Im looking to buy a Cetme rifle. But i have some questions that are common. 1. Do these rifle safely and accurately shoot 308 win. I know originally they were set for the nato 308, but every manufacture and gun store says they shoot 308 win. 2. What type, which brand, and are there certain models that are better then others. I see century arms is a big seller of them but i have read some bad things about them.
Looking to buy a Cetme
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Cetmes are great rifles, but occassionally Century produced one that was crappy when they assembled the parts.
I have a good one that I would sell if the price was right.
I have a good one that I would sell if the price was right.
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910 Posts
Mine eats mil surp and commercial ammo - no problems with either even steel cases feed, fire and eject. Price is an open question.
So all the stuff i have read about shooting 308 win from the local store being dangerous in these rifles is a myth????? or are they made to accept both rounds? I did a random google search on shopping and it seems a century is going for about 5ish. Thanks for the info guys.
The old "don't shoot commercial ammo" through a CETME or HK-91 is a myth. When the CETME & G3 went through development, they found the fluted chamber had issues with soft brass. When fired, the brass case expands around the chamber flutes on a cushion of air. If the brass is very soft, it will expand filling the flutes and get stuck on the chamber wall. Whether it be that commercial brass is thinner than military brass... or that commercial 308 ammo is a bit hotter than 7.62 NATO... someone set forth the wive's tale not to use commercial ammo in a CETME. Even though many of us had been shooting commercial ammo in our HKs and Mars CETME's for decades with no issues. Maybe they confused the SAAMI warning not to shoot 5.56 NATO in .233 Remington chambers as carrying over to the 308 & 7.62 NATO. Steel cased ammo was thoroughly tested during development of these rifles and was found to be quite satisfactory. I actually prefer to use steel cased ammo in fluted chambers and blow back SMGs.
Pretty much every CETME sporter out there was assembled by Century Arms. You'll find both stainless steel and stamped sheet metal receivers. Also post-ban rifles and no-ban rifles. Century made a lot of mistakes assembling the first batches of CETME's. But in honesty, even the best rifle builders of M1s and M1As often send out a turkey more often then they like to admit. The CETME is good for the price. You want a higher quality HK, like a PTR, costs you twice as much.
Pretty much every CETME sporter out there was assembled by Century Arms. You'll find both stainless steel and stamped sheet metal receivers. Also post-ban rifles and no-ban rifles. Century made a lot of mistakes assembling the first batches of CETME's. But in honesty, even the best rifle builders of M1s and M1As often send out a turkey more often then they like to admit. The CETME is good for the price. You want a higher quality HK, like a PTR, costs you twice as much.
I got one of the good cetme's from century arms. I shoot only south african 308 ball ammo in it so far because of the thicker wall brass in the fluted chamber. I find the cetme to be heavy and the charging handle is somewhat akward to use. I like my russian saiga sporter much better. If your interested in my cetme just email me.
I like the charging handle on the left. make more sense to me, but its a personal preference. No FFL or i would. I need to get an FFL some day. By the way how are those saigas????? I have herd bad and good. I presume this is the wrong form for it.
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I have a stainless that eats anything fed to it.
Won't even consider selling.....Just think stainless is best.
Won't even consider selling.....Just think stainless is best.
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5,079 Posts
My C block stainless cast is tops. I've won matches with it, it's so accurate.
I was lucky that it was built with unissued parts, but they could have screwed that up just a easily... but they didn't.
Good luck on your search (yes you do need to go through FFL)
I was lucky that it was built with unissued parts, but they could have screwed that up just a easily... but they didn't.
Good luck on your search (yes you do need to go through FFL)
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14,019 Posts
When I got my Century CETME, (mine also has a C prefix on its serial number) I had heard great things about its reliability, so I went out and sought some of the crappiest-looking surplus 7.62 NATO ammo to put through it I could find.
I found a guy at a gun show that was selling a bunch of damaged stuff (dented rounds, bent rounds, etc. A lot of this stuff had headstamps in what appeared to be Hebrew, and a few rounds of the infamous TZ 80 was also represented. A lot of it looked like it came right out of belts and were likely misfeeds from a MG.) which he was selling for components and I picked up a hundred or so of them and tried running them through my rifle.
Most of them fed, fired, and extracted just fine. The only real problems I had was with seriously bent rounds. Those that were only mildly bent, the rifle was able to 'iron out'.
Based upon my experience with this ammo, the CETME is ONE HECKUVA RELIABLE RIFLE, and in this regard needs to concede NOTHING to the AK series.
I have never tried commercial ammunition in my CETME. Just about everything I feed my CETME are reloads in NATO cases using 147 grain FMJ, or the 162 grain .30-06 AP bullets, ahead of Ball C-2 powder. With this stuff, never a stutter.
EDIT: Thinking back now, I can remember TWO problems I had very early on. Neither was the rifle's fault.
One of the used 1960's dated aluminum W. German surplus magazines I picked up for it broke its follower spring (it rusted through). The springs in the German magazines are made with awfully small gauge wire.
I wasn't out much, though. I paid $3.00 apiece for those mags, and the other ones are fine internally.
I also had a feed lip problem with a steel CETME mag I bought (again, secondhand surplus) that depressed the bullet points enough on one side of the magazine that the bullet would catch on the front of the magazine box when the bolt tried pushing it out. I got this magazine to work by using a pair of pliers to bend the front of the lip up and out a bit. I then painted the outside of its feed lips yellow, so I could identify it in the future. This mag has never given me another problem and works just fine, now.
Apart from these solely magazine issues, NOTHING wrong with the CETME.
I found a guy at a gun show that was selling a bunch of damaged stuff (dented rounds, bent rounds, etc. A lot of this stuff had headstamps in what appeared to be Hebrew, and a few rounds of the infamous TZ 80 was also represented. A lot of it looked like it came right out of belts and were likely misfeeds from a MG.) which he was selling for components and I picked up a hundred or so of them and tried running them through my rifle.
Most of them fed, fired, and extracted just fine. The only real problems I had was with seriously bent rounds. Those that were only mildly bent, the rifle was able to 'iron out'.
Based upon my experience with this ammo, the CETME is ONE HECKUVA RELIABLE RIFLE, and in this regard needs to concede NOTHING to the AK series.
I have never tried commercial ammunition in my CETME. Just about everything I feed my CETME are reloads in NATO cases using 147 grain FMJ, or the 162 grain .30-06 AP bullets, ahead of Ball C-2 powder. With this stuff, never a stutter.
EDIT: Thinking back now, I can remember TWO problems I had very early on. Neither was the rifle's fault.
One of the used 1960's dated aluminum W. German surplus magazines I picked up for it broke its follower spring (it rusted through). The springs in the German magazines are made with awfully small gauge wire.
I wasn't out much, though. I paid $3.00 apiece for those mags, and the other ones are fine internally.
I also had a feed lip problem with a steel CETME mag I bought (again, secondhand surplus) that depressed the bullet points enough on one side of the magazine that the bullet would catch on the front of the magazine box when the bolt tried pushing it out. I got this magazine to work by using a pair of pliers to bend the front of the lip up and out a bit. I then painted the outside of its feed lips yellow, so I could identify it in the future. This mag has never given me another problem and works just fine, now.
Apart from these solely magazine issues, NOTHING wrong with the CETME.
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