Well, the "success" of the CETME -L on Spanish armed forces was the result of several circumstances. 1. The first "pre-series" CETME-L (which is NOWDAYS on service with the Guardia Civil) it was a very good rifle with a high fiability response; but when government decide to buy in a massive number for all military branches, gov decided that CETME price is higher than their possibilities so they ask to CETME if they can make it cheaper than original price. The result of that agreement is that the CETME-L was a poor quality materials for a heavy duty service rifle; especially SOF. 2. The ammo that Spanish military uses is not the best at those days for that rifle. Actually the 5,56mm ammo that "SANTA BARBARA ,FABRICA DE PALENCIA" made is not the perfect for that weapon,and every two or three rounds, it had and interruption . I remember to shoot with other ammo brands and is just another world; no more interruptions at all. 3. Somebody on the high-level of the gov/MoD, have a HUGE interest in cancel and close the CETME manufacters, so the best thing is to have a bad story about that rifle, and increase the legend; instead of perform, make it better and study which troubles it has... they just cancel everything and decided to buy German HK-36. If other countries do the same as Spain did with CETME-L( which is have"NO PATIENCE") , there will be no: FAMAS, SA-80, M-16, and so on... Best regards from a Spanish Weapons lover. Sorry for my English!!

This is easily the most impressive mud test yet. Talk about exceeding expectations.

I'm spanish and I know a little bit of the Cetme story, the fact is, that when started the production of the CETME L, the rifle was an excellent rifle, some experts said that it was the best rifle in the NATO countries, but, the company wanted to reduce costs, so they used cheaper materials and because of that, the best rifle in the entire NATO was transformed into an unreliable piece of cheap metal

I bought the newly made MarColMar CETME L, and it’s a joy to shoot. The all new springs, etc make the design realize it’s true potential 😎

If built with quality parts, the CETME L may easily be one of the best rifles in the world

Deberían mejorarlo y volver a ser el fusil de asalto en España.

stg-44 mud test

I've become quite smitten with the CETME-L throughout this inrange saga. I really like the looks of it and it doesn't seem that bad of a rifle

"Si no lo veo, no lo creo" is Spanish for "I had to see this with my own eyes". Wow. I can't wrap my head around what I just witnessed.

It's a G3 system with AR-15 tolerances. It's not the best gun in the world, but mud is not gonna be the main problem. Also, this is why the AR-15 design have that weird charging handle, which seals its own gap when closed.

The CETME L (and AMELI) was going to be a great weapon, but its main problem was the materials which it was constructed with. The politicians, once again, seeking to reduce costs, motivated the construction of the L family with cheaper materials. In any case, believe me when I tell you that you are very lucky enjoying shooting a CETME L, in Spain you can only buy deactivated units, with three holes in the barrel. Best regards from Spain.

Color me completely surprised. You guys rock. Keep up the awesome show.

Cetme is the best rifle so far..low recoil, reliable

El mejor rifle de asalto del mundo para las mejores fuerzas de seguridad del mundo: La Guardia Civil. Y para la mejor unidad militar del mundo: La Legión Española 💪🏻💚🇪🇸 poderío español!!!

I really like your mud tests in any case, but this one was particularly satisfying. I think it's not just that the CETME L has a poor reputation (mierda escondida) and so I'm rooting for the underdog, but also because you built that rifle (a series of videos I found fascinating). Keep up the great work fellas.

I think you are underestimating the effectiveness of the paint job.

Didn't expect that for sure!

You can even see mud flying around inside the action in the slow motion. Pretty impressive.

one of the reason im quite in favour of roller delayed blowback, it might be violent, but that violence makes it just a tad more reliable in adverse conditions.

Great video guys. That was a surprising result

Delayed roller for the win!

Wow… amazing test! 2 thumbs up!

Pretty crazy results!

So Suprised ! I have my cetme l kit ready. just waiting for someone to again make reciever and barrels. Watched yall build your rifles a hundred times so far.

Awesome quality control by the builder(s). ; )

great work with building this

Grabbing a CETME L today built by MarColMar, looking forward to it!

Very good Carl!!

Great video. I'm goad to see that this rifle was able to pass the test. Good mags along with the minor mods that HMG added seems to have cured the problems. None of the other online videos showed jams. I have one of the 100 HMG CETME-L's but it's too pretty to shoot. Maybe one of these days.

Love watching the mud slide down the magazine

Really love your feedback, it's rear.

