I know in the past Century Arms had a BAD (and I do mean BAD )reputation for ‘Frankenfish” or sub-par/shitty quality builds with their AK’s.
A decade ago I traded for an AK-74 Tantal that I discovered later had been fitted with a surplus 5.56 barrel that would tumble 5.45 rounds consistently. I sent the gun back to CAI and after a few weeks received another Tantal (with the correct barrel) that functioned flawlessly. Back in the day there were thousands of stories like this on AK forums.
Fast forward to present day and Century Arms is a different company with a much improved Quality Control Department.
That being said, if you are new to the AK game, you still need to understand how AK’s builds work. Bottom line, just like anything, you get what you pay for.