I hardly ever buy hardware anymore and to get me interested in something, it has to be something special, and this is it.

I like the HK91 concept but do not like the 308 at all. Have had one for 20 years, tried to like it hard. Heavy ammo, bulky magazines, recoil (versus lighter calibers), expensive - again, relative to others.

This thing solves the problem by going to my favorite round, the 7.62x39 commie.   You can legally hunt deer with it.  It has advantages over both 308 and the 223 IMO.  (As well as disadvantages). Faster follow-up, lighter, less expensive ammo, less recoil, magazines are more compact than 308 and larger capacity and apparently you can recycle common ak47 mags, which is a smart move versus some expensive, proprietary design.

This raises other problems with the AK, it has never solved the problem of poor sight radius, or mounting some optic on top of dust cover. The design is 1940's, just flawed in that sense. They have half a dozen rails, side mounts, many solutions have been tried over the years, none of them satisfied me.  They are all patches of an existing problem instead of a real design change, which is what it needs.  The PRT-32 solves that problem with the rotating drum that's a real sight. Maybe not as nice as M14/AR15 sights but with it, it lets me shoot as tight as with optics. The 200m setting, I don't care for the 100m one.

So PTR-32 combines the best of two rifles into one impressive package.  I don't have one but it has that 1940's Germania assault rifle vibe. Fairly heavy at almost 10 lbs, which negates the recoil.  In fact, it's light years ahead of the original assault rifle as it too had AK-type pistol open sights that I find unusable.  The HK drum is just a ingenious design IMO. Pragmatic as it only goes to 400m, not 800m like the AK.

The MBR design is awfully dated also, the 308 paradigm. Not viable unless for some special purpose, but not an item to be issued to every soldat.  200 rounds is a significant load in 308 while much lighter in the 7.62x39 format, or so it seems.

Ideally I would take the 6.5G over any of these but that's the choices you got.

The BOT did a review of it:

The Box of Truth Review of PTR-32

I liked mine, but it's built on the HK91 frame, and thus is way too heavy. Build it on the HK93 frame and I'll buy another one.


JMHO.

That is an interesting observation.

Yeah, it's almost 10 lbs.

Love mine. Heavy, but uber accurate. Easier to mount a 1-4 scope than an AK or VZ platform. The walnut surplus furniture is about gone but I think you can still swap out to tropical or OD furniture for $30. The heat shield in my skinny surplus handguard is longer & heavier than what it came with from the factory.

Runs good with a Promag drum as well. Steel mags are hit or miss on mine but 100% with Magpul & Tapcos. I've heard replacing the mag lever spring with an HK one helps with steel surplus mags.

I like the .308 round but I doubt it's ever gonna get cheap again. So this is a good option for a roller locker platform that's cheap to feed.

Thanks for the review. I am trying to decide between PTR-91FR and PTR-32. I know they are different animals not in the same class. Do you have any regrets about not getting the 308 model?  Since it weights basically the same.