CETME Update

[Chief351]

I've been working on my old CETME, mainly adding a scope, installing new rollers to bring the bolt gap farther in to spec, etc.

The Brugger & Thomet scope mount I installed last week looks likes it's going to work out great, and I installed the scope that I bought a few years ago and had on my AR-15 MK-2 Mod 0 sorts-clone, but I decided it was too much glass for a rifle that launches such a tiny bullet - looked like it was being sexually molested by a Bazooka. Anyway, the CETME was built back about 30 years ago on a brand-new parts kit, so it should have a pretty good chance at being accurate, and it's 7.62 NATO.

My latest effort was building a buttstock cheek riser out of Kydex. This was my first try at working with Kydex, and I think it turned out pretty good! That Kydex stuff is every bit as easy and friendly to work with as they say it is. Now I'm looking for something else to make.







I think I might have to shift the top of the cheekpiece over to the right a tiny bit to get my eye more centered behind the scope. And after I'm sure I won't be taking it off and on any more, I'll paint all of the stainless hardware flat black. As you can see, I did cut an opening to allow for the standard Mauser-type sling, and I utilize the two pin holes provided for storing the take down pins when you field strip the rifle. The pin bushings were pretty much exactly 1/4" diameter.

[Papadoc]

Nice looking and functional mod.

[Chief351]

Finally made it to the range this morning, and sighted it in on the club's benchrest range. I sighted it in with a 25-yard zero, and with that I should be able to get hits out to 300 yards or so.

The rifle really shot well, and the scope was pretty much perfect. Only had two problems. The first was that I crowded up on the scope a little too much on one of the shots, and thus joined the "Order Of The Crimson Crescent". The other problem was magazine related, as I discovered that I had three Thermold magazines that I don't even remember buying. Anyway I had one failure-to-feed on one shot, with the bullet nose-diving and the tip nosed into the top front of the magazine. I cleared the stoppage, but when I looked at the front of the magazine the top front of the magazine body was broken off. When I got home I got all three Thermolds together and looked at them, and noticed that two of the three were broken off exactly the same way. All three Thermold magazines are now at the bottom of a big green Rubbermade trash can.



So I have original CETME magazines, HK G3 Aluminum magazines, and HK G3 steel magazines. All of them work fine. I can buy the original CETME mags for $4.95 each, so no reason to screw with the Thermolds.

Turns out that the rifle is about a 2-1/2 to 3 MOA rifle. I could probably do better if the trigger pull was better. Imagine the very worst AR-15 inexpensive military-style parts kit trigger that you've ever shot, multiply by three, and that's about how this CETME trigger feels. I bet it has about a 15 or 20 pound break. I may have to try to scrape together the funds to send it off to Bill Springfield - I hear he does wonders.

[Wayne]

By the way, what club do you belong to?

[Chief351]

Wayne, sorry for the delay in getting back to you - not much going on on this site, it seems, so I don't always check it every day.

I belong to the Miami Rifle and Pistol Club, which is in Clermont County, Ohio. It's about a 45-minute drive from my house, but is a really nice facility. They have a lot of handgun ranges, everything from the old-fashioned "stand up and shoot one-handed" target stuff, cowboy action (if you're into dress-up, I guess), combat-type pistol pits, bowling pin, etc. For rifle, they also have a benchrest range with target berms at 50, 100, 150, and 200 yards. But their crowning glory, as far as I'm concerned, is a "Camp Perry" style 600 yard rifle range complete with the pits for pulling and scoring the targets. That's why I joined, as I was interested in the NRA-style High Power Rifle match shooting, at least until my eyes went bad. They also have a rimfire rifle range that goes out to, IIRC, 100 yards. They run a bunch of matches and training classes pretty much all year round, weather permitting.

The only thing that they don't do is any shotgun stuff, such as clay bird shooting or sporting clays, although if you want to "site in" your deer slug-gun you can do that from the rifle benchrest range.

They probably have upwards of 2000 members, and the amazing thing is that, except for weekends when it might get a little busy, you hardly ever find anyone else out there during the week, which is great for a retired guy like me.

Membership is about $100 per year, but I understand that they have a two or three year waiting list to join.

