By Jim Dickson | Contributing Writer
In the 1960’s it became apparent that the new rifle cartridge for the Western powers was the 5.56mm/.223 Remington cartridge, so H&K scaled down their 7.62mm NATO G3 rifle to the new intermediate caliber round.
Now comes the PTR63 semi-auto version, and it is a winner. While the H&K33 was selective fire, the PTR63 is semi-auto only although it does have the full auto selector position for looks though it only fires semi-auto from it.
A little background: The G3 was the most reliable 7.62mm NATO rifle ever to see widespread service and they were determined that the scaled down version would be the most reliable 5.56mm rifle ever made. This was particularly important given the M16 rifle’s horrible functioning problems when it was first fielded in the Viet Nam War.
I will never forget the first military M16 I ever saw from that time. It could not stop jamming whether it was squeaky clean or dirty. It could not be made to function reliably. In later years, after the military claimed to have fixed the problem with the M16A1, I asked Colonel George Chinn, acknowledged as the military’s greatest expert on the different mechanisms used in machineguns and the author of the four volume work THE MACHINEGUN on them that the Bureau of Naval Ordnance kept classified for years, what he thought of the M16. His reply was loud and emphatic. “Jim, ANYBODY can build a better gun than the M16!”
Well, H&K not only built a better gun than the M16 they succeeded in building the most reliable 5.56 military rifle ever made. The H&K33.
The H&K33 also handles recoil better than the M16. While the M16 has a negligible recoil you can still feel it if you look for it while I cannot feel any recoil whatsoever when firing the H&K33. On full auto, the H&K33 was drastically more controllable than the M16 or it’s later variant, the M4 carbine. This is a life and death matter on the battlefield.
First made in 1968, the H&K33 went on to be used by 33 countries. It was also made under license by Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey which still makes it at MKEK, Turkey’s state owned defense manufacturer.
I remember when U.S. Army Ordnance got a hold of the H&K33 for test and evaluation. The men doing the testing were amazed at how much more reliable the H&K33 was than the M16 under the worst conditions and some of them couldn’t wait to get the semi-auto civilian legal version as soon as they were imported.
Today PTR has added their version of the H&K33 to their line of G3 rifles that they make on the old Portuguese machinery that Portugal used to make the G3 under license from H&K. Designated the PTR63 it is the finest 5.56mm semi-automatic rifle that you can buy today.
I got the first rifle shipped from the factory loaned to me for this review. The rifle differs from the H&K33 in that it takes MIL-Spec M16 magazines just as some of the last H&K33 rifles did. Please note that many commercial magazines are not made to MIL-Specs and this has caused some problems with reliability in the various AR15 type guns out there. A magazine well-made sufficiently oversize to accommodate all the magazines out there will be too loose for proper functioning resulting in feeding jams when the magazine is too far to the rear in the oversize magazine well.
The original H&K33 came with a 40-round magazine that was superior to the M16 magazine but as they were never made in the quantity of the M16 magazines they cost more leading to some of the last H&K33’s being made to accept the common M16 magazine as did PTR. This type of rifle uses a lot of magazines and the cost difference adds up fast. One of the axioms of combat is to always carry all your ammo in loaded magazines. You can’t afford to be trying to load magazines when other people are shooting at you and trying to close with you.
As noted above, while the H&K33 was selective fire, the PTR63 is semi-auto only.
PTR has also made a stronger bolt catch to improve the life of this part and they made improvements to the buffer. Like the 7.62 NATO G3 that PTR makes, the PTR63 is not sensitive to what it is fed and it happily functions with all military and commercial 5.56 and .223 loads. They have also added a paddle type magazine release for easier use. Critical parts are made from case hardened 8620 steel and every part is engineered for the longest life possible for PTR knows that this type gun is one that many people will stake their life on when the situation turns violent. Of all the 5.56MM assault rifles this is certainly the one that I would choose in a life or death situation.
After picking the PTR63 loaned to me for review at Reeves Ace Hardware in Clayton, Georgia I settled down to shoot it. I had 800 rounds consisting of:
- 500 rounds of Black Hills 77 grain OTM match ammo at 2750 FPS
- 200 rounds of Privi Partizan 55 grain FMJ BT at 3240 FPS
- 100 rounds of Hornady 62 grain FMJ Black at 3100 FPS
The rifle had no preference among these three bullet weights shooting them all accurately with no detectable recoil no matter how hard I tried to feel it. You might as well be shooting a .22LR for all the recoil you get but it hits with the power of a 5.56 NATO round.
Like all the H&K family of weapons, it is superbly accurate and there are no wood bedding issues of wood shrinking or swelling and affecting where the bullet strikes. Just consistent pin point accuracy whether you are in the arctic, jungle, or desert. They deliver the bullets right where you need them to go.
The test rifle weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces on my grocery scales and measured 38 3/8 inches overall with a 16 ½ -inch barrel. The rifling was smooth and well cut. A Bore Tech bore light with a slim extended Lucite barrel insert from Brownell’s enabled a more detailed inspection than bore lights with a shorter insert. It had a good trigger pull that broke at 10 pounds as measured by a Lyman mechanical trigger pull gauge from Brownell’s Gunsmith Supply.
There is a Picatinny rail on the top of the receiver for scope mounting and the fore end is a modern M-LOK type enabling a variety of accessories to be mounted at will. Provision is made for the mounting of a sling and like all the H&K family of weapons, there are the 2 holes in the stock to hold the take-down pins when the rifle is disassembled for cleaning lest these critical small parts get lost in the field. Like it’s big brother, the G3 the PTR63 handles well in the hands and holds steady on target for precise off hand shooting.
For anyone wanting a high capacity magazine 5.56mm NATO caliber rifle this is by far the best choice.
For the hunter, this gun will do anything that any other gun in this caliber will but it will do it more reliably under the worst conditions. When dealing with herds of wild hogs, wild dog, coyote, or wolf packs, the high capacity magazine is a must. If they are trying to get away you need to get all of them and if they are coming at you, as has been known to happen, you had better be able to get all of them before they get to you. For the man who expects his firearm to do double duty as a weapon of defense just as all the pioneers of this country expected their rifles to do then this is simply the best weapon in its caliber available.
If you want more power PTR also makes this type of gun in 7.62mm NATO as well as versions in 7.62X39 and 9MM Parabellum. Whatever the power rifle you want, PTR has you covered in the most reliable semi-auto design commercially available. This is important as we live in an increasingly turbulent world where the lever action and bolt action designs simply do not have the firepower that modern conflicts increasingly require.
It just makes sense to have guns that do double duty as sporting and defense guns in the best tradition of American firearms for you never know what the future might bring.
