~ If I get a CENTURY ARMS made rifle, will Zombies bust in and Eat my Brain?

[Capt Quahog]

re: ~ If I get a CENTURY ARMS made rifle, will Zombies bust in and Eat my Brain?

For the past couple of months I've been interested in acquiring a .308 caliber semi-auto rifle and maybe something in 5.56 too. Want to have at least one standard U.S. Military caliber rifle on hand.

Since I hold an inherent dislike for both AR-15 and the M1A (make believe M14) type rifles, that leaves a number of other oddballs for consideration. There is no interest in buying new guns . . . Haven't purchased anything new since getting a Glock .40 caliber about 20-years ago. USED is always more fun anyway. It seems that a sizable number of USED .308 and even 5.56 rifles on the market today are products labeled CENTURY ARMS.

From spending hours on the WEB reading and researching CETME and FAL/L1A1 rifles as well as Golani 5.56 guns, there are endless stories over the past decade of misery and woe associated with CENTURY ARMS products. Some are good rifles while others are horrendously bad . . . so they say.

Then there are long endless threads on the Internet dedicated to the finer details of which edition or time period CENTURY ARMS rifle or receiver should be avoided. Known repairs with bastard file fixes for standard defects are constantly discussed. To me, there is too much information for a topic that should be simple. The user chambers the round, squeezes the trigger, the weapon fires and does so in succession reliably. That's it! I don't want to dedicate this as my life's work.

Right now, I'm contemplating the purchase of one of THREE (3) used L1A1 FAL type rifles with all of them built on Century Arms marked receivers. They each look very nice and would make fine wall hangers. . . Thing is, a couple of the owners have been trying to sell these same rifles for some time now and there are apparently no takers. Could it be name of CENTURY ARMS that prevents a sale? The asking prices seem reasonable.

Perhaps I've reached the point where I might avoid anything marked with CENTURY ARMS. There was no need to spend hours researching the tentative defects, cheap fixes and garbage quality issues for my Marlin lever gun, M1 Garand rifle, SKS or Remington 870 pump guns.

Did however come up with an idea for a lousy TV movie that could probably be sold to that equally crummy SyFi channel.

Action scenario; This rumpled looking man is hold up in a small building armed with only a semi-auto .308 FAL type rifle and 1200 rounds of ammo pre-loaded into magazines. The zombies are howling outside and banging on the door and walls. Meanwhile, the guy is inside frantically trying to figure out if his only defense, the CENTURY ARMS L1A1 rifle has a receiver with the "unibrow" or improved "widow's peak" feeding ramp. Doesn't matter anyway, because the gun is hopelessly jammed and useless. Within a short time, the horde of zombies busts in, jumps on the guy and quickly eats his brain. . . . . . THE END

[7998]

re: ~ If I get a CENTURY ARMS made rifle, will Zombies bust in and Eat my Brain?

^^^Yes!^^^

[mojo]

^^^Yes!^^^

Ha ha .. that's what I was going to do

Back on track. To the OP I think that the problem with the CAI stuff is that some are complete crap and others are not. You might actually get a good one. It's really a crap shoot. Are you able to "test" drive any of the rifles, or will the owners give a 48 hour "trial" period? If they want to sell the rifle bad enough, don't see why the wouldn't. That way you can take it to the range and see if there are any problems.

[gf45acp]

Capt, a thought for you, Saiga.

[7998]

Ha ha .. that's what I was going to do

Back on track. To the OP I think that the problem with the CAI stuff is that some are complete crap and others are not. You might actually get a good one. It's really a crap shoot. Are you able to "test" drive any of the rifles, or will the owners give a 48 hour "trial" period? If they want to sell the rifle bad enough, don't see why the wouldn't. That way you can take it to the range and see if there are any problems.

It was there I had to say it. Having said that I actually have a CA WASR-10 that I'm waiting on, so I had enough faith in them to spend my money.

[762xIan]

AAhhhhh......Century, and the angry monkeys they employ as assemblers.

Century had/has a well deserved bad rap for producing out of spec. rifles.

That being said, the fact that it is already built is a plus. If it has been successfully fired and does indeed work is another plus.

Most issues were early on in the production runs of these rifles, and have for the most part been taken care of. I haven't heard that much bad stuff lately.

Common issues:

Uni-Brow feed ramp....while ugly and not to true FAL specs, it does work, and I have not heard of any horror stories of non-functioning rifles personally. A friend has a uni-brow FAL and it works fine.

Bad headspace....the "angry monkeys" didn't pay to much attention while assembling and many left the factory with excessive headspace, this is easily fixed and one of the beautiful features of the FAL design, the ability to change out a locking shoulder to correct headspace.

Ejector block not installed correctly.... mainly a builders issue, the fact the rifles you are looking at are already built, and if they eject properly this shouldn't be a problem.

Gas piston hole misalignment...some receivers (early ones) had misaligned gas piston holes....this would cause the piston to bind. Again it should not be an issue on a built rifle.

Misc.....Poor finish, lots of tool marks, sometimes the mag catch holes not aligned right. Check that magazines locks up tight, all latches/releases work before buying it.

Personally I wouldn't hesitate on buying a Century FAL, If the price was good.....almost any problem with it can be fixed, and usually by the owner. Spare parts abound and are relatively cheap compared to other rifles.

One reason the rifles may have not been sold yet is the price, what are they asking? Another is the availability of ammo, quality .308 has dried up and what is available is very expensive. The days of 200 round battle packs of Portugese surplus for $35 are long gone.

Maybe Pa. Patriot will chime in with a personal assessment, or something else to add, he is by far one of the best FAL smith/builders on the east coast if not the country.

[Capt Quahog]

Hello: Thank you very much for the thoughtful and detailed information. One of the FAL rifles is an INCH pattern Aussie that can be perhaps had for about $700. That one is about 50-miles away. The others are within around 30-miles FTF distance. Those are both Metric with one based on a Brazilian and the other I think to be an Austrian. Those could likely be picked up for perhaps less money.

Though I have 30.06 M1 Garand rifles, I do want at least one current U.S. military caliber weapon. A 7.62 NATO caliber semi-auto rifle seems logical. Had a chance to purchase a semi-auto FAL back in the 1970s. As I recall, the price was $1,200.00. Back then in the days when a person could buy a three-bedroom home in the southern New England area with five acres of land for $24,000, the price of that FAL was a lot more money. Remember that the FN-FAL rifle seemed so elegant.