Originally Posted By henryfrank:
I’m trying to get more details about the Gunprime exclusive special edition with the SF scope. It looks pretty neat, but was hoping someone had more info on the rifle this clone is based on. This is the best article I could find about the military rifle.

https://www.overtdefense.com/2023/03/09/austria-begins-issuing-upgraded-steyr-aug-rifles/

Some grouped questions:

1. Who are the units that this is being issued to? The article said Militia and Cadre Presence units, but is this just general infantry, or does it include special forces, motorized units, etc?
According to the article some 14,000 models are being sent to the bundesheer. In the Austrian military the cadre presence is generally the full-time professional soldiers. The militia are the active reserve component. Like the US Army reserve or national guard. Then, not mentioned, you have the conscripts that do short time of service. According to the Austrian MOD website. The bundesheer has 14,000 cadre. And 25,000 militia. Could be lost in translation. But either all the new rifles are going to the cadre. Or it's a mixture of cadre and militia. No clue as to which specific type of units.

Now the special forces. They're Jagdkomando and Jaeger Battalions. They seem to be dumping their A2 commandos and going to flattop models. Videos detailing the A3M2.

2. Why did Steyr design this configuration without a side rail on the receiver but add it back to the scope? Just seems odd as that appears to be the only difference on the receiver. What does it actually accomplish by putting the side rail on the scope vs on the receiver? Even the Aug A3 MII has the side rail on the receiver so why have this weird version without it for their military?
No idea on their thinking. But a shot in the dark might be that back in the day the special boys attached laser/light modules on the side of the old A1 guns.  But I'm sure the A3M2 has the receiver side rail for their LLM.


3. Is this model being issued to Austrian special forces, or are they sticking to their STG77 A2 Commandos, or is there going to be a mix? Considering how kitted out these are in the pics with SF optics, lasers and aimpoint micros I’d assume these are going to be used by SF since they are almost identical to the A2 commandos, but I couldn’t find any more info.
Austrian SOF seem to be going to the A3M2. https://www.spartanat.com/2023/10/ein-neues-sturmgewehr-fuer-das-jagdkommando/

4. Why was this scope designed to be lower but then they issued all of them in the pics on risers? From my reading SF liked the lower height because they were primarily using it as a riser for their aimpoints . Do you think most military units will end up removing the riser once they are fielded?
No idea unfortunately. It is weird.

5. In the pics it looked like the issued ones shown were all 20” barrels. I am assuming any SF units getting them would probably prefer to swap to 16” barrels (easy on the Aug), but is this a wrong assumption? Also, do they use 1/2-28 threads?
No idea on threading. But see number 3.

6. Does anyone know if military barrels are CL CHF, or have their military units moved to nitrided like the civi barrels here?
No clue. I'd bet they're CL and CHF.

7. Between the gunprime exclusive and the actual military stg77 a1 mod there appear to be some differences like barrel length, bottom rail, optic riser, case deflector, and charging handle, but there might be more im missing. What other differences are there and Are any of these pieces available anywhere innthe usa?
Only thing I know that is readily available is the optic riser. It's on Steyr USA site. To be honest. Putting the scopes on the guns and selling them is just a way to put out something a bit new and sell some scopes.

Thank you for the info