2012 Steyr AUG A3 (vltor)

[Barry in IN]

I've never been a bullpup fan. The usually feel all goofy to me. But...I've only held an AUG perhaps five times ever, and every single time, I am surprised all over again at how good the AUG feels.
I never let myself get too carried away by it because by the time I started taking AUGs seriously, they brought too much money for me to take seriously.

The last time I was tempted was by one of the somewhat goofed-up USRs back whenever they were made (10 years ago? longer?), and while I don't recall the price, it was a lot. It might have cost at least what these new ones cost.

So I emailed Pete a couple of days ago and got on the list.
I'm not missing the chance again.
And if I end up hating the thing, well, it's not like they don't hold their value.

[Ed L.]

The NATO stock allows you to use USGI type magazines. PMAG's can be used, but have the same problems as the Tavor and SCAR, etc. of the magazine damaging the gun. Magpul believes the M3 mag is supposed to fix that...

I have a NATO stock which I may have used once. If I remember correctly (which I am not sure that I do) the mags will not lock back on the last shot with the NATO stock.

The AUG magazines are superior in every way to a USGI, Lancer, or PMAG. Buying an AUG to use with USGI mags is like buying a porsche and putting geo metro tires on it. An AUG with inferior USGI type mags is not going to give you the reliability and dependability as with using the original magazines.

From everything I am gathering you are better off using a standard AUG stock with standard AUG mags. This is how I've run mine.

As someone who has close to 10K rounds through the AUG platform, I have to disagree about AUG mags being better than AR mags when comparing magazines to magazines.

Take a loaded metal AR MAG, a PMAG, and an AUG mag and give each a light wack on the bottom and increase the force of the wacks and see which one sends the top round flying out. That is their one drawback.

Don't get me wrong, my AUG and AUG mags are fine and I have run the AUG in 3 carbine classes: 1 Pat Rogers, 1 Larry Vickers, & 1 Spartan Tactical.

When you consider all of the info in this thread, it sounds like you would be much better getting the AUG and running AUG mags.

[Ed L.]

I did have encounter an issue with the new US made AUG mags with an AUGa3 that I got to T&E.

As soon as I tried these magazines in the gun I noticed that they would not lock into the magwell without a hard whap on the bottom. The result was the same in my own Austrian built AUG A2.

This is a problem because slapping the bottom of a magazine can make the top round pop out into the open chamber and cause a doublefeed when the bolt is released and it picks up an additional round from the magazine. AUG mags are far more vulnerable to this than AR mags. This is why it’s always best practice to tilt the AUG to the side so that its ejection port faces the ground before releasing the charging handle. This allows any loose rounds in the chamber to fall out. The Australian Army Manual of Land Warfare (Volume 4, Small Arms) emphasizes this point.

[JSGlock34]

I did have encounter an issue with the new US made AUG mags with an AUGa3 that I got to T&E.

As soon as I tried these magazines in the gun I noticed that they would not lock into the magwell without a hard whap on the bottom. The result was the same in my own Austrian built AUG A2.

This is a problem because slapping the bottom of a magazine can make the top round pop out into the open chamber and cause a doublefeed when the bolt is released and it picks up an additional round from the magazine. AUG mags are far more vulnerable to this than AR mags. This is why it’s always best practice to tilt the AUG to the side so that its ejection port faces the ground before releasing the charging handle. This allows any loose rounds in the chamber to fall out. The Australian Army Manual of Land Warfare (Volume 4, Small Arms) emphasizes this point.

I seem to recall that the first batch of US mags assembled by Sabre had out of spec springs.

[Ed L.]

I think it was the magazine bodies or the feed lips that were a tiny bit thicker that caused this issue. I am not sure that the springs would do that. Whatever it was, the mags did not slide in as easily as European AUG mags, which could be an issue for the reasons I described.

If they recognized it and changed the mags back to the Europen dimensions that would be fantastic, since I never had an issue with them.

[bondmid003]

I just placed an order with Pete for a standard model and the big selling point to me was that it could be configured for the left handed bolt while a NATO model cannot (currently)

[Skang]

I also like the standard model (non extended rail). How much did you pay?

[Barry in IN]

I also like the standard model (non extended rail). How much did you pay?

He priced them to me at:
$1950 with one 30-rd mag, or:
$2000 with 2 mags, case, cleaning kit, muzzle cap, and sling

I went with the package deal.

This is the standard AUG A3 btw, not the NATO or CQC he is also getting.

[spr1]

Not to be a party pooper, but don't these have about a 10 lb trigger pull? The couple I played with decades ago sure did.

[Skang]

He priced them to me at:
$1950 with one 30-rd mag, or:
$2000 with 2 mags, case, cleaning kit, muzzle cap, and sling

I went with the package deal.

This is the standard AUG A3 btw, not the NATO or CQC he is also getting.

package deal sound better, what is the standard a3 look like? just top rail right? no extended front rail.