Trouble w/ Century M53

[L1A1]

Hey fellows
Have any of you had any trouble ( failure to feed, failure to fire) with your Century Arms M53s? I have yet been able to run a whole belt through much less 10-20 rounds w/o some sort of stoppage. I read the instruction booklet that came with the rifle and even refered to my "tome" Small Arms of the World for help. I know, I know, I need to order a set of proper manuals from Jbaum and I'm planing on doing that as soon as the funds are available. I'm just curious to see if any one else has had problems.

Regards,
Matt

[L1A1]

Oops! I forgot to mention that I've been feeding that rifle the Yugo 7.92 mm "sniper" ammo. That's all that my local gunshop had on hand.
Regards,
Matt

[bmwr12]

Ammo could be a problem..What exactly is it doing? Is it dimpling the primer or not ejecting, etc...? Check to make sure that no parts are binding. I would recommend that you use wartime belts as well.Out of mine and the two other M53s I have used, not one had any sucess in running a full belt of ammo using a yugo belt.The only easy to find ammo I have not tried is the yugo sniper ammo but 50's and 70's Yugo works good as well as the Romanian.

[bmwr12]

I forgot to mention that when I fist got mine I had a similar issue due to the recall by Wiselite. The gun worked out of the box but I got a recall notice. I sent it back. Wiselite modified the bolt. They did not send me the stock buffer extension and a new spring. It would not fire more then 1 round and would not extract or feed properly. I would check to see if your stock buffer has one of these.

https://www.apexgunparts.com/./product_ ... kg8d3ckbc6

Also check the length on you mainspring it should be 14 inches give or take a 1/2 inch.
You may have got a very early gunlike me and they may have forgot to change the bolt to the new version or something along those lines.

[JBaum]

Length of an uncompressed recoil spring isn't important. What it needs is to not be fully compressed when it is supposed to hit the buffer. If the spring is too long, it won't eject because the spring stops the ejector button from hitting the buffer head.

[bmwr12]

yes that is true the compressed length is most important.The spring length in the wiselite version 1 and 2 was at least 3 inches, with version one being shorter. That and the buffer extension not being installed caused my gun not to eject/load when I first got my bolt back.

Now you should be able to eject a chambered round by pulling the charging handle. If you cant eject a chambered round by pulling the charging handle all the way back your going to have a problem. It is possible that maybe he got a early gun from GB/AA or maybe the place he brought it from had a early version. some pics of the bolt and stock/buffer can help put the early/late version to rest. If you did get a early one your gonna need to send it back to wiselite for a upgrade.

[Bil]

Even with the possible solutions above,I would recomend finding some Roumanian ammo,or Portuguese.It seems to run better in these.Let us know what you find out! ---bil

[kpaintner]

Also, make sure the rounds slip in and out of the belts easily. I had the same problems you are describing until...1. I lubed the belts 2. Lubed every bearing surface 3. Fired a few hundred rounds thought it to break it in. It runs great now. Hope it starts running better....they are a lot of fun to shoot.

Regards,
Kevin