Who has the best CETME

[ThePreacher]

I have been hearin all the good things about CETME"S Thought I might like to try one. I have a Ruger Black Hawk in .41 mag that ought to bring enough to get a CETME Who has the best ones? I already have two fal kits and am working on my first build but hey it never hurts to have two of the same caliber. The more the merrier I say. :D Especialy if these are on the endangered list:mad:

[Richard Simmons]

I bought mine about a year and a half ago from WG&A and am very pleased. Having said that I would try and find one at a show or somewhere that I could look at it beforehand. They are all made by Century and I don't believe they sell them to any particular distributor in any better condition than another. Reports are that the quality of the parts kits has gone down of late. This might explain the new Camo paint model they are offering. If you order one from a distributor I would suggest that you make it quite clear as to the condition that you expect.

[smittylite]

ditto on what Richard said. Make sure you get the opportunity to look it over first.

[RetVet]

Definately check it out before accepting it. As noted above, the quality of the parts kits has gone down hill for sure and is likely the reason for the numerous cases of ground bolts you may have read about.

I don't know what you're experience is with these, so let me go ahead and give you a checklist of what to look or watch out for:

1. Check for free space between cocking mechanism and bolt carrier tube. Cock the rifle, insure the chamber is clear, then let the charging handle fly home (this will charge the rifle to put the bolt in battery position). Pull the trigger. Now lift the charging handle just enough to clear the nib and see if you have any free play between the cocking mechanism and the front of the bolt carrier tube. There should be a little, enough to hear a little metal to metal clicking when rocking it forward and back. No free space, reject it. If there's no free space you will NEVER be able to accurately determine bolt gap.

2. Check for a ground bolt. With the magazine removed look into the mag well at the bolt and carrier. Specifically look at the rearward end of the bolt. Might need to pry the two apart a bit. If it's shiny and not parked and has little to know bevel along the edges it's likely been ground. Reject this rifle and move on. You can read about the ground bolt issue by doing a search here or over at Gunboards.com.

3. Measure bolt gap. With the magazine pulled, the rifle charged and the trigger pulled, insert a feeler gauge between the rear end of the bolt and the front end of the carrier. There should be a gap there between .004 and .019 inch. Something in the middle of that range is good. If the gap is outside of this range or there is none at all......you guessed it, add it to the reject pile. Bolt gap will decrease as the parts wear out. The bolt gap is the only way to gauge if headspace is within tolerence. You can't measure headspace directly on this type of action.

4. Check the sights. They should not be canted, cocked over to one side, etc. Just eyeball them the best you can. Century has a nasty habit of sometimes welding that rear sight on crooked. If it is you'll never get the thing sighted in without major work.

5. Check the bore where the muzzle break is attached. The muzzle break is blind pinned. I've heard that sometimes the rocket scientists at Century will drill to deep and the pin will protrude into the bore. Needless to say this is bad news!

6. Inspect the rest of the rifle for the usual things everyone normally looks at.

This is just my .02 worth having purchased two of these rifles and having read a billion threads and web pages concerning them. I'm no expert. I just don't like getting screwed more than once a day. :D

[Richard Simmons]

Saw a brand new CETME in a local store today. I believe it had the cast receiver as I didn't see the welds around the mag well like the stamped receivers have/had. Metal finish was very nice though the difference in color between the metal on the forward protion of the buttstock and the rest of the rifle was VERY pronounced. Wood was really nasty looking. Both the forearm and the butt were very washed out looking with no apparent finish left. Very dull and worn looking. The metal on the front end of the forearm had no finish remaining. Why didn't CAI simply touch it up with something? Didn't check the bore or cycle the action. Asking price was $410.00. I paid about $450 including transfer for mine in July of 2001 (they were wholesaling for $425 then) and just from an appearance standpoint mine is mint by comparison. For $290-$300 I might not be too upset but these latest ones can't possibly be moving at retail if they all look this shitty. I still think the Camo version they are selling is to cover up the crappy appearance of the part kits they are using. Kind of glad I got mine when I did as waiting might not have been the best thing in this instance. Don't know who the shop ordered it from?

[dmk0210]

Geeze! After reading RetVet's post, I can see why people refer to the folks at Century who build these as blind drunken monkees!

[Schuetzenman]

AIM may have the best ones. I went through a dozen up there and picked one primarily for stock and sights. Didn't see any that were gapless.

I see they also have G3 black polymer stocks on a bunch of CETME's that just came in. You might want to check one of these out.

I love my CETME it's a tight grouping Mo-Fo! :rockin: It is MOA capable and when the Henzholdt G3 scope shows up look out, it'll do even better on accuracy!:sniper:

In fact I've gone so bonkers for these CETME's, FAL's and HKG3's now I'm going to be liquidating a dozen classic bolt actions guys from Mosins to Swedes to a No4 Mk1 Savage Enfield. Stay tuned for the For Sale post with Pics.;)

[ThePreacher]

Thanks For the info guys, Now all I have to do is get rid of the Ruger and Ill be giving aim a call:cool:

[REDSTAR]

good post. We need to stick this one in semi autos when we move it.