After the end of WWII some German designers moved to Spain so they could continue their work on the "roller locked" delayed blowback system they had been developing.
This resulted in the CETME rifle, chambered originally for the SPANISH 7.62x51mm round, which is dimensionally the same as the NATO round but loaded to a lower pressure.
After production was well established and the concept "prooved" H&K brought the design (and some of the engineers) 'home" to Germany and did whatever was needed to adapt it to the NATO round, creating the G3 series of rifles for the Bundeswehr and the H&K 91 for commercial sale, along with creating their line of roller locked designs, in other calibers.
I had an H&K 91 in the mid 80s and found it to be a robust, durable, funtional design, with a number of features that I considered to be flaws, but others (and the militaries of several nations) didn't.
Most of those were in the ergonomics, but not all.
First off, the gun is NOT reloader "friendly". The action is hard on the brass. And I'm not referring to the fluted chamber, but the violence the action cycles with. A plus in military use, much less so for a civilian reloader. My rifle would seriously dent the body of the fired case as it "wanged" it off the rear edge of the ejection port. Deep dent, with a sharp edge crease at the bottom, to the point where I was scared to try reloading it.
Bought the "ejection port buffer", a hard rubber block rivited to a spring steel clip to snap on the action. This turned the deep knife edge crease into a shallow dent, and cases could be reloaded.
I also found that MY rifle ran well on European surplus 7.62NATO ammo but less well on USGI stuff, due, I believe to the "hardness" of the brass affecting the "hang time" in the chamber. Read about how some folks would give the loaded mag a shot of WD40 just before firing, which seemed to take care of the issue. Never tried it, personally. Wouldn't recommend it for storing loaded mags, either.
Another point I disliked was the safety. Located and sized so that I could not operate it with my hand in a firing grip. Just couldn't reach it without twisting my hand halfway around the pistol grip, and then having to reposition my hand to reach the trigger. Seems that many European gun designers think that the safety is something to be operated with the non-trigger hand.
Another point (and a "flaw" to me) is that the charging handle only works ONE WAY (back). It has the advantage of folding and lying flat and not moving after use, but does not give you the option of using it to close the action, the way an M1 /M14 does. The AR design added a forward assist to "cure" that problem (lots of discussion about how well that worked out there for your entertainment
) but HK never did. (and no one seemed to demand one...
)
And finally, the two take down pins at the rear of the action are "loose" meaning not captive pins, and so subject to loss in the field, unlike the captive pins of the AR design.
The weight of my HK was as much (perhaps a little more) than my M1A though the rifle was a good 6 inches shorter. (18 vs 22" barrel was a big part of that)
I see in the linked pic that the new version has a redesigned receiver including a rail and ears for the rear sight. Fine, if that's your thing (which for many today, it is..) what boggles my mind is that the rifle has the old three prong "wait a minute" style flash suppressor!
This design was used on the early M16s in Vietnam and discarded by the US military in favor of the solid "birdcage" style, and for good reason.
I've used the old prong type, and it absolutely does what troops complained about. The open prongs snag weeds and sticks, smaller tree branches, vines, and everything else that will fit between them (including your web gear), and one frequently has to stop and "wait a minute" while you clear them out.
Seems odd to me that today, DECADES after that problem was identified and resolved that someone would put it on a gun nowdays.
I never ran anything but milsurp FMJ in mine, so can't speak to its function with soft point bullets. I had other (and better) rifles for those bullets.
They are good at what they were built to do. A bit less so at anything else. and FYI, if you do plan on reusing your brass, do keep an eye on where it goes. Brass comes out HOT (like burn your hand hot), flies about 15km (or so it seems) and is very dirty, so it immediately "hides" in any kind of ground cover or even bare sand! A good thing to keep the enemy from seeing shiny brass on the ground and locating your firing position, but a pain in the butt for civilian shooters.
These are just my opinions, based on the rifle I had, and worth what you paid for them.
If you like what you see, get one. If you like what you get, fine. If not, trade/sell it and move on to something else.
I've had an HK, an FAL, an SVT-40, and an M1A. Still have the M1A, it suits me best. Go with whatever makes you happy, not with what someone else says you "need". Life is too short, to waste on someone else's idea of happiness.
Be safe, have fun. order unimportant as long as both are included.
