M-1A vs PTR-91

Yesterday I found a new (to me) range just over the Mississippi line so I went to check it out. I also got to test and sight in both new 7.62 rifles that I picked up before the Pandemic hit and closed my regular range for the duration.

This rifles: top to bottom, Springfield M-1A Scout Squad and PTR-91.

Neither has a sling yet. It was noticed during the shooting which was done at 200 yards prone from the mat. Eventually the Springfield will get an optic of some sort. The PTR will stay in it's "clean" configuration. I will cobble up some sort of sling adapter for it so I as a left-hander can carry it properly and maybe even use it as a shooting aid like on the M-1/M-1A/M-16 rifles. Both shot 7.62x51mm ammo from 20rd. box magazines.

The first glitch came when I brought out some old reloaded ammo I'd made up for a 1919A4 once upon a time. These rounds were a trifle too long for most rifle box magazines so I'd set them aside for my .308 bolt rifles. Of course they wound up back in the mix and got grabbed this morning by mistake. Dammit, I know better. The M-1A did load and fire them without a hitch. The PTR struggled to chamber a few of them because the bullet tip was right up against the forward wall of the magazine and they didn't chamber well when I'd release the bolt on the first round.

Also, that bolt/bolt handle. As a leftie...grr! When I'd slap the bolt handle down out of it's retaining slot, the bolt and handle would shoot forward and that handle would hit my right hand which was already in place of the foregrip most every time. And it moves fast and hits hard! This can be resolved with training (keep the fingers out out the way) but it wasn't happy-making. The PTR also has a stiffer, heavier trigger than the M-1A (which is almost like a competition trigger in it's lightness and smoothness) but the PTR trigger does break crisply and cleanly. Both were pleasant and enjoyable to shoot from that aspect. Both also present with very nice sight pictures and they shoulder instinctively and comfortably. Each was a joy to shoot, although the PTR's recoil was noticeably sharper with the same ammo. It wasn't unpleasant at all, it was pretty much what you'd expect from a 7.62mm cartridge. It just showed me how effective the M-1A and it's muzzle brake is at reducing felt recoil.

The sights on the M-1A are much more adjustable, and coupled with that trigger, the smoother recoil and the fact that it's charging handle wasn't busting my fingers like the PTR, I gave it the edge in shootability, although I'd be happy with either one in a pinch. Accuracy was tough to gauge because that crummy ammo was printing WAY low with both rifles, but I had no difficulty putting them all on the standard pistol silhouette in passable groups at 200 yards with both rifles.

I love them both. The M-1A was a bit better in the ergonomics and performance areas but it's also about twice the price. I'd fight with either if I needed a "go to" rifle and I endorse them both.

I can stop any time I want to...I just don't want to.

I saw this for sale on an auction site a couple of weeks ago. Just a couple hours to go, and no bids above the very low starting bid. I bid $5 more and I got it. No one was more shocked than I.

It's an American copy of the old G-3 made by a collaboration between Heckler and Koch of Germany and the Spanish arms firm CETME back in the day. It was a darn good rifle, probably falling in there between the US M-14 and the venerable FN-FAL. I still saw quite a few in use in Mexico last year. And for the American civilian market, H&K made a semi-auto version known as the HK-91. I never got one because the first Bush ban caught me by surprise back in the 80's and even though the last gun shop in the area with any so-called "assault rifles" for sale had a nice HK-91, they also had one last Springfield Armory M-1A and I bought (and still have) that. And new HK-91's were never allowed to be imported into the US again so I figured I'd probably never get one. But then a US company called JLD bought the machine tooling and remaining parts from an HK-licensed firm in Portugal and started making a new version of the rifle here in America in 2002.

This version is the PTR-91. It fires the NATO 7.62x51mm cartridge from a 20rd box and sports a 17.7" barrel. Even with the fixed stock (and they do make folders) it is shorter than the M-14/M-1A or FAL, but alas, it's not much lighter.

Initially they made receivers and used surplus parts to build them, just like Century International Arms was doing, but eventually they started making their own parts and improving their processes with more modern tooling and techniques and today these rifles are every bit as well-made as the originals and they are built 100% here in America in a plant in South Carolina.

Every year I'd see these on display at the NRA conventions or other big gun shows, and I'd admired them for their solid feel and excellent finish. Unlike the Century guns, the welds were always clean and straight, the finish was uniform and nice, and they just felt right. And the price wholesale was well under a grand and still hovers around that if you hunt a bit. This one was considerably less as it was "used", but like the Springfield Scout Squad I got last month, this one has no dirt or carbon or even scrape marks from normal metal/metal contact caused by working the bolt or inserting magazines. I don't know where that one has been since leaving the factory but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't on a firing range.

I'm still waiting for my range to open but when it does, this one and the Scout Squad are going out to tear up the steel plates on the rifle line. I have no doubt that both will do just fine. And now I feel better because if the Dems win in 2020 and keep their promises to come for our AR-15's, at least now I have a couple rifles to protect my AR-15's with.