I had a couple of HK91's for a number of years, and have shot G3's. Im kind of confused by some of the comments in the negative towards them. Just curious, but how many of those complaining about them actually spent some time with one to get to know them?
They are accurate rifles and actually, the guns that started the whole family of "Big Boy Lego" guns we have now. Pop out a couple of pins and you can instantly change up how the gun is configured.
They have the best "combat" iron sights on just about any rifle of the type. Fast and instinctive to use, once you understand them. Many dont.
They can have all sorts of optics quickly mounted, and the mounts retain zero when removed and replaced.
They have the first more realistic combat sling system, that again, pretty much everyone else copied in some fashion.
Ive owned a number of FAL's and M14 type rifles as well, and the 91's are just as accurate as any M14, and more accurate than the FAL's.
Recoil is subjective, and I never found them to have more recoil than any of the others. The recoil impulse is a little different, but if you shoulder any of them right, you get the same "push".
The ergonomics are just different until you get used to them. They arent bad, just different. The lack of BHO is just a typical American complaint (along with the HK triggers), and really not a detriment. Just like the AK's, and similar, when the gun stops running, you reload it. Its really only as hard as you want to make it. Once you figure them out, they work as well as anything else.
As far as reloading ammo for them, it depends on how you have them set up. If you dont have a port buffer on the gun, the brass gets beat up pretty bad on ejection when it hits the rear edge of the ejection port and caves a big dent in the case. The buffer eliminates that.
Yeah, the fluted chambers do mark the cases, but its normally just cosmetic, and doesnt hinder reloading. The cases are usually pretty sooty too, because of the flutes and how the action works. The type of action is a bit harder on the brass as well, and you usually dont get the number of reloads out of it as you would in an M1A. I usually got around 6 or so with the 91's, and maybe 10 or so with my M1A's, before the "ring of death" started showing up. And thats assuming the case mouths on either didnt get to beat up, which was always a pretty common thing, especially if youre shooting around hard surfaces.
You can thank Bush (the republicans will screw you just as quick as the dems, dont let them fool you
) for making that import ban permanent and that pretty much cinched it for the HK's. HK wasnt much of a help either with their attitude at the time. I paid $550-$600 NIB for my 91's. Sold them for close to $2k a number of years later. I made out like a bandit on the accessories too, and was getting close to what I paid for the guns, for just the claw mounts.
HK makes great accurate and reliable guns, and those Ive owned and later sold, were really the only guns I ever actually made any decent money on when I sold them.
The one thing that always puzzled me with HK's was, how the ATF allowed them to come in at all, as they were so easily converted to FA, and there were a ton of G3 and MP5 parts kits for sale cheap, when they were selling them here.
