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I have no knowledge how modern large scale production using polymer parts works. How large can this “bad batch” be? If it’s the polymer itself, is every single AUG stock made for the entire year (more or less) substandard and infused with this defect, and some are just failing earlier than the others will? Or can it really just be that one in 500 or whatever made during the effected time period are defective? I’m asking as someone with a 12/20 stock. |
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Quoted: I have no knowledge how modern large scale production using polymer parts works. How large can this “bad batch” be? If it’s the polymer itself, is every single AUG stock made for the entire year (more or less) substandard and infused with this defect, and some are just failing earlier than the others will? Or can it really just be that one in 500 or whatever made during the effected time period are defective? I’m asking as someone with a 12/20 stock. It’s hard to tell. It all depends on where the issue is.. Let’s say you have a production plant with 5 molding machines.. each machine can make 100 stocks per day.. It could be that only one machine hasn’t been cleaned properly and the polymer blend got polluted… so about 100 defective stocks… If steyr received a full batch of defective polymer then all the production on all 5 molding machines was messed up… so about 500 defective stocks… per day. I highly doubt an entire year of production has been affected by the issue… QC is usually a big factor in the polymer injection industry. |
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Quoted: It’s hard to tell. It all depends on where the issue is.. Let’s say you have a production plant with 5 molding machines.. each machine can make 100 stocks per day.. It could be that only one machine hasn’t been cleaned properly and the polymer blend got polluted… so about 100 defective stocks… If steyr received a full batch of defective polymer then all the production on all 5 molding machines was messed up… so about 500 defective stocks… per day. I highly doubt an entire year of production has been affected by the issue… QC is usually a big factor in the polymer injection industry. Quoted: Quoted: I have no knowledge how modern large scale production using polymer parts works. How large can this “bad batch” be? If it’s the polymer itself, is every single AUG stock made for the entire year (more or less) substandard and infused with this defect, and some are just failing earlier than the others will? Or can it really just be that one in 500 or whatever made during the effected time period are defective? I’m asking as someone with a 12/20 stock. It’s hard to tell. It all depends on where the issue is.. Let’s say you have a production plant with 5 molding machines.. each machine can make 100 stocks per day.. It could be that only one machine hasn’t been cleaned properly and the polymer blend got polluted… so about 100 defective stocks… If steyr received a full batch of defective polymer then all the production on all 5 molding machines was messed up… so about 500 defective stocks… per day. I highly doubt an entire year of production has been affected by the issue… QC is usually a big factor in the polymer injection industry. |
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Quoted: When it's been happening doesn't matter as much as when the defective stocks were manufactured. Quoted: When it's been happening doesn't matter as much as when the defective stocks were manufactured. Quoted: Quoted: it’s been happening since 2021-most of 2023 Ok, But how many? Not every single aug made in that timeframe Don’t know, but it was enough for steyr to go back to using stocks form 2020 and drill out the locks on all of them. |
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Attached File I'll figure out an exact date later tonight but my 2021 bought black nato a3 cracked. Round count unknown but probably less than 500 down the pipe AFAIK Edit here: inside stock injection mold stamp says 20 with an arrow between the 7 and 8. So probably mid July 2020 was the manufacturing date. Sold in August 2021 to me new. :Edit end Steyr will send me a new stock once they receive my old one. Also have a new one on order so the replacement they send me will be a spare anyway. Really inopportune timing here I got 2 big shooting weekends ahead of me in the next 3 weeks |
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Quoted: Is this something that occasionally happened to AUGs prior to 2020 and has just picked up in frequency, or was it basically unheard of until now? Unheard of until 2022 or so. Been in the AUG game for more than a decade with many AUGs (have all variants of complete guns and I have plenty of duplicates to evaluate) and I’ve never seen or heard of this type of breakage before. Steyr said it was due to a batch of flawed stocks which I believe them as plenty of people like myself and my friends don’t have this issue even when the purchases were made post-2021 when this issue surfaced. Some of us assumed bad polymer blend from their suppliers is the cause. Though, we will never know for sure on the cause unless Steyr Austria make a statement. FYI, I have a A3M1 with late-2020 dated stock with no problem after 500-800rds (purchased late 2021). It is not a lot of rounds b/c I mostly shoot my A1 and A3. My A1 has 10,100rds and A3 with 6,000rds. I also have other A3 guns with 2k+ rounds. No problems. I have 2 friends with their very recent A3M1 from PSA with 300-500rds with no problem. One of those was wearing suppressor 100% of the time but has suppressor gas plug (I didn’t ask about stock manufactured date). Many of the cracking happens before 300-500rds so I think the 3 guns I know of from recent years are perfectly fine. We also have a ton of surplus AUG stocks on the market we can reference. I have friends with 2-5+ kits each and they don’t see any cracks on the stock lock bar area. If there’s a flaw to the specified material or to the design of the stock, we would be seeing way more of these reports from the very beginning, but we don’t. The design and the stock specifications are sound. The problem was the Covid era stocks from that flawed batch causing this commotion. |
