I have been a huge fan of HK roller delayed blowback rifles since I was a kid, having grown up in the 1980s they were featured in most of the action movies I loved as a teenager. The HK-94/MP-5 and the HK-91/G-3 rifles were standard equipment for most of the action movie heroes of the day.
The H&K rifles and submachine guns were so exotic compared to the standard M16s, AR15 rifles, and AK-47s that were most often used made them instantly desirable to a young teenager who at the time had no idea about reliability, accuracy, and the level of engineering that had to go into the rifle to make them run correctly.
I just remember that it looked so much different than the standard M16/AK47 in the movies and the fact that the charging handle was slapped into place to chamber a round was just plain cool.
Heckler and Koch’s roller delayed blowback firearms made their way into almost every action movie made in the 80s and 90s, and even though the basic design dates back to the early years of the Cold War they are still extremely popular in Hollywood.
This is most likely due to the fact that they have become almost iconic firearms, especially the HK-94/MP-5 submachine gun which has ended up in almost every action movie made in the last 30 years and a whole bunch of TV shows.
Over the last several years I have owned a few different HK clones made by various manufacturers like Zenith and Century and have enjoyed them all. Unfortunately, until I win the lottery I will most likely never be able to afford an actual HK due to prices that start out at expensive and rocket into the stratosphere from there.
A few years ago I was introduced to the folks from PTR Industries and they have made a name for themselves building production clones of the most popular of HK roller guns, the G-3 and MP-5.
PTR started out building HK-91 clones in the early 2000’s and have since become a solid name in the industry due to the quality and innovations that go into their firearms.
I have been wanting to get my hands on one of their PTR-91 rifles for a while now, but Covid put a serious dent in the supply chain of firearms and ammunition almost as much as toilet paper and bacon.
The last time I talked to the people from PTR they said the demand for their MP-5 clones was so high that they could barely keep up. So when I finally came across a brand new PTR-109 I jumped on it immediately.
The PTR-109 is essentially a PTR-91, with a different name. I’ll call this gun by both names throughout the article.
PTR-109 Review
The build the PTR-109 rifles true to the original HK design with some refinements that make it very easy for the shooter to tailor the rifle to their liking. PTR adds a welded rail that makes mounting the optic of your choice very easy.
There is no need to add one of the clamp-on rails or to use the original style claw mount.
They also refined the trigger to shave a few pounds off the pull from the original G-3 specifications. The West German Bundeswehr apparently had extremely strong fingers or were worried about negligent discharges with a trigger pull that ran from 11.5 – 12.5 pounds.
Once I got the PTR back to the house and unboxed it I was struck by how clean this rifle is. My previous HK clones were built from Malaysian parts kits, or were Turkish made imports.
The PTR is built in the USA down in South Carolina and is a very clean, refined rifle. All of the metal is coated HK black and the coating is first rate with no blemishes.
Everything about this rifle was tight, and make no mistake this rifle is a beast weighing in at 9lbs 8oz.
It is definitely a battle rifle.
PTR-109 Trigger
Its weight and length are true to its German predecessor the G3, but the trigger has been shaved by a few pounds.
According to my trigger scale (which has markings up to 8lbs, but a space beyond the last marking that could be 9lbs) the trigger is every bit of 9lbs, possibly beyond that. Make no mistake this rifle is not for precision work, not with the factory trigger anyway.
Luckily there are a few places you can go on the internet to find a better trigger should you want to use this rifle for precision shooting.
Keep in mind that the original G3 had to meet a requirement of 4.6 MOA accuracy in 1957. Nowadays we expect much better accuracy from an out of the box rifle and the PTR does deliver better accuracy.
Then again, 4.6 MOA is a pretty low bar.
Once I got the PTR out of the box I disassembled it for a quick cleaning. It strips down like every other roller delayed blowback gun:
- Remove the pins from the stock
- Pull the stock off the receiver
- Remove the trigger housing
- Pull the charging handle to the rear to remove the bolt and carrier
… and the rifle is field stripped for cleaning.
Once the cleaning was done I decided it was time to put the welded rail to good use and mounted one of my favorite optics on the rifle, the Vortex Strike Eagle 1×8 LVPO (Low Power Variable Optic).
