11/15/2015 Update:  Fired 60 rounds of ball and reloads.  No failures of any kind.

For kicks, I bought a cheap small RDS, and put on top of the scope.  Zero'd it for 15 yards.  Seemed to work, but is a bit high.  
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_43/453107_AUG_A3M1_reflex_optic_request.html




Total Round Count: 845

Just want to make you aware that there are mixed opinions on running a Larue mount on the AUG rail...

 

That is something to worry about with the A3 AUG's due to the split / channeled top rail. The new M1 AUG's have solid top rails, the Larue will be fine. I happen to prefer Bobro mounts, so someone talk him out of the Larue.

Thanks for pointing out the difference! I have an A3 and didn't notice the difference on the M1..

 

Thanks to everyone for thier info and help. I shot my AUG today. 288 rounds of green tip and Winchester ranger soft point.  The rifle is super accurate and I had zero reliability issues today. Zeroing went very well and I spent the day shooting drills and learning how to best handle this thing. I can't wait to go back to the range and shoot it some more. It has become my favorite rifle and if I could use it instead of my work issue KAC, I would. My Only gripe is that the trigger takes some getting used to, but it's a minor point. As I get more trigger time , I'm sure it'll get better - or I'll get the aftermarket 2020 installed on it.
For magazine changes, I didn't try the 'AK rock'.  I took it off of my shoulder and did magazine changes similar to how I do M4/ pistol changes. Angle weapon up at 45 degree angle, draw magazine, release old magazine and let it drop to the ground and then reloaded. I noticed that if I slammed the new magazine into the well too hard, the top round would nose up. After a few reps I found just how much force I need to get the job done. I can't speak highly enough about this rifle .

11/22/2015 Update: Fired 125 rounds of commercial, mixed, and other random ammo.  I failure to bolt-lock on empty (very likely an ammunition issue – see below).

Todays purpose was to continue exploring the red dot holographic reflex sight (RDS), mounted atop the factory 3X optic.  Goals were to evaluate light usage durability and field usability of the cheap RDS itself, and to directly measure point of impact behavior at close quarters battle (CQB) conditions under very short range zero’s and conditions.  (i.e. engagements between 7 and 50 yards).  My main goal was to walk off with an adjusted RDS that was still working, that had a zero appropriate for some carbine shooting fun.


Recall, this is an ultra-low cost RDS, purchased for test-of-concept.  The 3X scope is zero’d for 200 yards, which is ~50 yards.  Data quality itself is somewhat iffy, as none of these shots were taken off a bench (except the one 200 yard shot).  Most were taken off-hand even.  But it’s starting data.

Rifle with cheap RDS mounted:


Same test, with ~15 yard zero.  I’m not sure I believe the 25 yard point of impact, as it seems higher than I would have expected.


Same test, but with a lighter recoiling ball handloads.  Around 20 yard zero.



Wolf gold, using the integrated 3X optic (i.e. NOT the RDS). Using 200 yard zero elevation setting.



As to what zero one should use for the RDS – I really don’t know.  My line of thought is the 3X optic is good enough for on-target for everything from 40 yards out to 220 yards.  Most CQB 3-gun/carbine shooting bays tend to be 50 yards or  less, and really tend to be about  5  - 40 yards.  So my thought is to zero the RDS for about 15-20 yards.  The difference in POI at 50 yards between a 15 yard and 20 yard zero is notable, so maybe split the difference to around 17 yards (I guess), and you’ll be within 2” of aim for most targets between about .. 9 yards to 40 yards, or thereabouts it looks like.  For the further distance, you’ll be zooming high, but for further distance, the 3X scope is going to start coming into play.  I really wish I could mount the RDS lower, as I think having it mounted so high, really limits the span that it’s useful.

As to the bolt-lock failure, that occurred on a low power reload firing a 50 gr bullet using a mild charge of a fast powder, and was very probably due to the weak ammunition.  

On a final note, if you are curious about ultra-cheap RDS, I have a separate thread on that.  In summary, I found it kept zero actually pretty well, for the relatively mild and short duration of this test.  But yes, in 130 rounds of recoil, it did not batter itself to pieces.  I wouldn’t bet my life on one, but it seemed hold zero OK.  The bigger issue is that partway through the test, it wouldn’t turn on.  It would if I let it sit for a while, and I suspect it drained the cheap little disk battery in the few hours it was on (and in the sun).  (One common problem with ultra-cheap electronics is they tend to have poor battery life, and quickly drain the battery in storage).  Interestingly it was so cheap, not being illuminated was not a factor. Because  the sun was coming in from the front, and hitting the LED panel, causing a bright red reflection onto the screen without any power.   And in the middle of that blotch that now partially obscured half the screen, you could see the empty hole where the unlit red dot normally is supposed to be.  Which worked the same as if it was on.  Yes friends, these RDS was so cheap and crappy, that it went full cycle, and was able to be used accurately even when turned off.  For $18.95, my expectations weren’t very high, and I’m more amused than anything.  Heck, I might actually try to compete with this, for grins.



