Century International Arms is an importer and manufacturer of

firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...

that is based in the United States. The company was founded in 1961 in St. Albans, Vermont, with offices in Montreal. In 1995, the company headquarters and sales staff moved to

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

and to

Delray Beach, Florida Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020 was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 United States Census. Located 52 miles ...

in 2004.

History

The company was started after William Sucher, a

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

repairman, took a

Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the British Army's st ...

rifle in trade against a typewriter he had repaired for a customer. Having no need for the rifle, he posted a newspaper to sell it and received more queries about the rifle than he had for typewriters. He then sought sources of surplus rifles that he could sell for a profit. With his brother-in-law, Manny Weigensberg, Sucher made contacts in foreign countries for the importation of

military surplus Military surplus are goods, usually matériel, that are sold or otherwise disposed of when held in excess or are no longer needed by the military. Entrepreneurs often buy these goods and resell them at surplus stores. Usually the goods sold by ...

rifles and handguns and by the 1970s, Century became the single largest importer of firearms in the United States and Canada. When sources of importable surplus firearms have become scarce, Century has manufactured their own firearms. The company has manufactured versions of the G3,

L1A1 The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, officially "Rifle, 7.62mm, L1A1", also known just as the SLR (Self-Loading Rifle), by the Canadian Army designation C1A1 (C1) or in the US as the "inch pattern" FAL,Especially on the American surplus market. is a Br ...

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas operated, gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian s ...

and

sporterized Sporterising, sporterisation or sporterization is the practice of modifying military-type firearms either to make them suitable for civilian sporting use or to make them legal under the law. Modifying for sporting use Modifying for sporting use c ...

Mauser Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arme ...

s among others. The company also imports Turkish-made Canik pistols.

Firearms

Canik

* Mete SFt * Mete SFx * SFx Rival * TP9 (clone of

Walther P99 The Walther P99 () is a semi-automatic pistol developed by the German company Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen of Ulm for law enforcement, security forces and the civilian shooting market as a replacement for the Walther P5 and the P88. The P99 and ...

) ** TP9 SF ** TP9 SFx ** TP9 SA ** TP9 v2 ** TP40 v2 ** TP9 SF Elite ** TP9 Elite Combat ** TP9 Elite Combat Executive ** TP9 Elite SC ** TP9 DA ** TP9 SFL

Others

*C308 (a clone of the

CETME rifle The CETME Model 58 is a stamped-steel, select-fire battle rifle produced by the Spanish armaments manufacturer Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales (CETME). The Model 58 used a 20-round box magazine and was chambered for the 7.62 ...

) *C39/C39V2 (clones of the

) *

*RAS47 (clone of the

AKM The AKM () is an assault rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1959. It is the most ubiquitous rifle of the Kalashnikov rifles. It was developed as a replacement to the AK-47 introduced a decade prior. Introduc ...

) *

SKS rifle The SKS (russian: Самозарядный карабин системы Симонова, Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945, self-loading carbine of (the) Simonov system, 1945) is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Soviet small arms ...

SSG 82 The Scharfschützengewehr 82 or SSG 82, literally ''Sharpshooter's Rifle 82'', is a rifle chambered in the 5.45×39mm Soviet cartridge built in East Germany at the end of the Cold War for use by East German special police units. Very little was ...

vz. 24 The vz. 24 rifle is a bolt-action carbine designed and produced in Czechoslovakia from 1924 to 1942. It was developed from the German Mauser Gewehr 98 line, and features a very similar bolt design. The rifle was designed in Czechoslovakia shor ...

vz. 50 The Vz. 50 (also known as the CZ 50) is a Czechoslovakian made double-action, semi-automatic pistol. Vz is an abbreviation of the Czech (as well as Slovak) term "vzor" meaning model. History Design After the Second World War, Czechoslovakia's M ...

WASR-series rifles Wassenaar Arrangement Semi-automatic Rifles (commonly referred to as WASR-series rifles) are a line of rifles sold in the United States by Century International Arms. The rifles are manufactured in Romania by the Cugir Arms Factory and are a semi- ...

Zastava M57 The Zastava M57 pistol was the standard sidearm of the Yugoslav Army from 1957 to the country's collapse, produced by Zastava Arms. A licensed copy of the Soviet TT pistol, it is a single-action semi-automatic pistol chambered in 7.62×25mm Tokar ...

* VSKA(clone of the AKM) * BFT-47(AKM clone with RPK-style front trunnion)

Ammunition

In addition to importing bulk surplus ammunition, Century is the US importer and distributor for

Red Army Standard Ammunition Red Army Standard Ammunition is a trademark associated with Century International Arms (CIA), an arms and ammunition corporation in Delray Beach, Florida, United States. The official spelling of the brand's name is faux Cyrillic, written as RЭD ...

References

{{reflist Firearm importation companies of the United States Firearm manufacturers of the United States