Impulse Bought a 91 for $1250
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BASICS:
- Price: $1250
- Bore: Looks pretty great. Possible VERY shallow pitting in one of the grooves for well under an inch of it, or some especially tough carbon fouling, or me seeing things. Rest of the bore shines bright and rifling is about as good as any new gun I've ever seen.
- Function: As much of a PITA to cycle by hand as any other G3-pattern rifle. Feels exactly as it should as far as I know.
- Bolt Gap: 0.25-0.30mm
- Bolt head: Lots of staining. Hitting it with Flitz gun cleaner on Sunday when it comes in. Scrubbing the hell out of it with Hoppe's 9 and a brass brush does nothing anymore. Very shallow pitting, and probably hardly any deeper (if it indeed is any deeper) than the tooling marks on the bolt. To be felt, I had to run a cleaning pick over it and then I could feel increased roughness and resistance in dragging the pick at the pits.
- Bolt face: Lots of staining and some pitting, but doesn't appear much deeper than bolt head pitting.
- Chamber face: Good GOD what kind of hell it is to clean this without the right tool... Still messy and stained, also deeper pitting than on bolt head and face. Hope it won't impact anything. Need Flitz to clean off the staining but I feel that the pitting will be somewhat deeper here.
- Finish: Probably 90%-95%. Scuffs, dings, and scratches a little, but other than that in great shape I'd say.
http://imageshack.com/a/img924/2944/KJpfLz.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img921/7238/OWn9mY.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img924/5649/mGhtpX.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img924/6222/jqvweA.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img921/9307/mhx6dK.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img921/411/290Hbe.jpg
I picked this up for $1250 about a week ago. Given the price and what I knew to be the average going rate for a 91, I picked it up despite sticking my finger into the chamber area and having it come out dirty. It was on consignment, and the old fart who owned it apparently never bothered to clean it. Likely a 2 owner gun as he'd had it for 15 or so years while this gun's an IB date coded one. I was told that he was originally asking $1850 for it, but got talked down. He's old, has worsening Parkinson's, and is looking to dump a lot of his more demanding stuff since he can only shoot the lighter weapons at this point.
Brought it home and took a few passes at it cleaning, and the chamber face and that area of the receiver were utterly filthy, but it looks like the chamber itself and bore were more or less clean. What I have now is as pictured: That stuff WILL NOT come off. I have Flitz on the way to really get that crap off and see exactly what I'm dealing with. Haven't shot it yet.
Any idea on how much that pitting on the chamber face might affect shooting? The barrel is stamped "IBLU." I'm assuming that means 81, but what's the LU? Would it be a good idea to buy another bolt head along with some spare parts? If the bolt head isn't a matching date code but is one of the new German ones from HK parts would I help or hurt the value?
I'd been considering a PTR91 for a while, but that was on the backburner until I saw an HK91 for the price of a PTR. Given the condition, what'd I get myself into here, folks?
Thanks for reading and thanks for your help.
- Price: $1250
- Bore: Looks pretty great. Possible VERY shallow pitting in one of the grooves for well under an inch of it, or some especially tough carbon fouling, or me seeing things. Rest of the bore shines bright and rifling is about as good as any new gun I've ever seen.
- Function: As much of a PITA to cycle by hand as any other G3-pattern rifle. Feels exactly as it should as far as I know.
- Bolt Gap: 0.25-0.30mm
- Bolt head: Lots of staining. Hitting it with Flitz gun cleaner on Sunday when it comes in. Scrubbing the hell out of it with Hoppe's 9 and a brass brush does nothing anymore. Very shallow pitting, and probably hardly any deeper (if it indeed is any deeper) than the tooling marks on the bolt. To be felt, I had to run a cleaning pick over it and then I could feel increased roughness and resistance in dragging the pick at the pits.
- Bolt face: Lots of staining and some pitting, but doesn't appear much deeper than bolt head pitting.
- Chamber face: Good GOD what kind of hell it is to clean this without the right tool... Still messy and stained, also deeper pitting than on bolt head and face. Hope it won't impact anything. Need Flitz to clean off the staining but I feel that the pitting will be somewhat deeper here.
