My new Century Golani....

Well, buyer beware if you get one of these rifles.

The one i purchased is in the 1100-serial number range, which i am guessing indicates it was built on one of the ORF garbage receivers. It has a rather sizeable gap between the left locking shoulder and the bolt lug when in battery.
Didnt know about this issue until i found this forum, when searching for a remedy to problem 2.

Also, the magazine well was not correctly machined. It will not accept a mag without severely deforming it, to the point where it will not allow cartridges to feed at all (they will be wedged in the magazine due to insufficient front to rear clearance). The mags that came with the rifle were already "modified" to allow them to fit in the rifle, though they wouldnt feed cartridges when i tried to use them (didnt notice till i tried to use a new mag i had at home, when it wouldnt fit in the rifle).

Whats even better, is the gun is in the range that was "returned to the factory for a firing pin repair" per the notice on Century's website, and they failed to notice the other 2 issues. It has the "F" stamped on the lower front receiver cutout indicating repair for this "firing pin issue". Total garbage, hoping the retailer will refund my money. I do not want it repaired and returned, as the above shows they are incapable of repairing a rifle when returned to them.


In short, Avoid avoid avoid. Biggest piece of junk i have ever seen (and Ive owned some pretty lousy firearms). Century really dropped the ball, at least on my rifle.


Thanks for reading my rant, Tim :mad_small

They really seem to be hit or miss from what I keep reading. It sounds like maybe you bought one of the earlier models perhaps. I picked one up myself last weekend and plan on bringing it to the range this weekend. Hopefully I bought the diamond in the rough. Thus far it seems to be ok. The mags go in fine and the bolt seems to cycle ok. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary that might concern me. Only some range time will tell me what i'd like to know so we shall see.

I got to say I'm starting to see century arms as a used car dealer. They're WASR's have been crap, they're FAL's and clones were crap, now they somehow ruined the Galil?

I'm thinking it best to not buy they're products at all costs.

Well, i was able to get the rifle swapped for another one in the 4300 range, on a completely different receiver. Would be nice, except;

The finish on this one is awful
The handguard is cheap, flimsy plastic, with no steel liner
The flash supressor has been replaced by a cheesy comp
The folding stock has a noticable amount of play in the hinge pin.

But, the bolt on this one actually locks up correctly, and mags do indeed fit in it. No refund from the dealer, so i am out a fair amount of cash. Ive bought guns from century before, their quality was never stellar, but was never this bad, either.

If someone from Century ever happens along, the devil will ice skate before I purchase another firearm with your name anywhere on it.

This one is usable, but not at all worth the money I paid. Buyer beware, perhaps i can sell it at only a small loss.

Tim

Well, i was able to get the rifle swapped for another one in the 4300 range, on a completely different receiver. Would be nice, except;

The finish on this one is awful
The handguard is cheap, flimsy plastic, with no steel liner
The flash supressor has been replaced by a cheesy comp
The folding stock has a noticable amount of play in the hinge pin.

But, the bolt on this one actually locks up correctly, and mags do indeed fit in it. No refund from the dealer, so i am out a fair amount of cash. Ive bought guns from century before, their quality was never stellar, but was never this bad, either.

If someone from Century ever happens along, the devil will ice skate before I purchase another firearm with your name anywhere on it.

This one is usable, but not at all worth the money I paid. Buyer beware, perhaps i can sell it at only a small loss.

Tim

I am somewhat curious what the first 3 letters are on you're SN. The one I have is GLN which from what I read seem to be the more solidly built Golani's. I just took mine out today and it ran like a champ. The buttstock locks up nice and tight. The trigger is smooth and the finish on the gun seems to be even for the most part. The mags fit snug in the well but not overly so. The one thing that I did have some trouble with is the safety selector switch on the grip. It was a little hard to operate and I wonder if that will lighten up over time or if I can do something now to remedy it however it's not a big concern. Also after initially taking the dust cover off and cleaning/oiling it when I went to put the dust cover back on I found it to be impossible by hand. I ended having to go out and buy myself a file and rubber mallet. I just barely filed down the rear edge of the dust cover to round it a bit and used the mallet to whack it back on.

