Price range for CETME rifle

[SnakeEye]

In general what kind of ballpark numbers should i expect to pay for a quality CETME? Also any tips on what i should look for or avoid would be welcome.
Thanks

 

[Wildweasel]

http://www.cetme.org is a great place to start. I had a stamped receiver Century that Needed a little work but once I cleaned all the swarf (steel chips and grease) out of the receiver, and did some fitting on the mag catch it worked fine till I traded it. Oh yea I remember something about watching out for grinding on the bolt to headspace it, (not really the right way to do it but a bunch where done by century that way I guess.
and I had a hell of a time getting the rear of the receiver off the first time btw..

I got mine in NY for about 400.00 and in todays market I have seen them up to 500.00+ I would not pay more than that myself unless it was a genuine Spanish built Cetme C. (there where few imported and I have seen One for sale, but it is a far better rifle than the rebuilt ones.

If I was in the market for a rifle of the type I would go with a PTR91 as the sights are better and it is a better built rifle all in all.

In general what kind of ballpark numbers should i expect to pay for a quality CETME? Also any tips on what i should look for or avoid would be welcome.
Thanks

 

[SnakeEye]

glad I asked, four seasons was trying to get 699.00$ from me for an old beater. I'm uncertain of the variant, but I'm sure that link you provided will help me figure that out for future reference
thank you much!

 

[MassMark]

CETME's are so hit and miss. I've seen beautiful examples that ran like a top and I've seen ones that barely qualify as wall-hangers. Best if you can try before you buy, because once the troubles start - they can be hard to diagnose and fix...

 

[SKS Ray]

A friend of mine had one of these and wound up having to put heavy duty cutting compound in the receiver and working the bolt many times over and over to get it to smooth out. I think he paid around $400 for it. Seems everyone I know that had one has sold it. That fact, what I've heard about some of the lousy ones floating around out there, and because I don't know enough about the different variants is what kept me from ever buying one.
Makes ya think these things would be cheap by now.

 

[SnakeEye]

A friend of mine had one of these and wound up having to put heavy duty cutting compound in the receiver and working the bolt many times over and over to get it to smooth out. I think he paid around $400 for it. Seems everyone I know that had one has sold it. That fact, what I've heard about some of the lousy ones floating around out there, and because I don't know enough about the different variants is what kept me from ever buying one.
Makes ya think these things would be cheap by now.

Seriously! These things were clearly designed around the cheapest manufacturing methods possible. Stamped parts,pressed in barells, their probobly 75$ new at cost. If that..
I dont understand the rationale behind the pricing scheme.