CETME Battle Rifles - Good, Bad, ???

[wctriumph]

I have an opportunity to trade for a CETME rifle. Are these any good, what should I look out for when inspecting one? What should I be looking for when it comes to magazines? I really don't know much about them so I am turning to the experts here. Thanks guys.

TEA

III

[mutt]

If this is a Century build - make sure the bolt gap is within specs and make sure you don't have a ground bolt. Century CETMEs are notorious for this issue. Standard G3 mags will work with a small bit of fitting.

[Great-Kazoo]

depends on what it is you're trading them.

[Colorado Osprey]

I have also seen good CETMEs and bad Century builds. G3 ,mags are plentiful, cheap and reliable.(I never needed to tune any) The CETME mags work well too but are more costly. You need to be aware that CETME recoil seem higher than it should be and accuracy is that of a battle rifle...not target/sniper rifle. (2-3MOA is good) To me that is a deal killer and have sold all the CETMEs I have owned due to poor accuracy issues.... poor in my judgement... but standard in a battle rifle.

[BPTactical]

^^^ what he said.
CETME's are a total crapshoot but a couple of things you can be assured of:
1-built from worn out parts
2-built by Century angry and vengeful beavers from worn out parts.
3-built with crappy workmanship by Century angry and vengeful beavers from worn out parts.

YMMV

[JM Ver. 2.0]

Mmmmmmm....... Beavers........

Sent from my teepee using smoke signals.

[wctriumph]

Thanks guys, I turned the trade down after looking at the gun. It was sloppy and the guy said he has three and wanted to cut back, the mags were a mishmash and some were rusty.

I guess when I decide to go for a modern (?) .30 cal battle rifle I will look at one in the AR platform. At current prices that may be never!

[mutt]

A PTR91 GI model is a good bet if you are looking for a G3 type rifle. It's supposedly not as finicky with ammo as previous versions. It also has the proper barrel profile for a G3/HK91. Atlantic has them for $925. I'm sure better deals could be found as Christmas gets closer.

[wctriumph]

Thanks for the advice. It will be next year until I can consider actually purchasing a gun, for now only trades and I still want a decent GI M1 Carbine.

[spqrzilla]

It is not always true that CETME builds (almost all CETME's in the US were built from parts kits using US manuf receivers but a tiny few were originally imported as sporters from Spain ) will use G3 magazine. And everytime I mention this some CETME experts will jump on me. But I owned a Century built CETME that would only accept the CETME magazines.

The magazine well on the original CETME was designed for a curved magazine. The G3 magazine is straight. Some of the lowers that Century used were designed to match the original CETME mag well - like the one that I owned. Others were closer to the G3 shape. So never assume that a CETME build.