Cetme will not extract/cycle

[Luis R]

Howdy,

I'm new to the forum. I have owned a Century Cetme for a few years and haven't had any major problems. Last week a friend tells me that he bought a Cetme but it doesn't work. I get it from him and check it out. Headspace is ok (0.018), extractor is good, spring is stiff but moves. I take it out to the range and fire it. It fires and thats it does not extract/eject. I don't believe it cycled at all. I fight the cocking handle, have to smack it some. The action starts to move and out comes the case, bolt extracts it. I look at the case and the shoulder doesn't look right. I take my Cetme and fire a round and retrieve the case and compare it to my friends case. His case looks like the chamber is cut for a Ackley improved chamber but with rounded shoulders. I don't believe this is normal, but the question is this, will the chamber not being right cause the weapon to become a single shot weapon (not work as intended). I will try to get some pictures of the cases so you will have a visual. Thanks in advance for any help you maybe able to offer.

Semper Fi,

Luis R

[hunter_la5]

First of all, :welcome: to the forums!

I doubt that the chamber was cut any differently than normal (I have never heard of anyone doing that to a CETME) but I suppose if it were a used gun the previous owner may have done it? If the chamber has in fact been modified, that could very easily render it a single shot rifle.

One problem could be that the chamber is just dirty. If the Chamber flutes are dirty or gummed up, the rifle will have trouble extracting.

Also, what type of ammo is he using?

Another thing to check for would be if the bolt-head has been ground. If it has (and many were), then you are getting a false bolt-gap reading and it may actually be a lot lower, which can cause cycling problems.

Also check to see if the recoil spring guide-rod is bent.

Pictures will certainly help. I'm sure more knowledgeable members than I will chime in soon....

[texlurch]

I would give the chamber a real good cleaning and inspection, to see if there is a piece of stuck case in there from a previous owner using commercial ammo.


Anyone care to wager?

[hunter_la5]

I would give the chamber a real good cleaning and inspection, to see if there is a piece of stuck case in there from a previous owner using commercial ammo.


Anyone care to wager?

That wouldn't surprise me one bit.

[Luis R]

it does this with both commercial and surplus ammo. The primers back out some, forgot to mention that yesterday. And in the bottom you can see what I mean about the chamber. The case to the left was fired from my Cetme, the middle and right cases are out of my friends rifle.

The bolt does not appear to be ground either.

[hunter_la5]

That is very strange for sure, I would take Texlurch's advice and check for any pieces of brass being lodged in the throat-area of the chamber. These rifles are known for having case-head separations with .308 brass (as opposed to 7.62 Nato brass), often times the case-head gets lodged in the chamber. It is possible the last owner of the rifle fired .308 ammo and got some brass stuck up in there.

Another possibility is that the chamber is severely worn, but that doesn't seem as likely to me.

[brewskzilla]

Go get you some cheap steel cased Russian ammo. Wolf, Brown Bear, Barnaul, any of these will work. AND it's less expensive than regular .308 ammo. AND it's cheaper than most of your surplus 7.62 as well. CETMEs these days are finicky eaters. They like the cheap stuff.

[Planning]

looks like there could be a piece of casing still up in the chamber. is there a picture of the chamber?

edit: i just read all of texlurch and hunters post. what they said.

[Luis R]

...of the chamber, I'll try to get one up tommorrow. I was looking at the chamber and I think there might be some brass in the body but not the neck or throat. There appears to be three of the flutes (or the sections) that may have brass. I took a pick and I think I could feel something there. If there is brass, how do I go about removing it? Are these chambers chrome-lined? Would it be easier to just rebarrel it?

Semper Fi,

Luis R

[pigpen]

If there is somthing in the chamber you could try some of that stuff you use to make a chamber casting. I think it's call cerrosafe.

[rifleman]

need a pic but yeah probably a stuck case. If it is in one piece you could try and pull it out. use some lub behind the flutes and scrap at it.

[Luis R]

He bought the rifle new and has only been using commercial ammo. I got some pics, but I don't know if they will help.

[nevada]

Those shoulders are really blown forwad. I would have a gunsmith check it with a cerrosafe mold. I can't see how having a partial case in there would get that kind of case shape. It shouldn't even allow the bolt to close. Definately do not shoot it again until it is checked.

[rustypirate]

That looks like someone had the chamber recut.

for what I could not guess, but the chamber there is definately not stock.

[SKEricsson]

I'd guess he needs a new barrel, the chamber on that is messed up. Here is a pic of mine from my new barrel, I couldn't get a lot of light in there for a pic, but you can still see what I mean.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/SKEricsson/flutes.jpg

See how the flutes continue all the way and do not stop at the neck down? Your pic shows a hard edged ring where the flutes stop instead of a nice taper like mine, that is what is crimping his cartriges IMO. Something is up with this barrel, it is different or something. Could have been a barrel meant for a different weapon other than Cetme/HK91?? It looks like the taper wasn't cut at manufacture.

[texlurch]

Is that an original CETME style chamber? 7.92 x 41?

http://www.sturmgewehr.com/bhinton/CETME/7,92x41cetmeAA.jpg

[robocop10mm]

Definately clean the chamber first. To get out the worst stuff, you might have to plug the muzzle end and fill the barrel with a good copper solvent (my fav is Shooters Choice). Fill it up to the breech and leave it standing up, muzzle down for a week or two. Check the level every other day and top off as needed. When you pull the plug, you will likely see a thick goo run out. If that goo is green it indicates copper fouling. Black is powder fouling.

Try a stuck case remover on the off chance there is a piece of case neck in there. I doubt there is unless there is a serious bolt gap problem.

Once clean and free of any stuck case problem, have a cerrosafe chamber casting made. Compare it to an unfired case.

My vote is for fouled flutes and a bolt gap issue.

I would think a 7.92 X 57 chamber would leave the case MUCH worse than that.

[rustypirate]

there is no getting around the fact that someone has cut the sholder portion of that chamber completely out.

That would not be for the shorter CETME rounds as they were shorter than the nato round, so itwould require a shorter chamber.

Maybe someone trying to change the rifle to fire some other high-power round?

[hunter_la5]

Woah, never seen anything like that. I agree, it looks like your chamber's been altered. I think you're going to have to rebarrel this thing.

[robocop10mm]

I see it now. The flutes do not carry through the shoulder. Pretty rough step from case body to neck area of chamber. I agree with the re-barrel thought.

[86thecat]

It certainly looks like the chamber was recut, but before rebarreling check to make sure there isn't a donut of brass stuck at the shoulder. Pretty unlikely but the smaller photo on the right almost looks like there is a ring of something covering the flutes at the shoulder. And the center case neck looks longer like the shoulder was forced back. If the chamber was cut forward (like someone trying to drill out a stuck case) I would expect the neck to be shorter on a fired case. Might be able to check with a dental pic.

[Luis R]

in the chamber any where. I cleaned it real good and fired it one more time and still would not extract, but this time the primer didn't back out. Since he bought it new, I'm going to give it back to him and advice him to contact Century and he send it back to them so that they go and fix it or replace it. He had said that it worked fine when he bought it, which I don't understand how. All he used was commercial 308 so with any luck he won't have too much of a problem getting them to fix it. I don't really have the tools to replace the barrel myself, nor have I done this before eventhough I think I could do it.

The other option I will give him is to have a local gunsmith replace it for him, but I don't believe that should be the case since he bought it that way.

Thank you all for all the help and advice.

Semper Fi,

Luis R.