Personal Critical Review of Firearms - HK91 and PTR91 (HK91 Clone)

Personal - My personal first choice for caliber, inexpensive magazines and reliability, UGLY but funky-retro space-gun cool. Made for large individuals with large hands with heavy winter clothing on (short butt stock). My favorite trick with the HK91 here at the heretic abode is to add a bit of braided para cord to the charging handle, it makes a quick grab even with thick winter gloves.



Function - Reliable function second only to the AK, so reliable that it is often referred to as the "Kraut Kalashnokov" or the "AK of the West". I have personally fired my HK91's in sub-zero temps, and also sopping wet with slime in 100 plus temps with the only malfunctions based on ammo. Weak charges will stove pipe, and bullets over 190 grains can cause excessive recoil and shake the next bullet out of the magazine in front of the bolt causing a double fed or have a cartridge folded in half by the bolt face as it turns sideways.

Design flaws - No bolt hold open, poor ergonomics for small hands and arms, poor heavy trigger (without modification), fluted chamber engraves brass this does not make it un-reloadable contrary to stories you hear on the internet. The PTR91 “GI/Special edition” will have the odd brass chewer that dents the side of the case - an ejection port buffer fixes this and changes the direction of ejection to forward 2-3 O’clock.
Rifle has extremely violent fired case ejection - woe to anyone on the right of the shooter to catch one on the noggin! (I have a scar on my forehead from a friend who moved while shooting from a bench).

Felt recoil is higher with this delayed blow-back system.

Press-formed sheet steel construction is heavier than some other metals (and stronger) and because it is formed into shapes a large enough blow or crushing force to the steel can cause deformation that can lead to malfunctions, most knocks can be “ironed out” some with common tools and severe dents with special internal forms. With decades of military service including Africa, the design holds its own in even the worst of conditions and care, including possible dents.

There is some debate that states it is possible that the G3/HK91 was specifically designed to work with brass cased cartridges, and that firing steel cased ammunition can damage rifle parts and excessively wear the throat of the barrel. It is possible that if the steel case shows signs of excessive amounts of hot gas jetting past the flutes in the chamber and into the case shoulder this could erode the metal in that area. There was some indication that the German engineers actually designed the G3 rifle to handle not only full power cartridges but also cheep steel cased ammo with a very wide range of acceptable powder burn rates in the 4895 category.

Quality - While the construction of the frame is of relatively inexpensive precisely formed steel, contrary to internet ignorance "stamped steel" does not equate to low quality but rather inexpensive production, most car frames are made of formed steel, even the "muscle cars" of US production were of formed steel. Both the HK and PTR clone's internal parts are very high quality construction, interchangeable and examples of first world production. The last of the PTR rifles to arrive in the collection had a Rheinmetall AG bolt carrier!

Caliber/Ammunition - .308 an accurate and effective cartridge, one of my favorites, easy to reload, but is a large full power cartridge and some consider it excessive in recoil (this recoil is heightened in the HK system). .308/7.62 is one of the most popular cartridges for rifles in the US and high quality commercial and surplus ammunition is widely available. While on a related subject the HK91/G3 uses one of the best designed and reliable .308 box magazines ever produced, currently there are several high quality choices the older steel (heavy but very tough), aluminum, and then the polymer magazines (the only magazine from this company I would recommend and the Thermold magazines count for US compliance parts).



Use - Accuracy out of the box will be good to excellent (suffering somewhat from the heavy "drop proof" pull of the original trigger), the trigger can be adjusted or worked by companies like Williams Trigger Specialties (an excellent "set trigger" I use is available) and Bill Springfield. There are services available where the action can be stiffened and attachments such as the SuperTune to dial in loadings. The HK91 uses the least expensive detachable magazine available in the US market, there are steel, polymer, and aluminum magazines readily available. I am on my original locking rollers and have cooked off thousands of rounds (over 7k) on my current original HK made rifle. A must addition to this rifle on top of the para-cord handle is the Tac-Latch to replace the removed magazine release from the back of the magazine well (the Tac-Latch returns the rifle to the easy either-hand/two hand operated magazine release).

Current production - PTR is considered the highest quality clone in current production, repair parts are widely available, but HK stopped official production years ago forcing the existing HK produced rifles in circulation into the "collectable" market.

I consider this rifle a first and primary choice for a current MBR, high price is a possible concern with the true HK build collectable rifles, but when considering the inexpensive magazines, the total price can be lower than expected (I consider 8 a minimum of magazines per rifle). Because the Special Edition “GI” PTR91 clone is the least expensive .308 except the .308 AK from Saiga and the used magazines are so inexpensive it is difficult to find a better deal.

Personal Critical Review of Firearms - The HK SL7 rifle

The HK SL7 rifle/carbine.



The above photograph is of an HK SL7

I could not help myself and had to photograph the rifle on top of several of my flecktarn tent shelters. You will see this pattern often when I photograph items for this blog, flecktarn makes such a nice background.

