While visiting family in Florida with my kids for their spring break, I found myself just a few minutes from the headquarters of Century Arms in Delray Beach. While Century’s HQ is almost all offices and paperwork — warehousing, distribution, manufacturing, etc. is in North Carolina — they do have some of their digital marketing folks there and I paid ’em a visit.

After passing dozens of offices and large rooms with cubicle-style desks — compliance, customer service, accounting, marketing, etc. etc. — I found myself in the realm (well, one of the realms) of the digital marketing folks. A large room with multiple photography areas, stacks of photo backdrops, lighting, props of all sorts, some trade show stuff, and more.

My liaison for the day had pulled some guns out of the vault for me to play with.

The first thing I checked out was their BFT47, a U.S.-made AK at a very appealing $829.99 MSRP price point.

This particular one was rocking a surplus bayonet, though I forget the bayo’s country of origin. They aren’t on the Century Arms online store as of this writing, but should be available there soon.

If I recall correctly, they’re also planning on offering rifle packages that include a matching bayonet. Don’t quote me on that, though, I was too focused on clicking it on and off the gun and racking the bolt to remember the details I was supposed to remember.

At any rate, the BFT47 felt solid, smooth, and well put together and I liked the oversized mag release.

Next up I grabbed some of the new flavors of Canik TP9, including the METE SFT, METE SFX, and SFx RIVAL.

The SFx RIVAL, which Dan highlighted here just a couple days ago and which I shot at a range day a month ago, is one hell of a ready-to-race 9mm competition pistol setup. At an MSRP of just $679.99, the RIVAL comes in a hard case complete with cleaning equipment, tools, multiple aluminum magazine baseplate options, high-capacity mags, various optics plates, a holster, and more.

With an insanely light and crisp trigger, great sights, and everything else you need to enter gun games, the SFx RIVAL is literally competition-ready right out of the box and it’s production legal for use in IDPA, IPSC, USPSA, etc.

This gun shot great for me on the range last month and the fact that it competes with “the big boys” at, in many cases, a quarter of the price is pretty darn impressive.

So is the entire TP9 lineup, really. These guns have proven themselves to outperform their price class since they were first introduced in the U.S. and my opinion hasn’t changed since June of 2015 when I reviewed the original model. Given I took that one almost straight from the box to an IPSC-style shoot and turned in a third place finish, you know the tuned-up versions are going to hold their own.

After playing with the Caniks it was onto all three versions of the Century Arms AP5.

These are, obviously, HK MP5 clones and they’re actually built with quite a bit of original HK tooling.

There’s a standard pistol AP5, a micro pistol AP5 (directly above), and a large pistol AP5 (below).

MSRP on all three flavors of AP5 is $1,999.99. Playing the roller locker game is never inexpensive, but this still represents a much more approachable price point than a brand-name HK and, having shot the AP5s at that same range day last month during which I also shot the HK originals, I can attest to how extremely smooth and nice the Century versions run and feel.

That’s about it! This was a quick visit mostly just to say “hi” to the crew there and to talk about TTAG borrowing some Century Arms and Canik guns for reviews.

So, what about it? What from Century and Canik would y’all particularly like to see us put through the paces for feature Gun Review?

 

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29 COMMENTS

    • Never been a fan of AKs. Too Russkie/Vietcong/Taliban looking for me. TEHO.

      (Edit…cue the inevitable comments about the Taliban now using Biden-supplied M4s)

      • My biggest complaint about the AK was its weight. When I served we carried the old m16 that weighed about 7 pounds with a 20 round mag in. All the Aks that I handled in the day felt like they went at least 10 pounds and the ammo was heavier to boot.

        I never cared for the sights that much. But you could work around that.

        • The 7.26×39 seems to do better in the shorter barrel lengths than the 5.56 generally speaking so I absolutely see the point of AK pistols unless 300 blackout somehow matches or undercuts it in price.

  3. Thankfully Century is around to import firearms Made In Turkey. However if left up to certain bigots on this forum there would be no Made In Turkey Caniks, Sarsilmaz or shotguns available in America. Of course when challenged to produce a better gun at a better price with more features bigots are suddenly lost in space.
    When a cut and run bigot calls a Canik a suckit it’s a colossal display of their firearm ignorance. Bottom line…Bigots who cannot exceed a one word commit need to cough up a better gun at a better price with coherent reasons or go pound sand.

    • While there are certainly valid criticisms of the Turkish government I will not deny their arms industry does crank out good quality for the price shotguns and pistols. Unfortunately only one pistol model pictured is in any way NY legal (once comps or non-grip magazines get involved good luck) so stuck looking at the AP5s and planning for a move after retirement.