Amazing!!!Truly outstanding!!!!

Delayed blowback's generally high extraction pressure also helped here by blowing debris away from the ejection port while "unlocking." This is really similar to the puff of gas that comes out of the AR-15's carrier every time it cycles.

nice build

Honestly, Karl, watching the footage again, I'm pretty sure you could have got that round chambered on the first try if you'd kept it in your shoulder. Amazing performance from an obscure home-build. Love the channel guys! Keep it up!

Gonna need one. Time now

The reason for the bad quality reputation is for two things: -The spanish goverment buy weapons for 2 corps: Army Corps and Police Corps (Guardia Civil is something like military force with police functions). The general and most selled is the army one,of course the number is large cause the police corps only use automatic weapons in few cases with this caliber. The army units had not good parts and the transition for the troops are not great because the modern weapons with polymers and plastic are not great for the type of abuse that passed,at that time the masculine population must do the military service at least 9 month and a lot of the boys use the rifle like a baseball bat or let fall from a great high etc...Ther old Cetme the C, is bigger and with more weight but men,you can use it like a shit and ever shoot. The Police Corps use the same rifle but with the good parts,and is mostly used by professionals.You never going to listen a complain about the weapon from a police or guardia civil. Two different budgets for the same weapon,and the result is totally opposite. PD:Sry for my english

You guys are awesome

Wow that did better then I expected it to.

Now ya'll have to do a hk93/hk33 mud test!!

And you, Karl, for hitting stuff!

CETME model L cool!

Impressive

If I would ever need a gun instructor or builder, I'd call on you,or Ian, depending on AK VS AR and Ian for history and dexterity. You guys are a made team:)

De todas formas muchas gracias por la prueba.

Good stuff, Karl seemed slightly reluctant to mud up his own handy work

Clearly it's the 8mm label case that made this possible. haha. Great vid, keep up the good work.

That's awesome!

fantastic.

wow. Legend says there was a gunsmith in Arizona that built the most resilent, never stopping guns one could dream of.. and some even say his secret was a brass case..

I can't believe it. When I was in the army (1989), I use some brand new units (even I unbox all the company units), and remember that all the units gave a lot of problems, but the Cetme C was very reliable. If you have the opportunity to shot a Star Z70B submachine gun, 9 mm, it has a lot of fun.

impressive

nice gun!

The only thing you guys haven't muddied up yet is my heart.

🙌 delayed roller action 🙌

Thoroughly surprised/satisfied

For my opinion, this G3 and Cetme guns ( if they are well built) are very very nice guns. I can only speak for myself but i like them more than the AR(nothing bad about them, its only my own feeling) or the AK's. I started to know them during my german army time (30years ago) and i love them to shoot until today(even if i now have also an hk556a1 and and AR15). Before someone start to say any i don't want to make AR or AK' bad. Thats for me a matter of personel feeling.

CETME best rifle confirmed

And here in Spain we cant use them cause 556 is banned 😑

My primary rifle in my military service

Karsada Arms, for all your esoteric gun needs!

I know you've already done an AR-15 as well as an M-16 but is there any chance you guys'll be doing a piston driven AR-15 kinda like the one offered by Primary Weapons? I have a sneaking suspicion it wont do quite as well as the direct impingement AR due to the lack of gasses expelling out the ejection port.

My first rifle 👍😍

As other people have said: There are TWO kinds of CETME L: the quality series, still in use by the Guardia Civil (like State Troopers in the USA) and the cheap, low quality given to the, then, Land Army made up by conscripts in the 80's. When the Spanish Armies moved from conscription to professional soldiers in the 90's, they replaced the low quality bach CETME L with the G-36. Then, there is the CETME C, with is the assault rifle God Father would had designed for Jesus, blessed by the Virgin Mary.

I'm more into C&R shotguns and WW1 and WW2 guns, but after watchi g a few videis about the cetme C and L rifles, I'm looking to buy both.

Awesome video, you should do the Uzi or Galil in the future.

Mind blown..

Curiosity begs the question: will Ian's CETME-L do as well in the mud test? I'm wondering if those small different challenges you each experienced during assembly would have a bearing on the mud test results.

If you can get one , try the C93 HK in 5.56. I think Classic Firearms or Budsgunshop might still have them.

I would also like to see a sand test or something similar

How about a mud test of some military spec shotguns?