Personal - The HK SL7 rifle is one of my all time personal favorite firearms. It has that old world wood stock and solid heft that are part of my "collector weaknesses". The HK SL7 rifle is a heavy full wooden stocked rifle in the same tradition as the M1, SVT40, M14, and FN49. The rifle is however basically a civilian rifle designed specifically for non-military civilian and police use.

Carbine in length, with an excellent balance, the SL7 is likely a contender for best auto-loading game stalking or horse mounted, deer and elk rifle ever produced. The short rifle while a bit heavy at 81/2 pounds points naturally, like a well made shotgun, the above photographed rifle was originally added to the collection for hunting elk.

Most examples of this rifle I have owned and have seen have exceptionally beautiful wood. A high quality wood was used in the stocks. I have seen burl, tiger stripe, and spalting, all are wood flaws but make the wood interesting and attractive. Some tiger-stripe is evident in the above photo. Sadly HK chose to cover this model's wood with some sort of urethane or clear coating (the above example was refinished with hand rubbed oil and wax).

Function - Reliable function on par with the M1 and FN 49. This rifle has an open top cover that is rail and screw tightened to the receiver in a was similar to the SKS carbine. The top cover has a relatively small ejection opening with has no cover it could collect dirt and sand. It may outwardly resemble a large SKS or even the FN 49 but like the HK 91 it has no gas system but rather a modified version of the delayed blowback system. The trigger of this rifle is excellent with a crisp break.

Design flaws - This rifle was at best a haphazard design based on the HK91, I can only say that it must have been an afterthought at best for HK. Almost as if HK management came to the design team and said "we need a rifle to follow our stupid European gun laws but shoots like the G3. Something we can turn into a hunting or training rifle" and it would seem the design team put a couple of newbie designers on the project.

Reasons to think that the SL7 (and this entire series) was designed haphazard or a "throw together:

1. Screw/track held top cover, not a quick on off, the top cover requires a metric allen wrench to remove, this takes a long time to unscrew.

2. No mechanical bolt/recoil buffer, the bolt slams into the rear of the machined receiver with only a pathetic little rubber/plastic piece in the rear of the action.

3. Safety on-off disconnect, the fire to safe condition mechanical lever is on the side of the rifle above and forward so far out of the way as to indicate that this was not designed, but was but rather placed there because the trigger housing and hammer dictated that placement.

4. Bolt charging handle on the right hand side is easy to break because it is complex with delicate parts requiring a special lever imbedded inside to break the bolt head from the locking position.

5. The trigger group of this rifle is overly complicated and cannot be modified or worked on.

6. The attachment for optics is placed on top of the removable receiver cover. The locking holes in the cover are designed for a proprietary detachable scope base, the original scope base seems to be more rare than the rifle, I was never satisfied with the return-to-zero capabilities. The excessive violence of the bolt moving inside of the action causes all but the best scope mounts to slip under the scope causing drift, this was a reoccurring problem I always had with this series of rifles.

7. The very small ejection port can become an issue as it works well with fired cases the small opening tends to block loaded rounds from positive ejection because the tips of the bullets tend to hit inside the port.

This rifle uses a proprietary detachable 3 or 10 round magazine that feeds .308/7.62, the design is robust but is limited to 10 rounds and is prohibitively expensive. The excessive ejection force and bolt movement (similar to the HK 91/G3) also will tend to force the casing to hit the rear of the receiver and bounce away leaving scratches and brass residue on the cover.

Quality - Very high quality machined construction, HK civilian guns are some of best in first world production.

Caliber/Ammunition - While the SL7 was produced in .308 other rifles of the series were capable of having alternative calibers available (many never were produced). The .308 is an accurate and effective cartridge. Some will find the full power rifle cartridge excessive in recoil but this short carbine is heavy enough to negate some of that recoil.

Use - Accuracy is excellent, with polygonal rifling and a fixed delayed blowback action all sitting on solid machined steel this rifle series is capable of sub MOA with quality ammunition. The SL7 uses an extremely expensive detachable proprietary magazine that is almost impossible to find.

Current production - None, there are no current produced rifles of this model and spare parts are few and rare. All the rifles of this model in circulation are part of the "collectable" market and sought after by collectors causing high prices.

I consider this rifle a third tier choice for the role of MBR, high price, no current production, and expensive rare magazines and spare parts are of primary concern and definite deal breaker. A solid, excellent, accurate, well made rifle (with a few flaws) that could be a multi-generational family heirloom but is difficult to find and maintain due to extreme rarity.



"HK. because you’re a civilian, ergo, you suck. And we hate you."

This is painfully true when looking at the replacement of this fine civilian rifle with the utter flop the HK SLB 2000 of course making the HKSL7 with a real buffer and able to take G3 magazines and I would still have that rifle you see above.