Hi All,
I purchased a PTR9C a couple months ago and wanted to ring it out a bit before writing anything online. It was a bit of a rough start. As soon as I bought the gun, I started the “break in” process. Everything was great until round number 60. On round 60, the bolt got stuck halfway back and would not budge. It was a severe failure. I had to disassemble the gun in order to get the bolt to move at all and still could not get the gun to cycle or function. Enter PTR customer service....I called PTR and a gentleman by the name of Eddie answered. I explained the problem and within an hour I had a return mailing label printed and the gun went back to them the next day. It took them just shy of 2 weeks to fix and return the gun to my home. They replaced the ejector, extractor, grip, and test fired 60 rounds. I headed back to the range and put another 170ish flawless rounds through the gun. With just shy of 300 total rounds through the gun, I headed to an all day PCC/sub gun class this last Saturday. Total round count for the class was close to 500 for the day. Gun ran great with a mixture of 124gr HST, Gold Dot, Blazer Brass, and 115 gr Fiocchi ammo.
3 of us in the class had HK MP5 style guns. 1 had the real deal MP5 and MP5SD, 1 had a SP5K and I had my lil PTR9C. I must say, the folks with the HK style guns had the most success with their guns all day. They were flawless across the board....and the PTR was the same....save for 6 failures throughout the day and ALL were because of the ETS mags that came with the gun (we will discuss those in a bit). The PTR9C proved very accurate and the attached Picatinny rail allows cowitness with the red dot sight using a low mount. I used a Holosun for the class (just to try it out), but my aimpoint H1 will be going back on the gun very soon. I tried to attach my normal 2-point sling to the gun on the morning of the class and realized that the PTR handguard doesn’t have a qd attach point. Well, PTR includes a single point sling with the PTR9C. Because I couldn't get my normal 2-point sling attached, I was forced to use the included single point sling for the class. It’s not that bad....actually I really came to like the sling. Single point slings are not my normal preference (gun tends to hit me in the junk when transitioning quickly to a backup handgun). As long as one is conscious of this issue and avoids it, the sling is comfy and useable for shooting off both shoulders. I’m thinking this single point sling will be staying on the gun for future use.
Now for those ETS mags....The failure goes like this: Gun is running fine and then ”click“, you think the mag is empty and go to change the mag. As ETS mag clears the mag well, a round drops free of the gun and you can see that there are 2-6 rounds still in the magazine. What appears to be happening is that when the magazine has a low round count in it, the spring is not strong enough to feed the next round (or the feed lips are too thick) and the bolt just rides over the next round in the mag and doesn’t feed (but knocks the round slightly free of the mag). Gun goes “click” on an empty chamber and when you pull the magazine free, the loose round just falls out. After 3 times with one ETS magazine, I put it back in my range bag. After 3 more times with the other ETS magazine, it went back in my range bag. I finished the day with the 3 oem HK magazines I have. Of course the HK mags were 100% reliable in the gun all day (do I even need to say it??).
I spoke to Eddie at PTR on Monday and he sent me out two new magazines. Once again, PTR’s customer support is top notch. The two new mags are metal KCI Gen 2 mags. They both lock up tight (one very easily and the other takes a bit of effort but eventually locks up). I will test out the KCI mags and let you all know how they run. My current two ETS mags will be relegated to range/training use only. I think eventually I’ll grab 3 more oem HK mags (but I gotta save my pennies up for those).
I have shot the factory HK MP5s quite a bit when I was younger, though this PTR is my first experience owning this type of firearm and I must say, I love it. The gun’s performance in the class has given me a lot of confidence in the platform and PTR has supported their product very well. I plan on shooting this thing much much more.
After training in the class, I want a couple minor modifications. I definitely think an extended ambi safety selector would be beneficial. Also, a magazine coupler would be a big plus if I ever decide to use this gun for defensive purposes. I think I will also be switching out the handguard to a Midwest industries handguard at some point in the future (mainly because it looks cooler). I had plans to sbr this gun, but I gotta say, the SB tactical brace is so comfortable and quick, there is no reason to go through the hassle. I will be leaving it as a pistol.
I know this was a bit long winded, but hopefully you all enjoyed the read. Maybe this will help anyone who is on the fence about a PTR. I must say I really like the gun and how they have supported their product. I would definitely purchase from them again.