HOLY FUCK!!! I never thought that this gun would do so well.

yall should see how well older firearms last, like SAA's or 73's or even 94's

Make one wonder if it wouldn't have been cheaper for Spain to make the quality control better, than to ditch the projekt.

Now you must to do a G36 mud test

I think I can probably speak as to the G3/Cetme charging handle. Last year I was attacked by a bull while placing a target to test out my new C-308. I was carrying the rifle with me because I had not yet decided where to shoot from. It was chambered with the safety on. In the process of pushing me around on the dirt, he bent the charging handle tube of my rifle. After breaking my nose, 3 ribs and a spinal compression fracture, he ran off leaving me to collect my hat and rifle and failing to find my glasses. I started the 1/4 mile walk back to the house. Twice, on the way, he came at me again and I fired at him from the hip wounding him fatally the second time. When I got back to the house, I ejected the magazine and , with difficulty, ejected the round from the chamber. I found that the charging handle had been forced up bending the tube where it came out. The fact that I already had a round chambered had saved my life. At the ER, they said if he had hit me one more time on the wrong way I would have been paralyzed from the neck down.

And nobody can complain about a missing rear sight.

would love to see a SCAR next

The only realistic explanation to this extraordinary reliability: you modified the genetic code of the gun by adding 8 mm Lebel DNA of WWI into it. As a result the "mud resistance" gene inherited from the 8 mm Lebel hack you did, modified it's characteristics!

Is a Schmidt Rubin mud test possible? Would be awesome to see how well that works!

Thanks for having tested the gun! Grammar nazi: "And et cætera" is uncorrect because "et" already means "and"... (et cætera = and the rest)

I wish you guys were remotely close to me. I would love to donate some of my firearms to the cause.

Please do a mud test on a SIG550-SIG556 any of them will do.

Nice build. Maybe it has to do more with the round then the weapon.

I was an officer in the Spanish Navy Infantry and "suffered" cetmet L for many years. However, most of the problems were not due to their design, even the poor manufacturing materials, but four factors. 1º Intensive use by recruits, who every day had to disassemble and clean the rifle as part of their training. 2º Continued mistreatment, since the technique of entry into position was based on the use of the rifle as support, something that is not done with the G-36 nor suppose any other weak 5.56mm rifle. 3º The limited stock of magazines and their Poor quality, which made them deform and make feeding the weapon difficult. 4º the ammunition used was extremely dirty, in fact it was prohibited for use with the G36. This left powder residue in the magazines that made extraction difficult until interrupted, sometimes with very few shots. Only with compatible M16 chargers and NATO-approved ammunition would 99% disruption have been reduced. Otherwise it was a delicious and precise weapon

Have you done G36 that replaced it? And the gun-smock matching camo was nice.

I would love for them to do a stoner 63, but this might be fairly close. I think the bolt is different.

btw thx for your feedback about the clothes pegs on the "thing". I don't really understand the principle other than dry wood drawing away moisture. But in the heat you are driving in that must be wrong. Can you tell me the how it works?

Mi españita!!!

Have fun cleaning that. It's hard enough to do when it's just carbon you're worrying about xD

This is surprising

I would like to think this way, if i pick the loosest parts(parts that when way off in terms of allowable error) of an AR from productions but still acceptable for running the gun, will i build an AR that would fail mud test when better quality AR don't?

Cetme straight here. Is it a good rifle?

Yeah, it only passed because of that label case. ;) I'm pleasantly surprised. The Tavor has a very open design up by the gas block and charging handle, but has a wipe to separate that from the reasonably well sealed action. It makes me curious as to how it would do.

Please mud test H&K G36 and H&K 416

Gran Arma Española

By the way is very guns of the same model actually the same when come to terms of mud resistance? Of course, they have to conform to a standard when controlling size deviation of their parts, but some guns might have a loose bolt carrier when compared to other guns in the same model, just like some Drum MAG of PPSH-41 might or might not be working for different PPSH-41. Does those deviations matter in terms of concealing mud from its action?

Color me impressed. Is there a possibility that the 8mm lebel case that you used to increase spring pressure was a factor in the test? If you did not have the case, would it run as reliable? Curious, really. Impressed, though. Great vid

my dad test the L and C in the military service , he preffer the C because is a better made gun who resist more abuse but he never got any big trouble with the L , he's complains are more about the way they made it cheaper and less strong

One of the problems ive been told with the cetme-l is that it didnt have the astounding nut cracking capabilities of the Cetme (no joke or pun)