[Wayne]

I've shot there before but it's been many years. What really stood out for me was the herd of deer out front just munching away. Not a care in the world even with all the gunfire not a 100 yards away.
I belong to the NKY straight shooters in Crittenden. Officially it's 200 yards but there are targets on the berm at 320. There are open shooting days during the week and Sundays. It's a $1 for members and $5 for the public to shoot. We have a meeting Sunday if your interested.

[Chief351]

Thanks. I used to shoot at Lloyd's Wildlife Center range, otherwise known as "Tubesville". That place was pretty scary! I showed up there one day to shoot, and as I was unloading my car another shooter came up and said "Too bad you weren't here a little while ago. You missed the fistfight!" I asked what happened and he told me that there was a guy there shooting a small caliber target rifle, and there was another guy there sighting in a lever-action deer rifle. The deer rifle guy got done, and he was unloading his rifle and before he put it in the case he pointed it at the floor inside the shooting shelter, pulled the trigger, and BLAAM! He put a big divot in the concrete right behind the guy shooting the target rifle! That guy didn't take it very calmly, came up up off the bench, and proceed to rearrange the deer hunter's face! I guess his unloading process left something to be desired.

Used to be a bunch of late-teens there with SKS rifles modified to take hi-cap magazines. Let me give you a tip: Whenever you show up at the range and you see a 20-something individual with an SKS modified with a high cap mag, don't even unpack your stuff. Just leave. Otherwise you may end up being a witness - if not worse.

[Wayne]

It's not that range. It's the left past the tube range entrance. They have several trap and skeet stations. There are berms at 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, and about 320 yards. The firing line is covered with concrete shooting tables.
No tubes and they have a real range officer.
I've seen my share of odd people at the tube range. One afternoon I saw a father and son there. The dad went to his car to get stuff out of the trunk. The kid was just standing there holding a 30/30 pointing straight up. For no reason I could see, he worked the lever and pulled the trigger. That's where that hole above the second station came from. It got bad enough they banned shooting pistols there.
Near as I can see. I'm the only one to shoot an SKS and not go crazy with it.
I have not been there in a couple of years.
Membership at the other range is much better, and safer.

[Chief351]

MRPC seems to be rolling in bucks. They have a professional landscape service that mow the grass, keeps brush cut back, and maintains the roads. They have all of the ranges covered with security cameras, and on most of them they have roofs over the firing line. The security cameras seemed to be needed because certain members, to whom the rules didn't apply (or so they thought) would do stupid stuff like take the Rubbermade trash cans that they have around, and put them downrange and use them for targets. After the cameras went up, that sort of activity stopped. They also have a security gate at the entrance that requires an ID card to get in (Of course you could just walk around.). And there is almost never a problem using any given range because it's fully-occupied, even before I was retired so was pretty much restricted to weekends only back then. As a matter of fact I can only recall one time that I went out there to use a range and I couldn't, and that was because some member brought his Boy Scout troop out there to camp for the weekend and they set up their campsites on the High Power range. The kids were sort of roaming freely all over the facility, and I think because of that nobody was shooting. I complained to one of the club officers that, if they were going to do that sort of thing it should be scheduled ahead of time and published in the calendar in the newsletter out of courtesy to the members (like me) who have to drive 45 minutes or more each way. I haven't encountered that situation again.

And like I said, the membership dues is less than $100 per year, and being retired, for me it's like having a private range.

[Wayne]

The meeting was canceled for Sunday. It was an outdoor meeting and they are expecting rain.

[Herr Walther]

I like your cheek rest mod. I'm considering a scope for my PTR91 after I remove the EOTech holosight. I've been hesitating because I haven't found a cheek rest for it.

[Herr Walther]

Found it. RTG Parts. I should have checked there first. He's got tons of HK parts, bits, and pieces.

https://www.robertrtg.com/store/pc/H...IECE-p1879.htm

[col_kurtz]

Herr Walther I bought one of those from robertg years ago. You need it using the claw mount. I ended up going with a flush mount I found at HKParts.com that I put an Aimpoint PRO on and its zero'd at 200 yards. I have a preban Springfield SAR-3 and I love that rifle.