TL;DR version: Worth it. Satisfied. Recommended.

So a week or so back I sent of a bunch of PTR rifles to Bill Springfield for some work. Specifically, I wanted these PTR rifles to have the paddle magazine release installed. PTR rifles of newer manufacture now come with this paddle release, but prior to that pretty much all HKlone rifles did not have it. The reason why the paddle mag release was left out on semi-auto guns is covered elsewhere.

So when looking for someone to do the paddle release conversion, Mr Springfields name is the one that came up the most. He had a reputation for good work and quick turnaround time. (And in these uncertain times, the last thing I wanted was a handful of useless PTR halves that used to be complete and functional rifles because someone was taking their time doing the work on them.)

So I contacted Mr Springfield, told him what I had, what I needed, and was he in a position to take in a buncha PTRs and get them back to me in a timely manner? He replied in the affirmative and the deal was struck.

So, I got them back today and it’s time to see how they came out. This is really not something I’m and expert at…I know very little about machining and welding. But..I can tell if a gun is working properly or not, so I’ve got that going for me…which is nice. How do they function? Seem to function just fine. Mag locks in, mag comes out. Of course I’ll take them to the range and fire a few mags out of each one just to be sure, but so far it seems like a pretty solid job.

I also had Mr Springfield send along a trigger pack that has his trigger work done on it. The G3 series has a fabulously unpleasant trigger. It’s my understanding that this was because the German military had, as part of its testing requirements, a drop test where an un-Safe’d gun had to be dropped from a height of 12′ and not go off. The designers of the G3 apparently decided to build in a bit of safety margin and as a result we get a trigger that is not conducive to terrific marksmanship.

I pulled the trigger pack out of my ‘hunting’ PTR and dropped in the improved trigger. A very welcome and very noticeable change. Barely any take up, no creep, and a nice clean(er) break. Definitely a more advantageous trigger to have on the scoped gun.

A word about economics: a new paddle mag release PTR dealers out at around $1100. This means that if you purchased your PTR several years ago when they were in the $700-800 range, it makes more sense to send the rifle out for a week and have the paddle conversion done than buying the newer rifle. (Unless your PTR is old enough that it has the older style chamber fluting as well, in which case then it makes more sense to buy the newer.) All of my paddle-less PTR’s were in the sub $850 range, with my last one being $400 which really makes the conversion a no-brainer. If you really want a PTR, either buy a new one with the paddle release OR get an older one at a cheap enough price that the $200~ for the conversion still puts you ahead of the game.

All in all, I’m pleased. Communication was good, turnaround was good, and quality of work seems good. I’ve nothing to really complain about. If you have an older PTR that doesnt have the paddle mag release and you want to upgrade to something much more convenient to use, I can recommend Mr Springfield based on my experience thus far.