Cheers
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I purchased a PTR9C a couple months ago and wanted to ring it out a bit before writing anything online. It was a bit of a rough start. As soon as I bought the gun, I started the “break in” process. Everything was great until round number 60. On round 60, the bolt got stuck halfway back and would not budge. It was a severe failure. I had to disassemble the gun in order to get the bolt to move at all and still could not get the gun to cycle or function. Enter PTR customer service....I called PTR and a gentleman by the name of Eddie answered. I explained the problem and within an hour I had a return mailing label printed and the gun went back to them the next day. It took them just shy of 2 weeks to fix and return the gun to my home. They replaced the ejector, extractor, grip, and test fired 60 rounds. I headed back to the range and put another 170ish flawless rounds through the gun. With just shy of 300 total rounds through the gun, I headed to an all day PCC/sub gun class this last Saturday. Total round count for the class was close to 500 for the day. Gun ran great with a mixture of 124gr HST, Gold Dot, Blazer Brass, and 115 gr Fiocchi ammo.
3 of us in the class had HK MP5 style guns. 1 had the real deal MP5 and MP5SD, 1 had a SP5K and I had my lil PTR9C. I must say, the folks with the HK style guns had the most success with their guns all day. They were flawless across the board....and the PTR was the same....save for 6 failures throughout the day and ALL were because of the ETS mags that came with the gun (we will discuss those in a bit). The PTR9C proved very accurate and the attached Picatinny rail allows cowitness with the red dot sight using a low mount. I used a Holosun for the class (just to try it out), but my aimpoint H1 will be going back on the gun very soon. I tried to attach my normal 2-point sling to the gun on the morning of the class and realized that the PTR handguard doesn’t have a qd attach point. Well, PTR includes a single point sling with the PTR9C. Because I couldn't get my normal 2-point sling attached, I was forced to use the included single point sling for the class. It’s not that bad....actually I really came to like the sling. Single point slings are not my normal preference (gun tends to hit me in the junk when transitioning quickly to a backup handgun). As long as one is conscious of this issue and avoids it, the sling is comfy and useable for shooting off both shoulders. I’m thinking this single point sling will be staying on the gun for future use.
Now for those ETS mags....The failure goes like this: Gun is running fine and then ”click“, you think the mag is empty and go to change the mag. As ETS mag clears the mag well, a round drops free of the gun and you can see that there are 2-6 rounds still in the magazine. What appears to be happening is that when the magazine has a low round count in it, the spring is not strong enough to feed the next round (or the feed lips are too thick) and the bolt just rides over the next round in the mag and doesn’t feed (but knocks the round slightly free of the mag). Gun goes “click” on an empty chamber and when you pull the magazine free, the loose round just falls out. After 3 times with one ETS magazine, I put it back in my range bag. After 3 more times with the other ETS magazine, it went back in my range bag. I finished the day with the 3 oem HK magazines I have. Of course the HK mags were 100% reliable in the gun all day (do I even need to say it??).
I spoke to Eddie at PTR on Monday and he sent me out two new magazines. Once again, PTR’s customer support is top notch. The two new mags are metal KCI Gen 2 mags. They both lock up tight (one very easily and the other takes a bit of effort but eventually locks up). I will test out the KCI mags and let you all know how they run. My current two ETS mags will be relegated to range/training use only. I think eventually I’ll grab 3 more oem HK mags (but I gotta save my pennies up for those).
I have shot the factory HK MP5s quite a bit when I was younger, though this PTR is my first experience owning this type of firearm and I must say, I love it. The gun’s performance in the class has given me a lot of confidence in the platform and PTR has supported their product very well. I plan on shooting this thing much much more.
After training in the class, I want a couple minor modifications. I definitely think an extended ambi safety selector would be beneficial. Also, a magazine coupler would be a big plus if I ever decide to use this gun for defensive purposes. I think I will also be switching out the handguard to a Midwest industries handguard at some point in the future (mainly because it looks cooler). I had plans to sbr this gun, but I gotta say, the SB tactical brace is so comfortable and quick, there is no reason to go through the hassle. I will be leaving it as a pistol.
I know this was a bit long winded, but hopefully you all enjoyed the read. Maybe this will help anyone who is on the fence about a PTR. I must say I really like the gun and how they have supported their product. I would definitely purchase from them again.
Cheers