I put it on a bench rest and was shooting at some steel targets at 100 yards iron sites and it was spot on right out of the box. For ammo I was using the remainder of some Remington UMC that I had and I also brought the last two boxes of some PMC M193 ammo I had lying around. The only issue I had was one FTE with the UMC but I blame that on the ammo. Other than that everything fed fine and went where I wanted it to.

My rifle is likewise in the GLN range. Mechanically, aside from the play in the stock *which dosent seem to be an easy fix* my rifle seems just fine. The golani wasnt a cheap rifle; I paid a bit over 800 dollars for mine. The first one wasnt worth 8 dollars, and the one i have now (the retailer refused to give a refund, my options were send the first one for repair or accept a different rifle) just is not worth the money I paid. The magwell on this one is likewise tight, but not problematic (i rather like it that the mag fits nice and snug) but the finish is horrid, rubbing off in places with no more than a stroke of my hand, and the handguard adds a level of cheapness to a gun that already looks like it were a home builder's poor first attempt at a rifle.

Ill have to take it and shoot it some, maybe it will grow on me. But, in retrospect, I could have got a hell of a lot better gun for 800 bucks.

I was thinking about getting one but this post really steered me away from it. Century Arms seems to be famous for "hits & misses". Some people have great, functioning rifles, others get a a piece of garbage.

So far they've managed to mess up the...although I had read not all of their arms are built by them such as the PSL or M53.

AR (C15)
AK (WASR)
HK (C91)
Galil (Golani)
FAL (R1A1)
CETME

If you ever buy a Century gun buy with a AMEX or the card that give you the best insurance. I bought a wasr 5.45 and it had a cracked bolt what ever monkey assembled it installed the extractor pin incorrect and cracked it. Well the dealer said no refund just an exchange and he would have to order it or send mine back.. I laid it on his counter and walked the f out of the shop. Got in my truck turned on the air called AMEX and explained it. I walked back and told hm to check his end of day and he will see a 366.00 refund. Walked the fuck out. Went to MGS and bought another from Steve. I do not now wtf it is with guy in gun stores but they seem to think the world is out to bend them over. Not very many thing in this world you can buy on Tuesday and have it not work or function for as it's intended purpose on Wednesday and be told no I will not exchange it.

Centrury is not referred to as the ( angry beavers ) for no reason. i have seen to many of ( Frankenstien rifles ) still floating around gunshops with crazy prices and shoddy work.

Hmmm I have a SGN serial numbered rifle and have not had a hiccup...

oh well...ymmv

Mine has functioned flawlessly so far, and I have one of the older ORF receivered ones.

Reminds me of the NHM-90 chinese crap ak I bought back in 1992 or so, took it out to the desert to shoot, and it emptied the magazine on the first trigger pull. Took it back to the dealer, and he refused to give me a refund or exchange it. I asked him for a copy of his phone book, and when he asked why I told him I'm driving it over to the local ATF office as it was an unregistered machine gun he sold me. His attitude took quite a change for the better, and he gave me a new one.. :evil:

L1A1, I bought a Century Golani Galil last year. I have not had any issues whatsoever with mine; it runs great, feeds ammo reliably, has reasonable accuracy, and doesn't look bad. It has had the revision done to it (before I bought it); yes, they are pricey; but no one held a gun to my head and made me buy it! Sorry you have had issues with yours; true, Century has done some really odd work - ask me about the G3 that had twisted rails...they took it back and the store I bought it from (who refused returns on gun/ammo purchases) gave me my money back!

http://iwantthatknife.com/Gallery/albums/EBR/ak_style.jpg

The flash supressor has been replaced by a cheesy comp

Tim

Actually, there were 2 types of flash suppressors on the original israeli rifles, 1 that resembles an AR15 birdcage, and another one that has series of holes at the end, much like a muzzle break. Usually they have a ring(or a grove where said ring was) towards the barrel side of the flash suppressor.