A 3-inch, 5-slot rail section is mounted on the right-hand side of the AUG’s receiver for mounting a weapon light or laser. When shooting from a rest, the fore-grip can be stowed parallel to the barrel by pulling down on the grip and rotating it 90 degrees forward.
Our evaluation rifle was the AUG A3 M1 Integrated-Optics version with 1.5X optic. It worked well on our Salute Products steel-plate targets at 50 yards. Its nimble handling characteristics made tracking from plate to plate fast and easy, and in over 100 rounds fired we experienced no failures to feed, fire, extract or eject. We felt that precision at 100 yards was compromised somewhat by the absence of fine crosshairs inside the large center circle. It would probably be perfect for shooting at bad guys —which, of course, is its intended purpose—at 100 yards and more, but combined with the slightly mushy trigger, the gun was not easy to hold steady on standard paper targets at 100 yards. We expect that the 3X optic would have been a better choice for shooting groups for accuracy at 100 yards. It was, however, a lot of fun to shoot.
The best 5-shot group we were able to produce measured 1.67” center to center, and was fired with Black Hills 75-gr. Match Hollow Point. We found that centering the orange target paster with the circular reticle was pretty much the only way to achieve any real degree of precision, but it was difficult to hold the reticle in position while pulling through the mushy trigger. The next best group—1.89″—was fired with Hornady Superformance Match 75-gr. 5.56mm NATO. Black Hills 50-gr. Barnes TSX and Hornady TAP FPD 55-gr. both shot at or under 2.75”. The AUG A3 SA USA we tested two years ago had the same quality trigger, but was equipped with a Bushnell Elite HDMR 3.5-21x50mm scope, and as a result shot a best 5-shot group measuring 0.99”.
Empty weight without magazine or optic 8.0 lbs. The AUG A3 M1 comes with one 30-round proprietary polymer magazine and a cleaning kit that stores in it own compartment in the buttstock. See it at your firearms retailer, or for more information contact Steyr Arms, Dept. OT; Tel.: (205) 655-8299; Web: www.steyrarms.com
