Century Type 53 GC vs Fair?

[watt79]

I was thinking of picking up a Type 53 from Century, but I am torn about whether to grab one of the good cracked stock rifles or take a gamble on the fair condition. From what I understand, ordering anything in fair condition from Century is a pretty big gamble. Does anyone have any experience with Type 53s ordered from Century?

[Buffalo Dude]

I bought a GC w/cracked stock, it's missing the bottom part of the stock. Looks like a crack from the screw on the butt plate continued and split off that part of the stock. Everything else is in good shape.

[NOTABIKER]

some consider a beater character, others want beauty ME. some in between.

[lasbrg]

Always get a good condition or better. Fair from Century means rust.

If the stock is trashed, you can get a new Archangel stock. (Even better if no guilt involved )

[watt79]

Thanks, looks like good is the way to go. I'm not too worried about the stock, I just want to make sure the metal is in decent shape.

[watt79]

Finally dug out my camera so I figured some pics of the Type 53 I received were in order. As expected the rifle was pretty much a mix master. Only the floor plate matched. As far as I can tell the bolt and the buttplate are from Soviet Mosin Nagants. The metal cleaned up pretty easily. There is only one small spot of rust on the surface of the barrel. On the inside the bore is bright with strong rifling. The stock was pretty gross when I got it so I spent a few days working out the cosmoline and cleaning the junk off the surface. I found only two markings on the stock, both behind the buttplate. So far I have filled in the crack with Devcon-2 epoxy and given the stock 4 BLO scrubs.

[CA-Libertarian]

Nice! Wait till you shoot it and get all that crud out of there and re-clean. Should be quite surprised when you are done cleaning after. They really are great shooters.

[deac777]

I bought one from them about a 9 months ago when they were running their special on good condition with cracked stock. The stock was not cracked but had several big gouges. The metal was nice with no rust and the bore has strong rifling.

[ThemBastards]

Pay for the better and hope for the best. I just picked mine up from buds which came from century and damn is it rough. Putting on the rear sight and magwell, the rifling is good but the bore looks like it has a few pits. A few rust spots on the chamber and the bolt is heavily pitted. The wood, well it is a type 53 so I was expecting it to be banged up and it is. Would not have bought it sight seen. Good luck.