Total Round Count: 970

12/12/2015 Update:  Fired 30rd rounds of Wolf and 55 gr ball reloads.  No failures of any kind, scope held zero on the 200 yard gong.

Total Round count: 1000

Jealous of your issued  KAC rifle! Nice agency!


I agree it's hard to go back to an AR after the AUG.

After the Bullpup shoot the wife is sold on an AUG for her carbine. This thread cements it.
Damn things seem hard to jam and the mags seem as cheap as is ever seen.

12/23/2015 Update.  Fired 75 rounds of mixed type ammunition.  No failures of any kind

Bench test day, testing various handloads
Goals:
-Find a load approaching similar POI as Wolf Gold, with similar velocity and good accuracy performance - using latest bulk component shipments of same-lot materials.  Then commence with the mass-production.
-Measure velocity increase of the 18" BBL vs 16" BBL on RRA M4 Middy (same twist rate: 1/9)

Results summarized below (need to trim off the second screen from this printscreen dump, will get to it as time allows)


http://i63.tinypic.com/b47odu.jpg

On the left graphic: The 50 gr varmint result probably needs to be confirmed, I only got one velocity reading off the chrono (Ohler 3-screen).  I do find it interesting that the 50 gr American Eagle Varmint ammunition is slower than 55 gr Wolf Gold (in both guns).  In general, the velocity improvement from the 18" AUG BBL wasn't that impressive.  For all practical purposes, the 16" chrome lined RRA light weight barrel is giving me about the same velocity with most ammo.

On the second graphic: Most of the ball ammo reloads were impacting within about 1 MOA of the Wolf Gold, which realistically is not that much greater than the experimental error.  The middle items within that set (the 55gr SP loads, going from 24.5, 25, 25.5 gr powder), show the trend I was expecting to see - the hotter the load, the closer the POI is to Wolf Gold.  Interestingly, the light 50 gr Varmint is impacting about the same place as the Wolf Gold this time.  As before the 75 load is impacting considerably higher than the Wolf Gold.  And as before, it impacts way low when fired in the M4 Middy.  As an aside, that 75 gr load has a slow powder and is designed to hit 2700 FPS in a 20" National Match BBL.  It does not really achieve much velocity in the shorter barrels, at a little under 2600 FPS.  It is not intended for these carbines, but was tested anyway just to see what happens.  
The results of this test work lead me to select from from this lot of reloading components: 25.5 gr of H335 behind Hornady 55 gr Ball and 55 gr SP bullets.  Pressure sign was OK, accuracy was about as good as most of the other loads, and I wanted performance approaching Wolf Gold (though a touch milder is good).  

Accuracy performance was somewhat difficult to analyze - with wind gusts over 20 MPH.  At a 30° angel, that's enough wind drift to push a bullet 1.8 MOA at 200 yards, which wrecked havock with my accuracy performance testing.  The Middy M4 appeared to have slightly better accuracy performance.  But that is difficult to have confidence in, as I started the morning with the M4, and ended it with the AUG.  Winds typically gust up more as the morning warms up, so it is a credible to suspect that caused AUG groups to open up, as the wind gusted up more.  For example, one of the 50 gr AE varmint groups was 3.5 MOA in the AUG, yet it had a tight waterline of 1/2 MOA vertical - with it all being horizontal dispersion.  For this reason, accuracy comparison between the M4 and the AUG is not analyzed with this data set.  


Total round count: 1075.

1/3/2015 Update.  Fired 68 rounds of 75 gr ammunition.  No failures.



Total round count: 1143

1/16/2017 update.  Fired 60 rounds of reloads.  One item of note (case head separation - due to a worn out casing that was reloaded 1 too many times)

Today was a practice day comparing the AUG to an M4 firing at 600 yard Dept. of Defense military silhouettes (sized reduced to 200 yards - for the practice range).  The silhouettes are in a row of 8, at 200 yards.  Fired from the prone position, using 55 ball reloads.
here is a better view as seen through the spotting scope:



This is an adaptation of the NTIT national match competition, where a 6 man team takes the prone rifle position, laying in a row, with loaded rifles aimed down range.  A row of 8 silhouette targets raise 600 yards away, and the team has 50 seconds to fire and score as many hits as they can.  Normally this is done with AR15's, and with iron sights.   I did this with the M4 with a similar power scope, and found I was able to get all 30 shots off in the 50 seconds.  Follow-up with the AUG.  I found that, even with the 2020 Sear, the significantly poor trigger on the AUG slowed down making aimed shots into these small targets.  Though, I will note my AUG precision ended up being significantly better too, perhaps due to the slower rate.  Nonetheless, at 24 rounds, I noted I was already at least 10 seconds past end-time.  Realistically, I probably only got 20 rounds off in the 50 seconds, that's slow, but these targets are quite small at 200 yards.


