Spanish CETME L Dreams, Fulfilment by MarColMar
While the Spanish-designed CETME L took a slightly different evolutionary path from the HK G3, HK MP5, and HK33, the fundamental internals are obviously from the same roller-locked family tree.
Adopted as the country joined NATO post-Franco, the 5.56-caliber STANAG carbine served with the Spanish military throughout the 1980s and 90s and still clocks in with second line and reserve units. As such, it saw use in Desert Storm and with over 20 different UNPROFOR “blue helmet” deployments.
Replaced after 1999 by license-built HK G36Es in Spanish service, the CETME L has progressively been sold off on the surplus market after cooling heels in reserve and police armories for the past 15 years. These often well-worn demilled kits have shown up over here for about $450~ while HMG made less than 1,000 all-up rifles around new receivers.
Well, in 2019, Indiana-based MarColMar started making a semi-auto CETME L variant– the product of a $2 million R&D process– using a new cold hammer-forged Nitrided barrel with a fluted chamber, new furniture, a new stamped steel receiver robot-welded together, and lots of other new internals. The only surplus parts used are the trunnions, muzzle device, and trigger pack internals.
The finished product, limited by nature, is curiously beautiful and, while it certainly looks different, it feels and shoots great.
Check out my T&E article on it over at Guns.com.
You won’t want this bad boy to slip through your fingers.
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