Thinking about the basic GI model, .308...do not want a rail, prefer the irons. I handled one and I liked the sights. The rear drum is more of a ghost ring with a relatively wide aperture.

This one had green synthetic furniture and I think, a metal trigger group. A bit awkward as far as the controls but if the weapon is reliable I'll get used to it. I heard they were fairly accurate for a battle rifle.

Any opinions, advice would be appreciated.

I had a GI model for a while and liked it for what it was. It was completely reliable with a wide range of ammo. Accuracy wasn't great with ~150gr milsurp or quality handloads, but it'd shoot about 1-1.5 moa with a few different 165gr bullets in my handloads. I welded a rail on mine, but would buy the railed version if I were doing it again to have that versatility. (I haven't looked but assume the railed version still comes from PTR with irons too, that's how I set mine up.)

Speaking of handloads, these things are kinda hard on brass, but you can reload it - if you can find it. Ejection on mine was a good 30-40 feet from a standing position; the brass is a pretty substantial secondary projectile. This is not a rifle to use with Lapua brass or anything else you don't want to lose.

Expect the trigger to be pretty heavy. I lightened mine a bit and made it fairly crisp, but about 6 lb pull seemed to be about the lower limit without more serious trigger modifications.

The PTR91 is a pretty solid and dependable gun, and IMO everything the 308 AK platforms aspire to but don't quite meet, so it's a step up from the Veprs and whatnot. With that said, I switched to a 308 AR for about the same money (got ~$1100 for the PTR when I sold it, no idea what prices are now), and never regretted it. The PTR91 definitely took first place in "cool factor", but everything else I wanted in a semi-auto 308 was better served by the AR.