Is Century Arms junk?

[Gunner2122]

Enlighten me, are Century Arms International products pieces of junk? This seems to be the general consensus everywhere I turn, but a few people claim they are good guns. Any opinions?

 

[nalioth]

Century Arms imports far more than it creates.

To lump all "Century" products as junk will severely limit your collecting ability, as the majority of old milsurps out there are imported by them.

Did you have a particular model in mind? If so, I think divulging that would bring you better answers.

 

[Wise Lite Arms]

A quick data point..

I just glanced at the BATFE Annual Firearms Manufacturing And Export Report for 2007.
Century Arms MANUFACTURED over 24,000 LONG guns in that year.
I believe that was all rifles.
That is a large number considering that manufacturing isn't their primary focus (unlike S&W who also made about the same number of long guns that year)
If you are comparing AK's, consider that ARSENAL made about 500 long guns that year.

I would really like to see the firearms industry production numbers for 2008 and 2009! I know WLA made a HUGE leap in numbers compared to 2007. I am sure many other companies did as well.

Regards,
Richard C. Hamer

 

[nalioth]

If you are comparing AK's, consider that ARSENAL made about 500 long guns that year.

This is a marketing decision on Arsenal's part, toward keeping their product's prices (new and secondary markets) artificially inflated.

 

[R.W.Dale]

In my experience any work that century does on a firearm that goes beyond stamping on an import mark is going to fall somewhere between complete and total crapshoot to unmitigated disaster.

If you've ever seen a century converted .308 MAS or one of their god awful ar15's you would NOT be asking this question. IMO it just isn't possible to give CIA enough bad press to even get halfway to what they deserve. If you want a good read just google "century arms drunken monkeys"


BTW first mention of drunken monkeys for the thread win

 

[RyanM]

In my experience any work that century does on a firearm that goes beyond stamping on an import mark is going to fall somewhere between complete and total crapshoot to unmitigated disaster.

Sums it up. There's plenty of quality imports runnning around with the CIA electropenciling. But they don't do any QC at all, before or after doing work. And the Romanians also seem to employ drunken monkeys with no standards, so the WASR line is pretty infamous for having crazily crooked parts.

 

[rogertc1]

They are not junk.

 

[Birddog1911]

It is difficult to lump them all together. I've had the CAI GP1975 (AK). It had a Dan Coonan receiver (one of the best), Tapco furniture and trigger, and an American barrel. Fit, finish, everything about it was nice. I wouldn't own a Romanian WASR when for just about 50 or so more $, I could have that rifle.

I've also had a PSL from CAI that, while not pretty, was fully functional. I think a lot of the problems start in Romania, and aren't addressed by CAI.

 

[DMK]

I just glanced at the BATFE Annual Firearms Manufacturing And Export Report for 2007.
Century Arms MANUFACTURED over 24,000 LONG guns in that year.
I believe that was all rifles.

The large majority of that are going to be guns converted to 9.22r compliance with US made parts. It used to be a lot of trigger parts, gas pistons, furniture and other easily changed parts, however tighter ATF regs have changed that to adding US made barrels and receivers lately. Some of their US made AK 5.45x39 barrels had some issues with key-holing. They blamed surplus ammo for the problem.

The biggest problem with Century's "manufacturing" quality is they tend to take shortcuts. If all the surplus parts that they are using fit together just fine then it turns out great. However, if the parts do not fit together right, they tend to use crude methods to make them fit. For example, search CETME.

 

[Motodeficient]

They do have their problems but they also import a ton more guns than anyone else. And the ratio of problems is going to be higher on the internet, people come here when they have a problem and let others know about it. If there isnt a problem, you generally don't see people coming online to post that.

The good news is, century will fix any problems that you may have with your gun. I sent a WASR 10/63 back to them that would not chamber a round and it was brand new. I shipped it back to them, and 2 weeks later I got my AK back in perfect operating condition. Its growing on me more every time I shoot it!

 

[desidog]

I have an FR7 that they imported, but did not build. No problems.

In all my reading on this forum and others, I recall many people griping about issues and never "i got it, its great, there's no issues" with the guns Century actually assembles.

Getting one they built is a gamble, pure and simple.

 

[SpeedAKL]

It depends. Some of their products are junk, others work fine - it depends on the individual product. AFAIK some of the CETMEs, C93s, ARs, and WASR AKs can be hit-or-miss, but the PSL sniper rifles, Hungarian and Yugo AKs, etc etc are generally good pieces and some of the WASRs and CETMEs can actually turn out OK.

