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| Probably the most
popular and well known HK promotional photo from the 1980s, an actor in the swamp with
HK91A3. It was captioned, "When you're determined to survive, you leave
nothing to chance." Some have said that it was a SPECOPS operator, and I had
reported it to be an HK employee, but he is a model. It is also a
refection of 1970s-80s thinking with respect to the trigger finger.
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| The rifle that started the young
company on its way to becoming the preeminent tactical firearms manufacturer during the
latter half of the 20th century was known as the G3. In the early 1970s, before
semiautomatic copies of select fire battle rifles or "assault weapons" became
really popular, Heckler & Koch adapted the model 91 as a semiautomatic counterpart to
the G3 that was deemed importable into the United States until 1989. The most
prolific of the HK90 series to be imported, the 91 was on its way to becoming the most
popular rifle import from HK, beating out the 93 in U.S. sales by almost 20 to 1. Almost identical to the G3 externally, with only the select fire internals missing, the flipper magazine release deleted, the front pushpin area replaced with the "shelf" and the grenade launching ring omitted from the barrel, the HK91 was considered the "Rolls Royce" of battle rifle copies. Introduced at a staggering price of $400 or so dollars at the time, they were unbeknown to most, a significant investment, with most genuine examples bringing now close to $2000 used.
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| Photo from 1986 catalog
depicting the HK91 in a hunting role with obvious effort at showing durability of rifle,
even when frozen. Quite possible our "hunter" fell asleep in the tree
stand during a sleet storm.
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| The HK91A2 above, with fixed stock, and HK91A3, with retractable stock. |
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| What many would
characterize as a "dream" setup for their 91, the large array of accessories and
scopes available for the 91, to include the .22 cal conversion kit at the upper left.
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HKPRO Exclusive: American Importation Data for the HK91 |
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1974 |
1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| 50 | 300 | 950 | 1000 | 1514 | 5150 | 6580 | 17260 | 5520 | 7120 | 0 | 1482 | 1 | 100 | 350 | 1440 |
Total HK91 Imports from Germany: 48,817
