New Cetme owner here

[kmagnuss]

Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. I'm the new owner of a Cetme built on a Century receiver. Traded a Glock 30 + $100 for it. No pictures yet, but I'll get some after I get to the range with it this week. The previous owner did a few things to it to get it running nice... He replaced the bolt and carrier with a HK bolt/carrier, replaced the cocking spring,cocking suppport sleeve,and pivot pin, and set the bolt gap to .010. This was his 4th build, so I assume he knew what he was doing by this point. :)
Anwyay... I immediately noticed how gritty the trigger felt, so that was my first order of business. Took apart the trigger group and polished a few of the parts...started with 600 grit and made my way up to 2000. Ahhhhh....that's how a trigger is supposed to feel. It still is a bit stronger of a pull than I'd want, but for a military rifle I like it. Smooth , with a crisp 2 stage break.

Anyhow...I'm looking forward to learning more about these rifles.

-Mag

[LorDiego]

you have definitely come to the right place.
There is no better place anywhere on the internets to talk Cetme shop with people.

[Old Jimmy]

Congrats and welcome!!!

[Otis61]

Welcome!!! Are you sure he put HK bolt/carrier? Dont think your supposed to mix those parts.

[kmagnuss]

Welcome!!! Are you sure he put HK bolt/carrier? Dont think your supposed to mix those parts.

I have no idea if he did or not...I'm just trusting what he said in the ad.

Took it to the range today... pics to follow.

[kmagnuss]

Okay, went for a shakedown at the range today.
First things I noticed about shooting a cetme:
-You get a nice little breeze after every shot. In Florida, this encourages you to shoot faster, and more often.
-The recoil is very manageable, and felt pretty similar to my SKS or Mini 14, but more than an AR15.
-I really like the sights.

Target 1:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/kmags/Gun%20stuff/Target17-27-09.jpg

15 shots standing @ 100 yards. I rarely shoot my combat rifles from a rest, as I most likely never will in a real life situation. I felt the grouping was pretty decent, and attribute to the sights. I was using the 200 yard peep sight. (I really don't like the 100 yard open sight) After seeing this, I wanted to see what it would do from a rest.

Target 2:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/kmags/Gun%20stuff/target27-27-09.jpg

I just stuck a new shoot&see on top of the existing target, figuring all 3 shots would be in there. Wrong. Still not horrible for open sights, but I was hoping for better.

Target 3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/kmags/Gun%20stuff/target37-27.jpg

Same target, just took two more shots at it from a rest...even worse.

Conclusions:

I really enjoy shooting this rifle, and I'm glad I bought it.
I need to practice a bit more with it, but not until I get rid of the CAI muzzle brake and add on a standard flash hider (I read that doing that generally improves accuracy)

-Mag

[Milsurp]

Welcome aboard. You just missed the shoot we had at the Manatee range. There will be another one coming along in Oct or Nov. Bring the cetme with you and do some shooting.

[Otis61]

Looks like it doesn't shoot too bad. I know what you mean about the 100yrd sight. I usually use the 200 peep too.

[drine]

It runs and that's the most important thing. You can familiarize your self with it and check it out as well as or better than the seller. You may get better results with a little more massaging.

[Smokehouse69]

Nice firearm you got yourself, you will really enjoy shooting your Cetme, everything except the cost of ammo. :thumbup:

[earls]

Sounds like you have a nice gun there.
I too think you will like shooting your cetme, they have a light recoil for a 308 in my opinion.
Looks like it shoots pretty good to me.
Sounds like you did a good job on the trigger as well.
Enjoy

[SteelCore]

And hey, that's minute-of-bad-guy at 100 easy, so I'd call it good enuf. You could do what I did, and really clean the barrel with a copper solvent like ProShot Products makes. Removes all sortsa fouling that coudl b3e inthere, I mean tha rifle could be going on 50 years old. I use the solvent on all my milsurps. It can really improve accuracy.

[kmagnuss]

The barrel is the shiniest barrel of all the guns I own. I think the previous owner cleaned it up well. :)

I was thinking...for open sights and shooting from one sandbag, it actually grouped pretty well. If I was shooting it from an actual rest I'm sure I could tighten it up some more... But, I won't be shooting it from a rest...only standing from now on.

Oh...and I have a flash hider on the way. :)

[jfowl31]

While I think the FH looks better and keeps the blast of the muzzle down a little bit... its HIGHLY doubtful that it will increase accuracy unless you are striking your MB with bullets as they exit the barrel, and from the looks of your groups, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Those are good groups for standing, and still 2-3 MOA sitting on the 3-shot group which is typically all that can be expected from these rifles.

What I'm more worried about is what parts you have in your rifle. If the seller was dishonest saying he put HK parts in it (they won't work, so he couldn't have done this to a Cetme), I'm curious to see what in fact is in there. Any chance you could take some blow-up photos next time you disassemble it? Just some good shots of the bolt and carrier... they aren't hard to identify.

As usual, check your bolt gap, measure your bolt length to ensure its not ground, and check for charging handle clearance to make sure you aren't bottoming out on it. If you read through the stickies, there's hours of reading to really learn about these rifles.