I've been paying real close attention to this Australian version Steyr AUG. Much like DT's MDR, we have been told that it will ship in a few months, a couple of months, very soon for the past couple of years. So far it has only existed on YouTube.

But no, I'm not here to rant on their credibility. I'm here to talk about if this rifle is actually worth the money.

I'm sure many people are wondering if the F90 is really the better/improved version of Steyr AUG.

As an owner of the king of bullpup, I decided to find out if this Atrax F90 is actually worthy of our attention.


Initially, I was worried that the king of bullpup will lose its bullpup market when the F90 actually starts shipping but maybe not...

F90 is supposed to be lighter and more modular than the Steyr AUG. But is it really?

The Lithgow representative repeatedly said that the F90 is about a pound lighter than Steyr AUG, and it is the lightest bullpup rifle on the market.

Their advertised weights are 3.15 kg, 3.25 kg, 3.39 kg for 14" (subcarbine), 16" (carbine), and 20" (standard) respectively.

Steyr AUG weighs 3.2 kg, 3.3 kg, 3.6 kg respectively. There is virtually no weight difference. All that polymer fusing and barrel fluting did not do so much.

To see this from a different perspective, a 16.5" SCAR 16s weighs 7.25 lbs, or just below 3.3 kg and a standard M4 carbine is actually below 7 lbs.

This Lithgow F90 is light NOT LIGHT.


Moving on to molularity,

when the Lithgow rep demonstrates the barrel and receiver disassembly which he does in seconds, it makes most people think "wow shit that was quick, awesome!"

He brags that the fixed rail and barrel setup guarantees zero when the barrel is swapped.

But did you know that Steyr AUG can also do that... Yes, Steyr AUG can be disassembled exactly like how the dude detached the barrel group from the receiver, with the exception that

Steyr AUG can actually go further into disassembling the barrel itself as well. So it's almost like Lithgow went retro on the technology.



So you might be thinking, so there is no pros over Steyr AUG?

There is. The two main thing that I see are:

the US friendly muzzle thread
the trigger

These are some big shit here because yall don't know what I have gone through to try to put a muzzle brake on my Steyr. In the end I never got a muzzle brake for it. It's safe to say impossible.

When I first got my AUG, I said to myself, "pussys complain about the trigger all the time, I will be fine. I will train my finger." Damn, that trigger was something else man.

It was as if it was specifically designed to block slow trigger pull necessary for long range shots- I still managed to get good groups at long range though.

Lithgow USA promises the trigger will be better; and of course without telling us the accuracy potential of it.


But then unlike Steyr which offers barrels in all sizes (14", 16", 18", and 20"), the F90 offers all but 18" (my favorite length for 556)..


So here are my thoughts. If I forgot to talk about something that should have been talked about, let me know.

By any means, I'm not dissing on Lithgow. In fact, I will probably end up buying one for myself.

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove here. Until it comes out all of your statements are conjecture.

Not sure if you need your own blog or have gone to GD with this?

Im not trying to prove anything. I just think F90 is another AUG with longer rails.

Yeah some time ago I was also comparing the weights.
Not much of a difference there & that's even with the Atrax not having the vert grip & necessary hardware.
I still want at least a second AUG & been holding out to actually see & hold the Atrax.

Thanks

So the recoil and trigger are around the same ballpark as the AUG? It's probably hard to tell because you fired the full auto version?
I'm getting mixed reviews here and there.

QD feature of the AUG barrel is one of my favorite attributes of the rifle. Removal makes for a 22" length and allows the AUG to be stowed in a medium size backpack or large courier bag very discretely. It also makes the rifle "disassembled", which means I can legally keep a rifle in the passenger area of my SUV and I'm within the letter of my state's laws. If needed the barrel installs in under 5 seconds.

ATRAX seems neat, especially the NATO version with its X95-like mag release. The fact remains that the ATRAX is unproven until it's proven. Until it makes it out in large numbers, we won't know if it's a silk purse or a sow's ear.

1+

I just hope that they use critical parts directly from Australia that way QC is maintained to some extent but it looks like all parts, if not most, will be made here in US by another company.

1+

I just hope that they use critical parts directly from Australia that way QC is maintained to some extent but it looks like all parts, if not most, will be made here in US by another company.

The military version ones have been proven for a while. The question is, is the civilian semi auto ones too?

The rep said it's a 2 MOA gun so why even bother with a better trigger, if it is even true.

2 MOA with a good trigger is good-to-go. At what range do you think that's too large to cover a man's chest?

Never mind the fact that the 2 MOA statement is almost assuredly with all ammo. I'll be curious to see what it can do with better quality ammo

The whole premise is is this any better than Steyr. I said, why bother with a better trigger when Steyr with a bad trigger can easily produce 1.5 moa groups??

Like Sven from manticore said this is an AUG, modified. It shouldn't be any more accurate than it's parent design. If there was an accuracy improvement, Lithgow would have shoved it in your face years ago.

It's better than the Steyr because it weighs less, and it's easier to incorporate the grenade launcher.

Looking at the specs from Lithgow, the F90 (without optic) is only .5lb lighter than an AUG-A1/A2 (with built-in optic). Where is the weight savings for giving up a removable barrel and the vfg?

Using listed manufacturer weights isn't a great way to do it, IMO. Should get two comparable rifles and weigh them side by side.