(rotated 90° because my tinypic hates me)   To be honest, while the slower pace in comparison to an M4 was annoying, the accuracy performance of the AUG was not bad.  Obviously I need to come over a few clicks right (this is 200 yards, so 2 MOA should about do it).  But the gun and me shooting it - after a windage correction - would have almost all the shots hitting the target.  This looked better than the M4 did.

As per NTIT rules, left over ammunition is carried with you as your team then marches to closer positions, and fires for a lower point values at the closer targets.  At 200 yards, the target is called a "drone", and (if you still have ammo left over at 200 yards) must be fired at using the off-hand position.  This drone was fired on 6 times.  4 hits, 1 cross fire onto the next drone hit (which still counts - this is the one event where cross-fire is fine), and 1 miss.

(By the way, if interested in these targets - I get them from: http://www.pistoleer.com/shooting-targets/competition/)

Why did I stop at 24 rounds to check the time while firing the AUG?  Because that's when the gun stopped.  I thought I was dry, but when I looked into the port, I saw a stoppage.   At first, was disappointed in the AUG, as it looked like a basic failure to extract jam.  But upon clearing it, and seeing the front of the case fall out, I knew what happened - this was an ammunition failure due to case head separation.  I then checked my case head, and sure enough, I had marked it upon reloading it, as a "to retire" casing.  Of note, there is no safety issue here, case head separations are common to hand-loaders with semi-auto's who don't retire brass fast enough.  What was interesting was the broken off neck portion made it out of the chamber during the extraction, and caused the next round to jam in the feeding area.  This is unusual, normally a case head separation results in the base extracting and ejecting, but the forward portion remaining stuck in the chamber.  In the AUG, the chamber is so slick, that the forward portion had come out on its own - making clearing this and getting back into operation a snap.  I also loved knowing that if there was going to be a problem getting it out, I can just pop the BBL off to get a better crack at it.


To repeat, this was a known-old casing I reloaded and fired anyway, but marked it so I'd know this could happen.  It's not a big deal -  I have had case head separations in AR15's as well.  This is not a safety issue, and not necessarily anything wrong with the gun.  



Total round count: 1203

Good thread!  I want one of these pretty damn bad.  Been spending my disposable income on suppressors, sbr's, and night vision though.  Soon.

Oh, the reason they were hitting left is because I still had my windage adjustment from the 600 yard line I shot a few weeks prior.  I had forgot to return that to zero.  So to answer your question, I probably would have gotten about the same results with Wolf Gold.  Also, I have upped my velocity on my hand loads a bit, to more closely mimic Wolf Gold for consistency of zero and performance - and that new lot is what I was shooting here.

i have a question for you aug owners about the chamber. i was talking to a guy that had an aug who said he got a crack in the chamber/barrel area after he shot xm193 in his. he told me its chambered for .223 and over pressure caused the failure. said he called to see about warranty work and was told if he shot 5.56 it wouldnt be covered. is there any truth to this?

thanks

Nope. Full of crap. Even if the gun is marked as .223 (Like the older Sabre made rifles for example). They're still actually 5.56 rated. At the time Steyr pretty much said it was done that way to make them more "sporting appropriate" or appear friendlier.

The receivers were marked whatever they were on the SDI guns, but the SDI barrels were marked as seen below:



Though it says .223, those sabre defence AUG's are definitely chambered to 5.56x45.

The new FN barrels are marked as seen below to avoid confusion:

That story is complete BS.  Whoever that guy was, not a single sentence he uttered is true.

thanks for the replies guys

02/06/2016 update.  Fired 97 rounds of reloads.  One item of note (see text), but no failures.

Today the AUG went to a 3 -gun match.  I did not put my $18 RDS on.  This match consisted of 4 carbine related stages.

Stage 1: Preload the rifle and put on safe, pre-position it at the appropriate location.  Then, run through the woods with the pistol engaging targets, then upon reaching the platform, pick up your pre-loaded rifle and engage 3 steel gongs at 80, 140, & 185 yards.  1 hit each is sufficient.  I took the AUG.  Out of ~50(?) competitors there were ~48 AR's, 1 .308 SCAR, and 1 AUG.  On stage 1, the AUG was hitting to the left, so once I saw that, I held right and popped all the Gongs easily.  Took a couple shots at the 185 because I wasn't so sure the zero.  Run time was good, top half at least (if not better), but that was mostly due to a good run with the pistol portion.

