I installed that G3 Extractor, went right in fits perfect. No problems at all. One question, Are HK/G3 Parts like the USGI Parts we all purchase for our M14's? Or are they they the same quality as the parts that come on the Century clones?
These rifles, like many other foreign military style rifles are built like M1As USED to be built. Meaning they are manufactured from parts kits, with some US made parts. In other words.... your CETME is mostly original Spanish parts, now with a dash of German thrown in.
Since the parts kits have nearly vanished from the market, the market for US made parts is insane. Prices have skyrocketed. With the fluted chamber, barrels are more complicated to manufacture, and obviously the market is very small now.
Other things like barrel trunnions are sketchy at best if you are using a US made trunnion. There was a big study done a year or two ago, by several guys in the gun building hobby. There had been many failures of US made trunnions that led to it. One "machinist" (its rude to call him that I think GI1... I believe he was originally a tool and die maker before moving up the chain) did all the precision measuring, sectioning of the parts, surface and interior hardness testing, and machining/design quality. Another guy did the rest of the science, doing metallurgical analysis to determine types of metal and heat treating processes used. If I remember right, of the 3 or 4 vendors examined, all but one were considered to be a waste of your efforts. Its was a LONG thread, that developed over several months at parts when back and forth and data was collected and analyzed.
The gist was....if at all possible, when using/replacing a critical part, use an original foreign part. Barrels were the one exception, but there weren't many guys in the game on that. RCM pretty much had the market cornered.
NOW.... as far as Century is concerned.... until the last few years, it was 50/50 at best if you got a good rifle from them. They had barrels that weren't fluted properly, and then there was the whole bolt grinding fiasco. They ground the back of the bolt head to achieve the "proper" bolt gap (headspace basically). In all actuality it was a false bolt gap and caused a lot of issues down the road.
Too much info? GI1
Some CETME parts are still pretty cheap. Trigger group prices have been on the climb though...those used to be CHEAP. If you can, I would grab some spare parts while you can. At least the stuff that wears out quickly. Mags too. Last bunch of G3 mags I got from CTD were $1.50 ea. GI3
Not just the CETME/G3/HK91