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Quoted: Unheard of until 2022 or so. Been in the AUG game for more than a decade with many AUGs (have all variants of complete guns and I have plenty of duplicates to evaluate) and I’ve never seen or heard of this type of breakage before. Steyr said it was due to a batch of flawed stocks which I believe them as plenty of people like myself and my friends don’t have this issue even when the purchases were made post-2021 when this issue surfaced. Some of us assumed bad polymer blend from their suppliers is the cause. Though, we will never know for sure on the cause unless Steyr Austria make a statement. FYI, I have a A3M1 with mid-2021 dated stock with no problem after 500-800rds. It is not a lot of rounds b/c I mostly shoot my A1 and A3. I have 2 friends with their very recent A3M1 from PSA with 300-500rds with no problem. One of those was wearing suppressor 100% of the time but has suppressor gas plug (I didn’t ask about stock manufactured date). Many of the cracking happens before 300-500rds so I think the 3 guns I know of from recent years are perfectly fine. We also have a ton of surplus AUG stocks on the market we can reference. I have friends with 2-5+ kits each and they don’t see any cracks on the stock lock bar area. If there’s a flaw to the specified material or to the design of the stock, we would be seeing way more of these reports from the very beginning, but we don’t. The design and the stock specifications are sound. The problem was the Covid era stocks from that flawed batch causing this commotion. Thanks, what I’m concerned about is that the stock not cracking in the first few mags may not necessarily mean that it’s good to go, but instead that it just hasn’t failed YET. It’s probably not something worth worrying about, but I can’t help myself with a design that is so famously solid. It would be nice to know the range of problem stocks, If it turned out I had one I’d like to have it switched out for a normal stock now, and not have to worry about it in 5 years when a replacement stock may not be as easy to come by. |
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Quoted: Thanks, what I’m concerned about is that the stock not cracking in the first few mags may not necessarily mean that it’s good to go, but instead that it just hasn’t failed YET. It’s probably not something worth worrying about, but I can’t help myself with a design that is so famously solid. It would be nice to know the range of problem stocks, If it turned out I had one I’d like to have it switched out for a normal stock now, and not have to worry about it in 5 years when a replacement stock may not be as easy to come by. Unfortunately it is how it is. There is no way to tell until it happens and Steyr never did a recall on a specific SN range. I'm guessing this is partially due to them using whatever stocks they have at the warehouse so it would be hard to determine a certain SN range affected. Some newer SN receivers with older stocks and vice versa. Though, if they know a date code for the affected stocks, I figure they could reach out and inform the public this way as well... IDK From what I've found back in 2022 going through posts on Reddit and Facebook, all the broken/cracked stocks I’ve seen were early to mid 2021 stocks. I'm assuming all the flawed older 2021 stocks got used up and there is a higher chance for new buyers having a gun with new stocks. Not saying the newer stocks are all perfect as I've not been keeping track anymore but at least I know the 2 recently purchased AUG A3M1's my friends have are doing fine so far. |
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The fact that Steyr is radiusing the corners on rifles currently shipping is kind of proof that they are using batches of stocks that they do not trust 100% if not radiused. If they had isolated and disposed of all the questionable stocks, we would not be seeing them modifying the corners. Which does not give me a good solid feeling about them. It is a bandaid. Not too worried about what happens if it breaks tomorrow, more like 10-20 years down the road. I did the home radius job on mine, matched it to the slightly newer rifle that came that way. I would be much happier with a 5 or 10 year old stock honestly. Plus it seems that the stock mfg dates do not seem to match perfectly with the rifle serial number ranges- my older rifle has a newer stock. That means they probably have zero idea which rifles might have bad stocks or not- kind of a wait til it breaks situation. Glock had the same issue with rails breaking on their frames once upon a time, word was that 1 of 4 milling machines was out of adjustment, and frames made on that machine might break. Problem was that nobody knew which frames were done on which machine. Glock ended up doing voluntary replacement frames on a lot of guns preemptively, as they did not want the liability and bad press of one breaking during an LE shootout. Steyr could do the same- it would cost a lot, but it sure would be nice to breathe a little easier about the issue vs always checking for cracks. At some point I may look at mine and see if it is possible to add some reinforcement on the inside, just for extra peace of mind. |
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Quoted: Unfortunately it is how it is. There is no way to tell until it happens and Steyr never did a recall on a specific SN range. I'm guessing this is partially due to them using whatever stocks they have at the warehouse so it would be hard to determine a certain SN range affected. Some newer SN receivers with older stocks and vice versa. Though, if they know a date code for the affected stocks, I figure they could reach out and inform the public this way as well... IDK From what I've found back in 2022 going through posts on Reddit and Facebook, all the broken/cracked stocks I’ve seen were early to mid 2021 stocks. I'm assuming all the flawed older 2021 stocks got used up and there is a higher chance for new buyers having a gun with new stocks. Not saying the newer stocks are all perfect as I've not been keeping track anymore but at least I know the 2 recently purchased AUG A3M1's my friends have are doing fine so far. The one that just got posted as breaking has a 7/20 mold date, so that contradicts the info you have seen on redditt and elsewhere, or at least shows that the problem is more widespread… |
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Quoted: The one that just got posted as breaking has a 7/20 mold date, so that contradicts the info you have seen on redditt and elsewhere, or at least shows that the problem is more widespread… I wouldn't say it contradicts but more of a broadening of the sample size. The stocks I saw with cracks did crack and are of the date range I mentioned. I didn't say anything outside of that range will 100% be fine. Also, as already mentioned earlier I have a A3M1 with late-2020 dated stock with no problem after 500-800rds (12/2020 marking, purchased late 2021). With my stock being in between the 7/2020 stock posted above and the ones shown on Reddit and FB being early to mid 2021 stocks, either it is about to break or I got lucky. |
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