Stage 2: 2 targets at 3 yards, climb a pitched roof, engage 3 more targets just over the top and below, not 2 yards away,  then, stay on the roof, and engage 7 gongs spread from 120 to 300 yards.  For this stage, I used a 42 round magazine.  Upon insertion, I had a live round mag-jump clear out of the ejection port!  AHA! I've heard of this problem.  So apparently this is an issue when under full spring tension and inserted with vigor.  Good to know.  As a side note, this morning I thought about it, and decided I was only going to load 41 rounds on reload mags, and 42 just for the starter mag.  I never had to do a mag change (42 rounds is quite a lot), but do suspect that would have been a good idea - not sure.  Until I get things better figured out, I don't think I will use full 42's for fast-reloads.  Anyway, back to the stage - the AUG ROCKED.  It was the perfect gun for this stage, and it surprised a lot of people about what it could do.  Since the first 2 targets were just 3 yards away, I point shot and just blasted about 4 rounds into each (only need 1 in the A ring, or 2 total anywhere else, to be good).  No worries about the 3X magnification scope there.  I climbed the roof, and due to the odd angle, was able to just reach over and shoot the AUG like a pistol, easily popping the 3 targets over the edge, those 3 were a challenge by design, to most folks who were using 2-handed AR's.  I then dropped down, and easily popped the 120-300 yard steel gongs, with some 1 shot hits, a couple 2 shot hits, and one or two tough targets that might have taken 3.  The AUG run time was half what most of the AR's in the squad had.  That 3X scope was perfect for this distance.

Stage 3-4:   These were in shooting bays, and this is where the 3X fixed optic works, but not ideal.  Standard USPSA style run and gun through windows and such at targets 10-30 yards away.  This is the worst distance for the fixed 3X optic, because it takes a little extra to find your target at magnified power, and the shots are all going to be low.   Fellows shooting angled secondary iron sights, or adjustable optics that go down to 1X are at an advantage here, because you get faster target aquisition at this distance with that.  Anyway, knowing your shots are going to go low (for everyone), course designers always always (always) put a no-shoot hostage target in front of and slightly lower than the bad-guy target, knowing that the 3 inch window you have to hit will likely result in you sending a round into a hostage target.  They always do this on every stage and it's a PITA.  Always.  Did I mention they always do this?  That said, overall the AUG held its own pretty well to be honest and it probably came out somewhere in the middle of the pack or so.  Only 1 round hit a non-threat, and I knew it when I sent it.

Had a blast - love my AUG.  Overall ranking from the day - top 10 out of 60 shooters.  Not bad for the AUG and a new 3-gunner!

Total round count: 1300

It's good to hear that the AUG did so well. Wouldn't it have been better to use Wolf Gold since that's what you're zero'd with?

You sir are a man who pays attention to details.  I like the cut of your jib.

This batch of handloads was warmed up, to more closely mimic Wolf Gold.  A detail left out: I have to admit, I am impressed you noticed that.  This had 25.5 gr of H335 pushing Hornady 55 FMJ.  Not quite as hot as Wolf Gold, but getting pretty close.   Ok, but why not just bring the Wolf Gold?  I might have if I thought we were shooting 300 yards!  For some reason, I thought this was going to be a bay's-only match, which is all just rapid-fire at 30 yards type stages - in which case anything will do.  And since you rarely get to recover brass from 3-gun, I set aside unloved brass just for such a setting.

3/2/2016 Update.  Fired 79 rounds of 55 gr Hornady SP reloads.  

3 gun match usage, 50 yards to 525 yards.  Accuracy was good.   1 failure: unsure if ammunition or rifle related.  On round 21 of mag, bolt did not fully close,  but instead was short by about 1/2 inch.   It was a strange spot for the bolt to stop.   I suspect one of the cases broke (trash brass, I use retire brass for 3 gun), next round wedged into it,  and stopped.  Replace mag, cycle the bolt with some effort.  Continue fire.   Middle of a stage,  so did not get chance to find either half of a broken shell, so can't say conclusively say that's what happened - but that's my theory.

Checked headspace based on fired casings - ~1.460",  About the same as my AR fired brass.

Total round count: 1379

4/12/2016 Update. Fired 35 rounds of 55 gr Hornady FMJ reloads in a formal match competition.

Gun shot great.
(Did not clean it)

Total round count: 1414