The Strike Eagle has an etched BDC reticle that can be illuminated and the owner’s manual states that the graduations on the reticle are for use with most popular 5.56 NATO or 7.62X51 NATO loads from 50 yards out to nearly 600 yards.
Since the PTR 109 is a clone of a Cold War battle rifle chambered in 7.62/.308, it should have no issues engaging targets out to 600 yards with plenty of punch left over.
PTR-109 At the Range
The next day I made the trip to the local range to dial in the optic and see how the PTR would group. I went through the ammo locker and took a few batches of my favorite plinking ammo with me to the range, 147gr Lake City M80 ball, Aguila 147gr FMJ, PPU 150gr soft point, and Tula 150gr FMJ.
I figured I would group with these and see which one the PTR liked best. I did my initial zero at 50 yards and the groups were pretty good. I was actually pretty surprised by which ammo the PTR seemed to like.
All of the groups were initially fired at 50 yards just to see how well they would hold and were fired in different strings of fire to give the barrel a chance to cool between groups.
The first group fired was the Lake City 147gr M80 ball surplus, this ammo has a satisfying thump to it and being as it was U.S. Military surplus ammo I figured it would be the top performer, since Lake City has a pretty good reputation as a manufacturer.
I was rewarded with a 5 shot group that measured right at 1 ⅞ inch, not bad when you consider this is a battle rifle with a 9+lb trigger pull.
Next up was the Aguila 147gr FMJ, it grouped 5 shots at 2 ⅝ inch. Not a great grouping especially when you consider that the original West German spec was 4.6 MOA. By my math that grouping would have put us over the line when it comes to meeting the original specifications at 5 ¼ inches at 100 yards.
Next to fire was the PPU 150gr Soft Point ammo. I have had pretty good experience with Prvi Partizan over the years and have shot a lot of PPU 5.56 ammo over the years and found it to be pretty ok stuff. So I was not terribly surprised by the grouping I got, just a shade over 1 ¾ inches, which would definitely get us inside of the 4.6 requirement of the West German Army.
Last was the Tula 150gr FMJ, this was also the most surprising group of the day, considering Tula ammunition is normally considered to be cheap, steel cased, practice ammunition but it ended up delivering the best grouping of the day, coming in at 1 ⅜ inch at 50 yards with a 5 shot group all falling in the 9 ring.
Color me surprised. Although previous experience with my Century Arms C93 should have told me that the steel cased ammo would perform due to the fluted chambers found in HK pattern rifles.
One of the features of the HK engineering that makes roller delayed blowback guns work is the fluted chamber, which allows the cartridge casing to expand during ignition into the flutes.
This locks the case in place until the pressure bleeds off enough for the case to be released from the chamber to complete the cycle, and properly extract, eject, and feed the next round.
I am no engineer, but I have never had a failure to feed, failure to extract, or a failure to eject when using steel case ammo in an HK pattern roller delayed blowback rifle. I think it has something to do with the steel cases not expanding as much as the brass cases.
I believe another benefit to this is increased accuracy out of steel cased ammunition with these rifles.
All I know for certain is that this rifle seems to like the steel cased ammo more than brass cased ammo which was a bit of a surprise for me.
A few weeks later I made a trip up to the farm with some friends. I brought the PTR 109, and a couple hundred rounds of Lake City surplus ammo that have been sitting in the ammo locker for a few years.
We spent the weekend smoking ribs and shooting a number of different rifles and pistols that I had on the farm, but the PTR was by far everyone’s favorite rifle to shoot.
After a few minor tweaks on the scope turrets to dial it in for the range and the Lake City brass M80 ball, ringing my steel IPSC targets in the treeline at 200 yards seemed almost effortless.
Effortless, but nonetheless a ton of fun. The PTR 91 ran through all the ammo I brought with me without so much as a hiccup and I was pretty impressed with its accuracy. A trigger job is definitely in its future though.
Conclusion:
There is no shortage of fine .308 Winchester chambered semi-automatic rifles out there, but if you’re looking for something a bit out of the ordinary with a proud lineage of service around the world and in most 80s action movies then check out the PTR 91.
It may not be the rifle you need, but it’s so cool, you may just find that it’s the rifle you want.