My new favorite holiday or B.A.G. Day, 2005
First, thanks to Kim Du Toit for initiating me to this grand new tradition. As a long time reader of his excellent blog, I feel it necessary, as he has inspired me to become more active in my long held political beliefs.
Secondly, I must also thank Ken Royce for his excellent tutelage in the capacities (he he, I made a pun) of the variety of excellent semi-autos available to all of us in the free world. Without his outstanding reference and commitment to failure testing, I would never have given my newest acquisition a second look.
Honestly, I had always viewed the HK G3/91 system with some skepticism, as it is a delayed blowback operation, with no positive locking of the breech. This was contradictory to everything I had learned about what a proper operating system should be in a semi-auto rifle of any serious caliber. Gas operation is the best method, right?
Well, after reading B.G.B., in its entirety, and after coming to the conclusion that I still preferred the M14/M1A platform, I thought that saving my pennies for a Springfield Armory clone with its cast receiver would be my only real choice. What that book did do was clarify some things for me that I was misunderstanding about a very choice weapon. It turns out that the delayed blowback, roller-locked system that HK employs it not only robust, but almost indestructible. The rifle is simple in parts and operation. The barrel is a tad short, but not so short as to effect velocity by any great degree. The trigger group is modular and can be replaced, as an assembly, in seconds. The fieldstripping procedure is ridiculously simple. The furniture is thick and well made. I have heard some complain about the weight and balance of the gun as being both too heavy and too far forward, respectively. After handling a specimen, however, I could not disagree more. Sure, it is a little funky with regard to some aspects of its handling, compared to say, the Garand or M14, but it is not encumbering to operate by any means.
Soon thereafter, the clouds parted (actually, it was the sunsetting of the AWB), and JLD Enterprises steps to the front of the line and offers a NEW, .308 caliber semi-auto G3 clone, built on original tooling and blueprints on the correct receiver! For years I had shunned those CETME and Hesse arms parts kit clones with their incorrect aluminum receivers, and written them off as just cheap garbage, which they certainly were.
I found my PTR-91 on the rack at my indoor range, one of several that they had taken delivery of. When I asked Jeff, the manager, if these had been the hot item, he responded by saying that they had supplanted just about everything else in the store for popularity, including the rather broad range of AR's that are always on display. The demand for the AR and the poodleshooter .223 took an immediate beating, he said, upon the introduction of this rifle to the general market. Demand is strong, the price is right, and it is a high quality product. A better mousetrap. Do you think they are selling bunches of them?
I look at it this way; If you can buy a stripper AR for 700 and one with a few bells and whistles for about a Grand, compared with a NEW, correctly built .308 battle rifle for comparable money, there really isn't much of a comparison, is there!
I have yet to christen her, Fraulein Brigitte has come to stick as a name, but that shall be remedied soon enough. I plan on attaching a black Latigo sling from Brownells to her with the original military hardware and I am actively looking at one of those surplus Hensoldt scopes and claw mounts. Several South African .308 battle packs await me in my armory for dispensation downrange.
Oh, and DiFi, Chuck the Schmuck, Barbara Boxer, John McCain, et al. - A big FUCK YOU, from the Nation of Riflemen!
Molon Labe, Motherfuckers!
-B
Secondly, I must also thank Ken Royce for his excellent tutelage in the capacities (he he, I made a pun) of the variety of excellent semi-autos available to all of us in the free world. Without his outstanding reference and commitment to failure testing, I would never have given my newest acquisition a second look.
Honestly, I had always viewed the HK G3/91 system with some skepticism, as it is a delayed blowback operation, with no positive locking of the breech. This was contradictory to everything I had learned about what a proper operating system should be in a semi-auto rifle of any serious caliber. Gas operation is the best method, right?
Well, after reading B.G.B., in its entirety, and after coming to the conclusion that I still preferred the M14/M1A platform, I thought that saving my pennies for a Springfield Armory clone with its cast receiver would be my only real choice. What that book did do was clarify some things for me that I was misunderstanding about a very choice weapon. It turns out that the delayed blowback, roller-locked system that HK employs it not only robust, but almost indestructible. The rifle is simple in parts and operation. The barrel is a tad short, but not so short as to effect velocity by any great degree. The trigger group is modular and can be replaced, as an assembly, in seconds. The fieldstripping procedure is ridiculously simple. The furniture is thick and well made. I have heard some complain about the weight and balance of the gun as being both too heavy and too far forward, respectively. After handling a specimen, however, I could not disagree more. Sure, it is a little funky with regard to some aspects of its handling, compared to say, the Garand or M14, but it is not encumbering to operate by any means.
Soon thereafter, the clouds parted (actually, it was the sunsetting of the AWB), and JLD Enterprises steps to the front of the line and offers a NEW, .308 caliber semi-auto G3 clone, built on original tooling and blueprints on the correct receiver! For years I had shunned those CETME and Hesse arms parts kit clones with their incorrect aluminum receivers, and written them off as just cheap garbage, which they certainly were.
I found my PTR-91 on the rack at my indoor range, one of several that they had taken delivery of. When I asked Jeff, the manager, if these had been the hot item, he responded by saying that they had supplanted just about everything else in the store for popularity, including the rather broad range of AR's that are always on display. The demand for the AR and the poodleshooter .223 took an immediate beating, he said, upon the introduction of this rifle to the general market. Demand is strong, the price is right, and it is a high quality product. A better mousetrap. Do you think they are selling bunches of them?
I look at it this way; If you can buy a stripper AR for 700 and one with a few bells and whistles for about a Grand, compared with a NEW, correctly built .308 battle rifle for comparable money, there really isn't much of a comparison, is there!
I have yet to christen her, Fraulein Brigitte has come to stick as a name, but that shall be remedied soon enough. I plan on attaching a black Latigo sling from Brownells to her with the original military hardware and I am actively looking at one of those surplus Hensoldt scopes and claw mounts. Several South African .308 battle packs await me in my armory for dispensation downrange.
Oh, and DiFi, Chuck the Schmuck, Barbara Boxer, John McCain, et al. - A big FUCK YOU, from the Nation of Riflemen!
Molon Labe, Motherfuckers!
-B
