Looking at picking up a G-3 Variant, and I'm seeing the term 'CETME .308. What is the difference between a standard 308 and a CETME 308?
Thanks
The CETME is the original design. The HK91/G3 is actually a licensed copy of the CETME, however they have a higher value because they were designed with much more precision, and designed to meet BATF requirements. Unlike CETME's which had to meet those requirements after their design, and been imported by century, and other importers. Generally they are good rifles. They do have some common issues, but none of which are difficult to repair if they are present. Most all parts between the G3 and the CETME are interchangeable, with the exception of a few. They are accurate weapons, they are very reliable, and they are quite unique.
The bad things about G3 variant weapons are optics - CETME's do not use an exact mil-spec receiver, and therefore the standard HK claw mount has trouble attaching. Even on HK rifles the claw mount is pretty haphazard and can lose zero. It's just a crappy design in my opinion. It clamps to a stamped receiver, has the ability to slide forward and backward, and if you over tighten it to make it stay put, it squeezes the receiver and sticks the bolt. So, generally optics are difficult on these rifles. I ended up purchasing a picatinny blank and I'm going to tig weld it to my receiver to just end all the headache.
Another thing is their
internally fluted barrel. Ingenious in it's design - it prevents the possibility of an extractor breaking, and a shell sticking. The gas from the discharge is forced back and around the spent shell blowing it out of the breech. So, in the event an extractor breaks, or some ammunition failure, you will definately get the spent case out of the weapon. With no extractor at all it will eject a round, or at worse cause a partial ejection which requires you to pull the cocking handle and drop the round out. The PROBLEM with this is it DESTROYS brass. The weapon was originally designed to fire
steel cases - not brass. Which can be a bonus - it likes cheap ass ammo, but it ruins good brass ammo - you can't really reload it.
Only other issues are they are heavy. And .308 ammo isn't cheap - 10 dollars for 20 rounds of cheap barnaul/monarch.
Also, you CAN NOT use commercial .308 in a G3 variant, it is very dangerous and can
kill you. You must use 7.62x51 NATO. Here's a photo I took of what can happen:
As you can see the top of that round has the flute marks I was talking about - that's what a spent shell looks like - it gets ruined. Now, if you notice... that's only 1/3 of a shell, the rest of it was ripped off. Since commercial .308 is must thinner cased, when the round discharges the more pliable case expands and actually sticks in the flutes, and given the power of the round, the extractor literally rips the back of the case off, leaving the front of the shell stuck in the barrel. The next round was cycled in with such force, it actually slid itself through the remaining case neck. Luckily I noticed it wasn't at full battery and didn't fire it, but that's an example.
The good parts are the magazines are cheap. And what I say cheap, they are the cheapest magazines available for any gun on the planet - I purchased brand new HK G3 aluminum magazines for .66 cents a piece. They are just about the cheapest .308 rifle you can find. They are also very inexpensive to build from scratch - just like an AR-15, but more skill required - welding and head space experience. And like I mentioned earlier, they are reliable - I purchased one of my CETME's for $150 dollars, because it was "broken" an was able to fix it with a grill press, tap, and a screw. That same CETME which jammed every time I fired it when I purchased it has to the best of my knowledge never jammed since. I can't remember it ever jamming on me, even after I fired several hundred rounds through it.