- Finish: Probably 90%-95%. Scuffs, dings, and scratches a little, but other than that in great shape I'd say.
http://imageshack.com/a/img924/2944/KJpfLz.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img921/7238/OWn9mY.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img924/5649/mGhtpX.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img924/6222/jqvweA.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img921/9307/mhx6dK.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img921/411/290Hbe.jpg
I picked this up for $1250 about a week ago. Given the price and what I knew to be the average going rate for a 91, I picked it up despite sticking my finger into the chamber area and having it come out dirty. It was on consignment, and the old fart who owned it apparently never bothered to clean it. Likely a 2 owner gun as he'd had it for 15 or so years while this gun's an IB date coded one. I was told that he was originally asking $1850 for it, but got talked down. He's old, has worsening Parkinson's, and is looking to dump a lot of his more demanding stuff since he can only shoot the lighter weapons at this point.
Brought it home and took a few passes at it cleaning, and the chamber face and that area of the receiver were utterly filthy, but it looks like the chamber itself and bore were more or less clean. What I have now is as pictured: That stuff WILL NOT come off. I have Flitz on the way to really get that crap off and see exactly what I'm dealing with. Haven't shot it yet.
Any idea on how much that pitting on the chamber face might affect shooting? The barrel is stamped "IBLU." I'm assuming that means 81, but what's the LU? Would it be a good idea to buy another bolt head along with some spare parts? If the bolt head isn't a matching date code but is one of the new German ones from HK parts would I help or hurt the value?
I'd been considering a PTR91 for a while, but that was on the backburner until I saw an HK91 for the price of a PTR. Given the condition, what'd I get myself into here, folks?
Thanks for reading and thanks for your help.
1 - 20 of 23 Posts
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I posted on a gun-focused facebook group I'm in and I was threatened with death should I not buy it, but I'm still exceedingly particular about my guns (thanks, OCD). Given that it may be the most valuable gun I own now, I'd love to get ahead of the game and keep it in as superb shape as possible, but get fun out of it. Really excited to shoot the only gun in the world that fires two deadly metal projectiles in perpendicular directions when the trigger is pulled. Some folks claim their brass is still in low orbit.
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1,183 Posts
Going to a gun show this weekend, hoping for a find like this. My bank account disagrees after that RR mp5 I just bought though. Maybe that guy with the SL8 and extras for $1500 will be back.
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1,143 Posts
Congrats on a great deal.
I got mine for a little over $400 less than you did, same date code. My brother didn't know what it was until I explained it to him, at which point he threatened that if I didn't buy it immediately, then he would.
Needless to say, I couldn't let that happen.
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85 Posts
Outstanding!!
Love to hear stories of HK's finding new loving homes.
Love to hear stories of HK's finding new loving homes.
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Yeah, what he said!
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977 Posts
+1, posting a dirty bolt head and not the rest is like posting a rusty carburetor from a 68' barn-find Charger and not the car itself
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96 Posts
Jealous doesnt even domit justice!
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Here you go, my dudes.
http://imageshack.com/a/img923/3244/tcKuyf.jpg
EDIT: Jesus that pic quality is horrific. But you get it: It's a 91 in good shape.
Took some Flitz to her, especially the bolt head to remove the pitting. Staining's still there, but the pitting is now more or less gone. NEARLY lost the HK eagle waffenamt (I'm calling it that from my WWII collecting experience, don't know if that's what it's still called), but it still shows very faintly if you look at it under the right light and angle.
I have before and after pictures of the bolt head for records in case anyone buying in the future doubts the authenticity.
Hopefully taking it out to shoot tomorrow. Have some 762 NATO but would like to know if I can use .308 if the headspace is good on the rifle. I know .308 can be dangerous, but I heard that if your headspace is tight enough you'll be good.
http://imageshack.com/a/img923/3244/tcKuyf.jpg
EDIT: Jesus that pic quality is horrific. But you get it: It's a 91 in good shape.
Took some Flitz to her, especially the bolt head to remove the pitting. Staining's still there, but the pitting is now more or less gone. NEARLY lost the HK eagle waffenamt (I'm calling it that from my WWII collecting experience, don't know if that's what it's still called), but it still shows very faintly if you look at it under the right light and angle.
I have before and after pictures of the bolt head for records in case anyone buying in the future doubts the authenticity.
Hopefully taking it out to shoot tomorrow. Have some 762 NATO but would like to know if I can use .308 if the headspace is good on the rifle. I know .308 can be dangerous, but I heard that if your headspace is tight enough you'll be good.
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19 Posts
When'd you get it, in 1970?
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