or delivered?

Is it close to 20k??

Since Secaucus NJ (and including every iteration of the AUG, to include receivers and police imports) I would guess 18K

Not to far off.

Special recievers were never imported as complete rifles, correct?
(This was a debate with another AUG owner.)

IWI-US must have really been burning the midnight oil to
produce 20,000 rifles and distribute them in a year...

In what length of time?  Not trying to poke fun or anything, just curiosity.  Also, there seem to be more AUG varieties, and I'm sure tooling up to produce the different varieties eat time (vs. the "2 barrels, 2 colors" of the Tavor).

It was really quite an accomplishment.  20,000 "new", primarily trouble free rifles.

Since the early 80s or late 70s whenever they started importing them. They got burned quite a few times so I think that added to their cautious nature. The following is a roadmap of speed bumps the AUG has had by my recollection. (I appologize in advance if any of my memories are wrong it happens sometimes)

*The AUG was banned by name in many states following democrats seeing Die Hard and promptly shitting themselves, and then from importation in general before the AWB even passed.

* Then they made the USR to still import something and I believe it was a huge flop (I could be wrong) because its ugly and ban neutured.

* Ten year time gap from Styer not wanting to get burned again.

* After seeing TPD and MSAR making money I think that changed their mind and then they partnered with Sabre for 922r compliance parts.  Then Sabre got raided by the ATF and ceased to be. Funny part of that is if I remember correctly Sabre got in trouble for not doing the proper paper work to ship MGs to Britain's military to use overseas in a war they were helping us with .

* I seem to recall during this time period that Styer was planning on making the AUG A3 more of a limited run and was making distributors buy x number of other Styer stuff for every A3 they would send them which all styer shooting themselves in the foot in that instance if this memory is accurate.

* Styer decides Voltor will be their new partner and has to make sure their work is up to their standard plus get back their seized property from the ATF.

Now they seem to be up to speed finally on AUG making plus who knows maybe their new US factory will make stuff eventually. They might have a deal that has to run its course with Voltor besides that for all I know.

All that said I love my tavor a lot I finally got my magnifier for my IDF one of these days I'll do a review on that. Maybe someday I will get a AUG to keep it company as well.

Oh and every QUALITY bullpup sold is a good thing. It makes the design concept more commonly accepted which means we are more likely to see slick new bullpups in the future instead of only countless AR derivatives.

what I don't get is how come AUG didn't more faster?

And how come IWI/Tavor did?

Marketing?  Or timing?

Or product features more compatible with AR, big US winner?

So you have a WIW Tovar I see.

Why didn't it move faster? Understanding the history behind the AUG would explain it pretty clearly.

The semi auto US market AUG was sold in the USA since 1981 when Steyr in Secaucus NJ imported them. The A1 importer then moved to Interarms and soon thereafter to Gun South, where it stayed for quite a time.

Then in 1989 George Bush issued an executive order that stopped importation of many guns including the AUG A1, A2, 9MM, and SR.
Up to that point there were about 8000 AUG's. For an eight year period, Steyr was sending AUG's to the USA. The price of the AUG in 1984 *on sale* was $569. Thirty round mags were $14.95. In that same time period an HK 91 was $450 and the AR15 even substantially cheaper.
Every AUG imported in the 80's was sold. 8,000 guns at a pretty high price in the 80's was pretty good.

In 1997 Steyr was able to send in one shipment of 3000 USR's. It was one shipment only because Bill Clinton stopped further importation.
Every single USR brought into the USA was sold.

A few importers brought in A2 receivers and many parts kits. All of those were sold as well. Barrels, stocks, bolts, etc, all sold.
The receivers were banned from import as were barrels thanks to George W Bush.

In 2008 Steyr was able to bring back the AUG via Sabre Defence. The first AUG's were sold from January 2009 until October 2010. 3,000 AUG's were manufactured by Sabre Defence until the ATF raided SDI for arms trafficking. All the parts for the AUG were seized by the ATF and later sold. Every single AUG produced during that time was sold.

Seeing a pattern here?

Someone purchased the AUG parts seized by the ATF. That person was Pete Athens.

In August 2012 Steyr began manufacturing and selling the AUG once again. The parts that were seized and the person who bought them are the reason why the AUG came back so quickly in 2012.

Since August 2012 until today about 5000 AUG's have been produced and sold by Steyr.

As of the first of the year, Steyr has been in a new manufacturing facility which will allow increased production of all models of the AUG.

So you ask why didn't the AUG move faster?
I don't see what the issue is. The AUG has been moving as fast as possible. The US government has done nearly everything in their power to make sure that the AUG is not sold to its citizens.
Steyr on the other hand has been doing EVERYTHING in its power to give the US citizens the AUG and every part, color, and option requested.

The Steyr AUG is a high quality fine weapon. Those who know, know. Those who don't, well they buy the latest kool aid flavor. No problem for me... more AUG's for me.

So basically, Steyr should have poured more dough into its lobby to buy Congress/POTUS?  Austria/Steyr lobby/PAC?

