Picked up an AUG M1 with the 3x crosshair-in-the-donut scope yesterday from my FFL yesterday and weather permitted me to hit the range today. Having done a little research I've read about how the scopes come un-sighted so I got a rough zero at home looking down the bore and dialed it in 25 then 50 yards at the range. Accuracy was pretty decent even with the stock trigger but I could almost swear there is a slight POI shift when the grip is folded up vs folded down. I'm not the greatest shot so it could have just been me though. I was shooting Wolf Gold .223 while using the normal gas setting and was eventually ringing steel out to 200 yards.

I had three failures to feed out of 120 rounds fired which concerns me a little. I loaded and fired 5 rounds then 15 rounds out of the 30rd magazine that came with the gun (and my only mag at the moment) and had no issues. But when I tried to chamber a round on a fully loaded mag I had a failure to feed as the round was hung up between the bolt and the chamber. After clearing the rifle I re-inserted the magazine (now 29 rounds loaded), chambered a round without issue, and fired roughly 10-15 rounds before I had a second failure to feed similar to the first. This round was pretty boogered up compared to the first one but I was still able to drop the mag, shake the round out, and finish shooting off the rest of the mag. My third failure to feed happened midway through another full 30 round magazine and was same story as the first 2, caught between the bolt and the chamber, rest of the magazine fired fine. I loaded up another 30 rounds with the last of my ammo and had zero malfunctions. The first malfunction could have been me riding the charging handle or inserting the magazine too roughly causing a round to pop up. I don't think I did either of those things but its possible. The other 2 malfunctions were halfway through a magazine though.

TL;DR: Do these rifles require a break-in period or are FTF issues in need of fixing?

Pic of the rifle in question:


First two FTF rounds (top is first, bottom was the second):


Third FTF round:

if i own a rifle for defensive purposes i shoot more or less 1k round as soon as i buy it, if it jams more than zero times it's a no go for me...i don't believe in "breaking in" periods for guns. anyway, try to shoot it in next months and see how it performs. augs are usually very reliable rifles (austrian ones, don' t know where your aug comes from), i'm sure someone Will be more helpful than me :)

I didn't buy it as a defensive rifle but it would be nice if it was as reliable as one. The last 30 rounds fired were malfunction free so that gives me some hope its not long term problem. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or patience to shoot 1000 rounds out of one 30rd magazine.

Can over lubrication cause the FTF malfunctions? After doing some reading it seems a lot of people advise very little lube on the gas piston and bolt.

The recoil springs are crazy strong when new. Leave the bolt locked back until your next range trip

Will do.

AUGs don't need much oil, follow the directions in the instruction manual

I would agree with mcantu, leave the bolt locked back a week or two and let the springs settle in. Maybe grab some hot M193 for your next range trip? Wolf Gold is good ammo but it isn't quite M193 spec. See what happens then, if still having trouble call Steyr.

Got back from the range today. I only put 90 rounds through the gun (Hunter Fall sight-in so busy doing other things) but I had zero issues. I had the bolt locked to the rear for 3 or 4 days, wiped off any excess lube, and shot Federal XM193 5.56 instead of Wolf Gold 223. Ejection pattern between Federal and Wolf was pretty much the same minus 2 or 3 rounds from Federal that ejected at 3 o'clock instead of 4-5 o'clock. I'll probably stick with XM193 with the Steyr and save the Wolf Gold for my AR-15s as it tends to shoot a tighter group.

Still only had the one magazine that came with the rifle. But USPS surprised me with a package containing more magazines when I got home (it was supposed to show up a two days later).

I pretty much feed my AUGs Wolf Gold 99% of the time and never had issues. That said I cycle all my new AUGS 100s of times before I take them to the range. As for poi shift, a few of my AUGs seem to do the same with grip folded. oddly enough I’ve never noticed a POI shift when removing the bbl.

Sounds like your reliability issue is dissipating which is great.  The AUG is an awesome gun for its age.

I've owned a few over the years, and found they're very "tight and gritty" when new.  If you start having problems again I would hand-cycle it about 200 times and leave the bolt back another week.  Hand cycling will smooth out the action, and wears the action spring in.

I would suspect either a bad magazine, or bad magazine catch.  I have owned three Steyr-Augs, and none of them took any break in at all.  They were absolutely reliable right out of the box.

I would take the rifle apart, and really detail clean it, lube it according to manufacturer's specifications, and try a different magazine.  Determine if there is any difference between chambering a round when putting a full magazine in when the bolt is back vs putting the magazine in when the bolt is closed.

So far the kinks seemed to have been worked out. I'm guessing a combo of me overlubricating the rifle and stiff new springs were causing the issues. I'll be hitting the range tomorrow or the next day and bringing the new Steyr magazines along as well. Hopefully, I'll report back with good news afterwards.

Funny, I had an similar experience and my rounds looked exactly the same as yours, as well as jamming the round back into the case, and it also broke my extractor claw. But not fully, just enough and noticed it when taken apart and compared it to another extractor I had.

It turned out I had a bad “batch” of new steyr factory magazines that I bought at a very cheap price. Check your magazine batch date codes stamped on the magazines.

When they were inserted into the gun, they would pitch the round “nose down” and they would crash into the flat spot or at the bottom of the feed ramp. It was not noticeable until the round was about halfway out of the magazine being pushed towards the chamber and the front portion of the feed lips no longer were really guiding the round. I can’t remember if it was the round feeding from the left side or right side of the magazine. I used some fake unloaded dummy rounds when I got home and looking closely in the ejection port and the feeding. Not sure if it was the rear of the mag locking in to high forcing a front or “nose down” condition or the feed lips not correct. Anyway, I got a new extractor for the bolt, as well as a Ratworx “hybrid bolt”. I quickly tested those suspect mags again, did same thing again. I stopped using that suspect bunch of magazines. Went back to the many other good mags I have and guns been flawless with the factory and Ratworx hybrid bolt.

Do you remember what the bad date code was? I feel like I need to check some of my unused "spare" magazines now.

Ok, so I dug them out of the back of the closet and took a look. They are 30rd, green follower and floor plate, with the numbers located on the right side “12.00.05.0001” next to the (10) round indicator. Below that on two of the mags, there is a “P” in a circle, the others the “circle P” is on the left side.  At the 30 round indicator, there is a circle with a 90 over a 7.  I think they are US made, as they don’t have the “coat of arms” on them like my other mags I have.

I don't think it was a matter of a bad date code. I'm pretty sure it was all US made mags (they have a clear square around the round count number)

Forgot to update from my last post. I shot 144rds of Federal XM193 (two 30rd mags and two 42rd mags) with zero malfunctions. Next time I'm out I'll try the Wolf Gold .223 again and see if anything changes.

Final update: Shot 110 rounds of Wolf 223 out of the AUG today without any malfunctions. Whatever gremlins that plagued the rifle initially seem to have been exercised.

I love my AUG.

The only malfunction I've had was caused by me shooting it right handed (It's set up lefty).  My face sent the case back into the ejection port.  That sucked.  It was during a match too.