My first phone call I was told the rifle was out of warranty even though it was brand new in the box when I bought it on Saturday.
I was told by the gun smith at Fairfax who used to head the warranty service department, that it was a known issue for the Tantals to have defective barrels.
She can't guarantee that I will get another rifle just like mine, meaning a Polish Tantal - which is concerning.
Actually, the problematic Tantals have two problems according to the former head warranty repair gunsmith.I guess I got lucky. I bought a Tantal last week and ranged it yesterday. First shots and dial in at 50 yards and then at 100 yards. I fired Wolf Steel case 60 grains and milsurp Russian 52 grain and found every round at both ranges to be perfect holes. Not a keyhole in sight. I looked on the receipt and the box my rifle came in and they are both marked 1-8 twist. I have read many posts on many sites that Tantals originally had 1-7 twist barrels and this is what caused this keyholing problem. CAI has since had their barrels made in 1-8 (which is the proper twist the Russians used on their original 74's.)
Yup, I thought my rifle was simply beautiful. Certainly nicer than 90% of the other Century products I've seen. It was beautifully finished, the sights were straight, it just looked great. I really-really wanted that rifle.I can only assume I have the latter barrel. The Tantal is a fine rifle. It is as tight as any ak I have ever handled. No slop anywhere in this rifle. There are sites on the internet that sell barrels for 74's. WHATACOUNTRY is one of them. I would think that buying a barrel and having it installed would fix this problem. In my opinion, the worst thing CAI could do would be to "forget" all those who got screwed over buying the earlier Tanatals and (at no cost) repair all those that keyhole. That kind of "guntalk" on the net could crush a company's bottom line.
Good Luck with CAI.