 

[Uncle Mike]

Is Century Arms junk?

Pretty much so..... the ones they part together themselves more so..

 

[Odnar]

I have a Century R1A1, and it's one of my favorites. It came with with 6 mags, and for some reason it doesn't work at all with one mag, but the other 5 will feed all day long.

Oh yeah, I bought it off the used rack for $225 in '05.

 

[essayons21]

Funny, I've got a .308 MAS-49/56 and a WASR-10/63, both of which are supposedly Century's worst efforts, yet they both run flawlessly. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I think Century's bad reputation comes from poor quality control and the huge number of guns they import/manufacture. Everyone that gets a lemon comes to the internet to complain, while those that get good ones are out shooting.

I would be hesitant to buy a Century sight unseen, but if you have the opportunity to inspect the gun at a gun shop or show, you can end up with a nice rifle for not much cash.

 

[buck00]

Enlighten me, are Century Arms International products pieces of junk? This seems to be the general consensus everywhere I turn, but a few people claim they are good guns. Any opinions?

I like Century because they make low-cost functional rifles. If you want a fancy rifle with really nice gunkoat and perfect features- shell out the extra 300-400 for something from Red Jacket, Lancaster, or Kreb's.

My first rifle was a Century SAR-1... I would have taken her (canted sights and all) anywhere in a crisis. Never jammed with over 3,000 rounds through her. Finish was rough and ugly (wood actually wasn't bad though).


Without Century the market prices of AKs would be much higher.

 

[briansmithwins]

I'd be cautious I think of most of CAI's builds (as opposed to imports) as decent 'starter kits'.

This AES-10B is a CAI product. The 1st one had a canted FSB and floppy mag well. Classicarms.com exchanged it for my current one.

I had it parkerized and refinished the wood, replaced the bipod with the correct RPK bipod, and replaced the gas piston. . I consider it a keeper. BSW

 

[WoofersInc]

I have several guns from Century. So far all have run great for me. Not one of them needed anything to make them work.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

Some would say so. Where these is smoke, there's usually fire... I am referring to the stuff they build/make.

 

[sharkhunter2018]

My experience with CAI has been good for the most part. Both my WASR-10 and M1 (before I traded it off with a friend for another gun) are great rifles and have never had any problems.

The one rifle that has given me problems is my WASR-2, which is a total POS. For some reason, the drunken monkeys left a notch cut out of the rail that the bolt carrier rides on. It is exactly like the notches cut out of the rail at the rear to put the bolt carrier out, except that it is on the right side of the receiver and is placed right where the carrier rides over the hammer. This causes the carrier to catch on the rail. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with it, cause I do like the rifle.

 

[Old Time Hunter]

My current CIA rifles and pistols stand at around 50, no problems encountered on any of them. 'Course I probably got rid of another 50 since I always purchased 2 or 3 and tried to pick the best ones.

 

[LouisCipher777]

I have two beautiful rifles from CIA, both Romanian. One a PSL-54c and the other a WASR 10/63. The PSL is sub-MOA and the AK is fantastic with no problems whatsoever (although I did finish the wood). I did replace the trigger groups on both rifles with tapco G2 groups.

I would buy from CIA again in a heartbeat.

 

[66912]

Somehow I ended up with a Century L1A1 that has been extremely reliable. I have put thousands of rounds through this rifle without an issue. Paid $399 for it off the shelf back in 05'.

 

[smokin hot AR10]

I am new here and I don’t want to insult anybody. This is my personal experience with Century made rifles. I have bought two Century CETME rifles new.

The first one was a nice kit gun but after several trips to the range and having, a gunsmith check the rifle out. I soon discovered the barrel had seen the last of its life. I sold it and yes I did let the buyer know the condition of the barrel and I took a loss on it.

The second rifle was not as nice as the first one but the dealer told me it had a new barrel. Now I thought I was going to be okay. Nope, it turned out to be a Jammomatic. I sent it back to Century twice. I personally don’t think they did anything to it. Finally, I took it to the gunsmith. He showed me the chamber. It looked like the tooling they used to cut the chamber was broken. It looked very bad. I sold it at a loss and I never bought another Century made gun again. :banghead:

 

[Quentin]

I've had good luck with the four CAI imports I bought, a WASR 10/63, SKS, M44 and FM Hi-Power. The first 3 were "new" out of the Century box while the Argentine Hi-Power was bought used. All worked great without any changes other than minor touch up and are nice additions to my collection.

No complaints with Century here and I'm glad they import stuff that would be hard to get otherwise.