth the money ($400) to purchase the Century built CETME rifle or should I pass?

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Who knows?  Mine waas in great shape and after a bit of tunning I can get 2" groups at 100 yards.  My friends was a complete POS.

Would I do it again, no.  But the rifle I have is in great shape, and shoots good.  I have zero confidence that if I buy a 2nd one, it would be this good.

Ever been to Vegas or Atlantic City?  How did you do?

It sounds like there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the rifle design, just need to find a good manufacturer?

Never been gambling, but I have been told I should :).

Mine is of the Hessie type.  It is hard on the brass.


Mine was purchased from SOG.  Mine shot about a foot to the left and about a foot high.  The magazine fits in properly and the bore is excellent.

Some of the problems I have heard about:
* Shooting to the left as much as 2 feet.
* Shooting high about a foot.
* Magazines not fitting in the gun, or having to
 be smacked into place.
* The blind pin for the muzzle break
 protruding into the barrel.
* Cracked, damaged stocks.
* The rear sight looks like it had been welded
 on by a 10 year old.
* The charging handle being so tight it could
 not be moved without extreme pressure.

That's about it off the top of my head.  I got lucky, and so did my dad.  If I had to do it again, I would go with a good quality FAL.

Can the problems with the sights be easily fixed?

Quoted: Is it worth the money ($400) to purchase the Century built CETME rifle or should I pass?

______________________________________________

Pass

If you get a rifle that has any of the above problems, you just send it back to Century.  Eventually you will get a good rifle, but it will take weeks after your initial purchase.  Century does fix the rifles, but they should be correct when you buy them.  You have to call them and get an RMA number.  

It is VERY important that you inspect the rifle before you shoot it.

If you get one, buy one with the Hessie receiver.  This receiver has adjustable rear sights, the Century receiver does not.

well I have bought a few rifles in the last two years as alot of folks here have and what I find on alot of the guns that are put built by a few manf. are a crap shoot.
having said that I do believe you can get a great gun at a fraction of what the real original rifle would cost. example: fal or h&k.

buying sight unseen is a crap shoot at its best.

cai has had a bad name for screwing up guns it builds but saying this they also do provide a service that lets us buy a few weapons that other wise most of us could not  buy on a regular basis because of the cost.
I do believe strongly that you should always buy in person on these types of weapons even if it cost you a few bucks more.

as far as the cetme they are a low priced weapon that in  the near furture you will not find at the prices you see now.
when I bought mine I bought it from a dealer locally who has a shop and also does shows.  went to the show and looked at over 10 of the cetme's from cai in all 3 of the recievers they made and saw problems with most of them.
I chose one that seemed to have none of the problems as most of them do, but I picked the hesse sheet metal reciever one as it is more like the original model 91.
saw some that I could not get a unloaded mag into it with out really pounding on it.
saw some that the sights were not even close.
saw some that it was very hard to cock and would not lock up even closely.
I paid $500 for mine at it looked new and everything that they say to look for was good to go and seemed to not have a problem.
took it home and took it apart and polised the inside of the reciever and cleaned all of the grit out of everything and oiled it up.
have shot it twice now and have only put 4 mags thru it but it is faily acuate and two of the mags I fired were as fast as I could pull the trigger and it emptied both mags in a flash.

saying this I do own a sar-1 built by them and waited and bought a 2001 date rifle as they do seem to have all the bugs worked out and after cleaning it and putting on a adjustible rear metal sight and putting the front sight in the middle with that little front sight tool went out and fired it 1" left and 2" high at 100 yards just turned the rear knob a couple of clicks and its dead on and put about 100 rounds thru it and works like a dream.
having said that I would not buy one of the fal's they have built even the one's with the imbel recievers as their are some decent built guns out there for  a few bucks more that are really good guns.
I have bought a cai fal but it was one of the first one's they built and they are hard to find now and are keepers as the first one's were built on argy recievers  from all new l1a1 guns and they soon ran out of those and its been about 7 years since those were built but they are agood rifle. also bought a iai m444 and had nothing but problems with it and the argy cai would shoot circles around it.
so the bottom line is this if you do not study something and know what you are looking at and the problems that are common with the rifle you are trying to buy and also buy it unseen you are asking for trouble.  jon  

Someone tell me why "SAFE" and "FIRE" are in reversed positions on these new CETMEs from the positions of the HK91 and the original CETME Sport.  The firearms gods decree that "FIRE" should be down, not up!

it is wierd and I do hate that but i just figure what the heck at least I can use my thumb kinda. its better than having to push the lever down on a ak or pulling the knob back on the mosin nagant rifles but it still sucks I know  

Quoted: If you get one, buy one with the Hessie receiver.

Never thought I'd ever seen this given as advice.

My friend has one that I have shot a few times.  Shoots good.  Feels just like the HK 91/G3 except for the rear sights and the wood furniture.  It's a little heavy, but not bad.  He did buy his from CAI with the stamped sheet metal recieved (sorry I don't know the mfg'r.).

The CETME is VERY HARD ON BRASS!  As are all of the HK roller locking and/or polygon barrel systems.  If you are not reloading though, don't worry about it.  

When he bough his CETME, I picked up an FAL (STG parts on an Imbel reciever).  I cut/crowned the barrel down to 16" carbine leanth and put a small muzzle break on the end.  It's noe only about 1/2" longer than the fixed stock government carbine AR's, but shoots the bigger .308 round.  I love the thing.  It's simple, accurate and a blast to shoot.  For the same price, I highly recomment the FAL.

MSH441

Go ahead and buy the CETME.

Prices on these will just go up.  Worry about the "faults" later on.  With a dremel, and a few tools, you should be able to addreess the problems the Century people put into this MBR.

What BMWguy said....

Bought mine as a kit when TAPCO had the new "unissued" ones.  Built it on an SW/Stainless receiver.

Receiver was a little tight at first, but improved appreciably after 100 - 150 rounds.  Now runs very reliably.

As to trigger orientation...the Cetme is the original, not the H&K.  H&K changed the trigger group design (and safe/fire orientation) when they started production.  H&K trigger group will fit in Cetme housing and Cetme trigger group will fit H&K housing, but not the individual parts.

Go for it.

I have a preban CETME sport.  The trigger group is oriented just like the HK with respect to "SAFE" and "FIRE."  It therefore is oriented differently than the new CETMEs on the scene.  And the trigger group is held in with a pin similar to that holding the HK handguard on, it does not swing down like the HK91.