XLNT exposition of Steyr history.

THANKS!

Sabre Defence was doing more than bad paperwork. Sending machine guns out of the US hidden in shipments and bringing in stashed Finnish suppressors into the US is a bit more than bad paperwork.

am I correct in my assessment that AUG mounts faster compared to Tavor?

Never heard the suppressor part that is pretty bad.

Also, remember, back then there wasn't the "buy it while you can" mentality that exists today, post all the bans they put in place...in the 70's and 80's it was pretty much assumed "Well, I'll always be able to buy one of those, right?"

Then the 89 import ban came...then the various other import restrictions of the early 90's and 922(r)...then the 94 AWB...and who knows when the next one will be, what it will effect, and how long it will last (if not permanent).

Now the environment is much much different. The "better get it now before it gets banned again!" mentality is driving a LOT of sales, especially of things that didn't exist prior to the bans.

The funny thing is, had none of those bans gone into play...I seriously doubt the huge "explosion" in our hobby (for lack of a better word) would have taken off nearly as much as it did in 2004-2005 at the end of the AWB, and onwards. While H&Ks and original AUGs still might be imported had the bans never happened, and even the Tavor and others...I seriously doubt their sales figures would be anywhere _near_ what they stand at today without those bans trying to kill them off.

I think that's probably pretty accurate. One of my first thoughts last year in January or so when the Democrats started pushing for bans after Sandy Hook was that i'd never end up getting my hands on a Tavor. Anymore, after all the attempts? If I see something I want that's gun related? I buy it.

You never cease to amaze with your knowledge, Maleante.  

 

Thanks.

The AUG has always been sort of an exclusive firearm due to being foreign, a bullpup, and having a high price.
The price isn't going down anytime soon due to how it is made, imported, and sold. Find Pete's post explaining the 9mm kit pricing.

Historically the AUG is not a gun that depreciates in value, but once in a while you can find a used A3 for a hundred or so less than a brand new A3.

Fuckin' A that's some good information. Although I'm not sure I like the pattern involving the .gov with nearly every disappearance of the AUG.

I also happen to have one of those 3,000 from Sabre Defense.

The AUG is a very high quality weapon and the design is nothing short
of an engineering masterpiece in my opinion.

Truly an amazing firearms design

+1

Can we tack this to the top?  Really great info in here!

Any idea how many MSAR's? For many people that wanted an Aug, they ended up with a MSAR. So it could add to the total sales numbers. There is no Tavor clone so everyone that wanted a Tavor can only get the IWI.

Whant do you mean. How many people bought a aug thinking its a tavor?

GOOD NEWS!  

Once bullpup market reaches critical mass, popularity of bullpup design should increase even more!

The problem is that critical mass when reached must have a strongly positive reaction from the users/owners...18k MSAR rifles is a crapshoot.  For many, that was their first and probably only exposure to bullpups, and when the QC issues, trunion issues, and magazine issues are all combined, how many of those 18000 people are truly *happy* about the purchase and how many would be willing to risk trying something so different again?

AR15.com does not accurately reflect the rest of the world...it doesn't even come close.

I don't think anybody did.  He was talking about how people who wanted an AUG, could have bought a MSAR.  Since there are no Tavor clones, they can only buy IWI.

IE, If you want a P7M8, you can only buy a P7M8.  If you want a "Colt 45", you can buy one from a hundred different manufacturers.

I sold my AUG. It was a great weapon but in the end the lack of a mod to avoid brass-face off weak-side shooting drove me nuts. When i saw how easily MSAR solved the problem... (of all people ..MSAR!!)


and the fact that I couldn't buy one drove me to switch out to a SBR AR.

If Steyr ever makes a brass deflector for the AUG I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

Another vendor and big supporter is making one for the AUG, it is almost ready.

Alot of weapons aren't made for lefty's, I know of two guys in the Hungarian army who got cuts on their faces from AK's shooting it left hand,  a fluke.......who knows.

Wow great history lesson in here. I had no idea that the Aug had such a hard time here. And that there isn't a lot of them out there. An Aug w/ a NATO stock is on my buy list. But I've gotten spent way too much money on this hobby lately so I might have to wait a until later this year or next year.

Had no idea Augs were so cheap in the mid 80s...   I was still in junior high at that time.   However, by the time the USR rolled in around the mid-90s, they were $1400.  I am surprised they sold 3k of them because I don't remember them moving very fast.   You could buy 4-5 SLR95s for that and they were less ugly even with their butthole stocks.

I also don't remember the Sabre guns being a fast sale either, I think people were still content buying AR-15s after the ban expired.

How many Sabre guns were made?  I seem to recall about 2k but not sure.

Cheap? That was about the same price as a Colt M16, or HK9x series back then...~1300 in today's money...not exactly cheap then, or today

Today it's a little more expensive than parity because of material costs, import costs, etc. If everything were roughly equal today to back then, I'd expect prices to be broadly similar....sadly, raw materials cost more, labor costs more (comparatively), taxes are higher, etc....