#Cetme-l

MarColMar Firearms is best known for their revival of the CETME L rifle. This unique gun was used by the Spanish and traces its lineage back to certain other stamped steel roller delayed firearms, though it has its own personality.

I first encountered MarColMar’s resurrection of the CETME-L at SHOT 2019.  I must admit I was immediately drawn to these stamped beauties.  Designed in the late 70’s/early 80’s and fielded from 1987-1999 in the Spanish military, the CETME-L is a pretty neat variation on the roller-delayed theme, all while having full STANAG-magazine compatibility.  MarColMar spent millions modernizing the reassembly of parts kits (including the use of robots), and has been cranking out easily the best examples available on the US market. For this interested in the manufacturing process, MarColMar has some great videos available on their site.  

MarColMar’s have not only saved CETME L, they have breathed new life into Spain’s former service rifle. Built from original imported parts and newly US-made parts the rifles replicate the original 5.56x45mm CETME service rifles – right down to the custom Cerakote colour.

MarColMar has been hard at work.  After 2 years of effort, and 2 million dollars spent in production, their CETME-L reproductions are shipping out to customers.  These are full guns, not a kit that you have to weld, bend and pin together at home.  These feature new CHF nitrided 1:7 twist barrels and brand new 600 ton stamped flats made in-house at MarColMar.  They are fully 922(r) compliant because the only use 8 imported parts: The hammer, sear, guide rod, front sight tower, rear sight, bolt, rollers, and flash hider.  

Recent news from the National Police of Ukraine and local Ukrainian websites were full of reports concerning seizures of illegal firearms. The diversity of types and origins of these firearms is amazing. I decided to combine all the information from these news reports into a single article and present it to our readers.

Hill & Mac Gunworks’ flagship is their ambitious project to create an affordable, shootable reproduction of the WWII-era German StG-44, but another thing they have been working on is a recreation of the CETME-L Cold War era Spanish assault rifle. Unlike their StG, which is being made from the ground-up, the CETME-L effort centers around the use of parts kits, now available relatively inexpensively on the surplus market.