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I wonder if FNH is using the exact same model GFM as Steyr does?

GFM is out of Austria and they supply the overwhelming majority of hammer forging machines. In fact, Remington just bought a brand new GFM a few years back out of Austria.  The Austrian came up with hammer forging and IMO nobody does it better than them.

Pete Athens has posted that FNH is using the same process as Steyr.  That means that they're profiling the barrel before they hammer forge.  The only thing missing is the Austrian employees at Steyr and I think the FNH USA employees will be a fair substitute, but we'll see.  Steyr individually hones each barrel and the guys doing it have been doing it for 20 to 30 years plus their QC procedures are really well executed coming from a lot of experience.  The only issues I've ever had with Steyr firearms have been their magazines in some of their firearms that they've subcontracted out to an Italian firm, which isn't abnormal as Walther does the same thing.  

It's easy to get hung-up on stats, but if there is one thing I have learned it's that the skill of the people working at these firearms companies and their experience with production of the item is very, very important. Automation has come a long way, but it's not anywhere near the point where you can just toss people off the street into production of a firearm.  That's why I'm glad the old ownership of Steyr is now long gone, because those idiots were contemplating moving AUG production to Malyasia for awhile just to score a foreign contract.  That would have been the death of the AUG in terms of the world renoun quality reputation it has earned and I'm glad the whole deal failed to go through.

Quoted:
That's great to hear Pete!

The Steyr guys are really persnickety about their AUG design, which is IMO why they will not do the A3 stock with the ability to take AR mags (they don't like AR mags). If they think FNH did a good job and you know FNH did a great job.

Any word from Steyr about their .22 LR conversion Pete?  Would really like the ability to shoot an AUG cheaply more often as I do with my .22 LR AR's.

Quoted:


The Sabre AUG A3 had an MSRP of $2399, while the new Steyr Arms/ Vltor A3 has an MSRP of $2099. At a $2399 MSRP, most Sabre A3s sold at $1800~.



I'm no math genius but that seems to mean that the new A3 will have a street price less than $1800~, definitely good news.

Quoted:
What are the new barrels gonna run for my Sabre?

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It hurts my heart to know that I probably won't be able to get one of these in CA.