Review: PTR91-A3R

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    Thor

    Grandmaster
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    Rating - 100%
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    Jan 18, 2014
    10,704
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    Could be anywhere
    Greetings all,

    I just took delivery of a new PTR91-A3R. This is the version with the wide forearm...the G3A3 German style and a welded Pickatiny Rail on top of the receiver. The rail was a plus for me as I'd seen the claw mounts and they are both a bit Rube Goldberg and made up the price difference between the A3R and the less expensive GI model. This is an all American made rifle.


    View attachment 29980

    Mine is a Bristol, CT built weapon not from their new digs in Aynor, SC but any company willing to relocate to get away from gun grabbing libs deserves support I say.:yesway:

    The weapon arrived looking very impressive with small and even (almost unnoticeable) welds. I mounted a 4x Weaver I had lying about on a promag PM067 aluminum scope mount.

    View attachment 29981

    View attachment 29982


    The tolerances are very tight out of the box. I did a disassembly and cleaning and the stock had to be persuaded off by putting the take down pins in the holders on the stock and tapping them with a rawhide mallet. It was definitely too tight for just pulling it off without maybe you and a friend doing a three stooges routine; also, I didn't want to throw my new rifle across the room.


    I decided to follow their recommended break in procedure which entails firing a round, swab the barrel with solvent, run a brush through it 8-10 times, swab dry...each time for the first 10 rounds then after each magazine for the first 200-300 rounds. The manual states that during this time you may experience Failure to Feed or Failure to Eject. So, I loaded up 10 20 round magazines and headed to the range to see how it ran.

    I fired the first 10 rounds as recommended without seriously considering where it was shooting as I was more interested in getting all that cleaning done, still not a bad 4" group from 100 yards with 10 rounds for a minute of scrubbing between shots and only having put a laser boresighter on it.

    I spent the next 80 rounds futzing with the scope and just putting rounds down range. Still not where I want it to end up but I was more interested in functioning of the weapon.

    For the last 20 rounds I went back to the 200 Yd table.

    View attachment 29983

    So, how did it run? Flawlessly. Not a single issue. I was shooting steel case Russian stuff, 147gr FMJ and Surplus German 7.62 NATO rounds. I chose those mostly because I had heard of issues with both feeding and function but from my experience the only issue was that the Russian ammo was dirty with visible smoke from the shot and wafting out of the weapon afterwards. After 110 rounds I decided that any further break in was really unnecessary.

    I've heard some say the recoil is too much. Having tested HK91/G3 rifles in Germany back in the 70's I didn't remember it to be so. There is some movement of the weapon on firing that would probably intimidate someone moving up from a .22 but I shoot .308 in a Mauser that has little in the way of recoil mitigation and don't find that bad...and it's as nothing compared to my .45-70. So, 110 rounds and no shoulder soreness; I think that equates to recoil not bad.

    It does throw the brass into the weeds way over there and the ones I found were dented and had visible lines where the barrel fluting did it's job to ensure extraction; and the manual does say they don't recommend reloading any cases fired from the weapon.

    So, if you can live with not reloading or even finding the fired brass and are looking for a good option for a Main Battle Rifle in 7.62NATO this seems to be a viable American made option.:ar15:

    Another plus is that magazines are still about as cheap as you can get. It uses G3 or CETME magazines and I picked up a box of 10 G3 aluminum mags for less than 40 bucks plus shipping.

    Next up I need to find a good bipod so I can work on accuracy. I see they have them over at HK Parts but hoky smokes! The price obviously is meant to reflect German Gnome Space Magic content. :dunno:


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