I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit of a Heckler & Koch G3 fanboy since I first discovered the rifle while playing Rainbow Six 3 on my Xbox back in middle school. Something about the classic battle rifle with its full-power 7.62x51mm/.308 rounds and full 18-inch barrel seemed perfect for just about any purpose. As I grew older and began to venture into real firearms, my appreciation for the G3 remained, but my budget quite obviously couldn’t support the real deal and even a civilian HK91 was out of the question.
In order to fill the gap, I picked up one of Century Arms’ Spanish CETME builds back in 2009. As the inspiration for the G3, the CETME shares many of the same parts and for the most part, looks just like its German cousin. Unfortunately, the Century gun was problematic from the get-go and unwilling to put more money into the rifle, I sold it for a loss several months after purchase.
When I began my partnership with Silencer Shop last fall, I recognized that I needed to acquire a semi-automatic .308 of some sort for suppressor evaluation. I shopped around for several weeks, but for whatever reason kept coming back to the G3, or more accurately the US-made PTR-91 rifles sold by Atlantic Firearms. With a welded Picatinny rail for optics and suppressor-friendly 5/8×24 barrel threads, Atlantic’s exclusive PTR-91 A3R seemed especially appealing. After a quick chat with Atlantic’s owner, Blaine, I purchased the rifle and had it in hand less than a week later.
