Why I bought a Century Arms C308 instead of a PTR rifle

For a long time I have wanted a something built on the CETME or G3 style platform but due to cost I didn't buy one till late June of 2016 . Well part of the delay was just pure financials .


With the election coming I decided now was the time to buy.  So I started reading ,a lot .

The first thing you will probably find is that PTR makes a really good rifle and they back it up with a ok warranty for rifles made before January  01, 2012 " 1 year " if it was manufactured after January 01, 2012 it has a 3 year warranty you get a 3 year warranty and a lifetime warranty / 25,000 rd warranty on some internal components.

These rifles are normally what is recommended as they are considered good quality rifles and reliable .

The next Company that will probably come up is Century arms . Now the company has had issues in the past with quality and reliability with several of the rifles they have built and its not just limited to the CETME and G3 based rifles they have made through the years. The number one issue with there older CETME builds "also  referred  to as C308 " is incorrect bolt gap . As long as a person is aware of the issue it can normally be corrected by replacing a few parts and detected with a set of feeler gauges and a visual inspection of the bolt after a person knows what to look for .


With the current units being sold by Century arms issues have been few and far between as I have only seen one issue on the net and it was a broken firing pin . Part of that is being credited to PTR who has at least some involvement with the current crop of C308 rifles being sold under the Century Arms name . At a minimum they are providing the flats being used for the upper receiver , front hand guard and the Navy style Polymer lower receives being used on the rifles .  Now there has been statements on the net saying PTR is handling the warranty work on these rifles and if that's true I would find it hard to believe that they are not building the rifles .

The warranty for a Century Arms rifle is also not all that great as it seems to just be 1 year and if I understand correctly that is from the date it was sold to the distributor not from the purchase date by the  customer 😞.


So really why did I buy the C308 well Cost was most of the reason .

A Century Arms C308 has a online price of around $699.99 on average and places like J&G Sales  have even bundled additional magazines with the ones they are selling at that price just to make the deal even a little better .

Now PTR has a large range of rifles with different features but frankly the PTR91 GI  is the most comparable as it is there lowest cost model with a price around $989.00 .
prices as of 12/16/2016 

Ok so its ruffly gonna be $290 dollars cheaper to get a C308 .

The PTR has a better rear site , a better warranty, ,may have a more convenient paddle style magazine release "depending on were you live" and has new internal parts .

Now I know what your thinking : I'm crazy all those are worth it . You may be right but knowing myself pretty well I knew the rifle was going to be small portion of my expenses and at the prices CETME parts and G3 magazines sell for $290 buys a lot .

So what Can you buy with that $290 dollars ?