  4. I took Jimmy Muhammad (his name we could pronounce) on a deer hunt. He killed a nice 8 pt. He was apprehensive about the vinison. I told him it was a cousin to a goat. (Pulled that one out of my ass.) Toldhim we could face mecca when we skinned it. I’ll never forget. He laughed and said, “We could face the Vatican! I don’t care!” Jimmy was a Jordaian paratrooper. M16A1 and a Browning P-35. That was his mantra. Though, he did buy a Winchester Model 70 30_06 to deer hunt with. Controlled round feed. Bigot? No, but I ain’t buying no Turkish gun.

  5. When I buy an AK variant I’m always gonna make sure that it’s not made in the United States.

  7. You would have to be mad to buy an AK manufactured by Century.

    They are pure junk.Early models of century vska are dangerous to shoot! Each century AK attempt gets slightly better, but do not buy any Century made in USA AK!!!!!
    The import models like Wasr are fine.

    Look up any review by AK operators union or go on the sub Reddit r/ak47

    The only made in USA AK that is acceptable is the one made by PSA
    And that is bottom of the barrel quality.

  8. After a few decades of hearing the jokes about Century build quality, I was expecting hordes of drunken monkeys.

  9. life is too short to buy an ak
    just build an ar in 7.62×39
    and be done with it already…
    who cares about stamped vs milled
    or trunnions or threaded or pinned
    think about it: 15 inches of mlok rail
    so you can put the optic wherever you want
    and you can put the sights wherever you want
    or 45 sights…or no sights
    with plenty of enough room left over to mount a vertical grip a light a laser a sling and a bipod
    lrbho…a normal safety…the list goes on and on
    * itll be more accurate *
    and oh yeah:
    at any price point
    youll get the same quality as an ak
    – for half the cost –

    • You sir do not “get it”….. The AK is a thing of beauty….. wood and steel…. you can have your aluminum and plastic….. jk… 🙂
      I love ALL rifles…. I’m an equal opportunity enthusiast….

    • Life is too short to not enjoy BOTH an AR and AK, even the best of both worlds, a galil ace!

  11. I do favor AKs(although I also have an AR , mainly for easier supply of in spec magazines,parts, something to run 5.56 in-although the Zastava M90 and Polish Beryls are tempting me) but I have to concur -so far most US made AKs are a bit problematic… either bad metallurgy, certain forging and heat treatment steps that were left out as a ” cost cutter”- the latter being essential with almost any kind of cast part that’s also a stress bearing part like a front trunnion or BCG.
    I want to see American companies do better at this. I don’t know enough about KUSA, but PSA and possibly Riley Defense are the minimally accepted standard.
    Years back when Century out out the RSA47 I was somewhat hopeful before the dodgy metal and lack of heat treatment or forging came out (not to mention some atrocious QA on what they didn’t skip)and tanked what should have been a gimme-something derivative of the old Yugo M70.
    I’m hoping that the BFT works out better (does BFT stand for Bulged Front Trunnion?). .. but the alcoholic chimps supervised by crack whores er Century production team hasn’t overwhelmed me with anything they didn’t subcontract out or directly import

  12. “My liaison for the day had pulled some guns out of the vault for me to play with.“

    This is my rifle (shake–shake), this is my gun (shake-shake), ones for fighting, ones for fun!

  14. I’ve a Century Arms JW2000 Coach Gun. A double barrel side by side 20 gauge shotgun that I’ve no complaints about how it works, feels, looks and shoots. It’s Turkish, and I have to say, they did a fine job. I’ve not had the opportunity to fire any Turkish Semi Auto Pistols, and the prices are tempting, though buying another gun right now would land me in marriage counseling (she caught on to the “I’m buying it for you, Honey” line).

    I invested in .300 AAC, so I’ve little interest in a 7.62 X 39. Considering the Russian Ammo Embargo ongoing, I’m glad I stayed clear. Nothing chaps my butt like a gun you can’t get ammo for (or having to buy usurously overpriced ammo for). One of those MP5 clones is sure tempting.

  16. I have a VSKA I basically got for free. Bolt deformed, and kicked the firing pin out the back when the firing pin retaining pin failed. After countless attempts to contact customer service through email and phone, and tagging them in multiple online posts, I gave up. I was able to order a Polish bolt that actually headspaced with no work. I’ve put a few hundred rounds through it, and taken down a few hogs with it. Accuracy wise it’s fine, but I’ll always be worried about the trunion giving out next. I check headspace every hundred rounds, but it still worries me. I also can’t bring myself to self it in my shop, for fear someone else might hurt themselves.

    The biggest thing that bothered me, was Century‘s complete lack of customer service. For that reason alone, I’ll never spend a penny with any intent of Century making a profit.

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