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Posted: 1/13/2026 4:43:40 PM EDT
Purchased a new AUG A3M2 Nato with bolt release in November and been having a few issues with it. Top rail undersized, Upward pressure on mags induces malfunctions, and just general poor stock fitment. I previously had a AUG not that long ago the didn't have any of these issues. Steyr USA has also been unresponsive on any of these issues since I started contacting them in the beginning of December. Has anyone else noticed a decline in quality, or did I just get one that slipped thru the cracks? Video below showing issues: The Steyr AUG A3M2 NATO Today: poor quality and customer service |
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BTW, call them on the PHONE if you need help. I found out that the reason why they have problems with e-mail is because all of the e-mail for steyr worldwide is routed through servers over in europe and they have very restrictive filters and e-mails can be mistakenly routed or mislabeled etc. I buy a lot of stuff from Steyr and was mil/le and had to get white listed by Steyr in Austria because of probelsm with my e-mail A little ridiculous frankly but not the fault of Steyr US. Historically Steyr US was always pushing for improvment and steyr austria was always dragggin their feet and throttling Steyr US. Fortunately there is a possiblity that it will improve going forward under the new owners. |
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Originally Posted By Manticore_Arms: If you have digital calipers, what is the width across the widest part of the picatinny rail? Sven Manticore Arms Its less than what the spec should be I called Steyr today, left a voicemail and they emailed me back within an hour and said they are going to see if they can get me replacement parts mailed to me. So now I wait to see when I get them. |
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My USR is brilliant, had it for 20 years-ish. Sorry to hear you are having issues. Bought a recent production NATO stock as a spare and the plastics feel cheap and unsubstantial as compared to my oldie. |
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Originally Posted By TSH77769: Nah dude, especially now with the current nato stocks and the New ones still coming, ALWAYS go nato. I went original stock but when Steyr was blowing out their old NATO stocks on sale I bought 2 to try. They seem equal to the originals and the AR STANAG mags fit nice and tight, lock in very positive, lock the bolt open last round, and work 100%. The plastic is identical to the original in every way. But I dont have a pre-ban AUG to compare it to. The trigger on the NATO stocked guns is heavier than the standard stocks, maybe by 1-2 lbs. But with the red springs in the trigger pack, its VERY hard to tell any difference between them. |
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Originally Posted By TSH77769: The best US AUG to have is the A3 SA. This right here. Mine has run perfectly for a few thousand rounds since 2016 or so. Never had a failure of any kind, which I’m continually impressed by. Haven’t even had to replace any parts yet. |
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There has absolutely been a quality slip with the u.S made a u g s starting with the a three m one model. The first major problem was the covid era stock cracking problems. But there have also been several problems with rails being out of spec on the.M two models. So either get an all original austrian preban or an A3 SA and you'll be golden. No problems no worries last forever. |
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Originally Posted By TSH77769: There has absolutely been a quality slip with the u.S made a u g s starting with the a three m one model. The first major problem was the covid era stock cracking problems. But there have also been several problems with rails being out of spec on the.M two models. So either get an all original austrian preban or an A3 SA and you'll be golden. No problems no worries last forever. |
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Originally Posted By TSH77769: There has absolutely been a quality slip with the u.S made a u g s starting with the a three m one model. The first major problem was the covid era stock cracking problems. But there have also been several problems with rails being out of spec on the.M two models. So either get an all original austrian preban or an A3 SA and you'll be golden. No problems no worries last forever. To put this in perspective. Over the same time frame of the Aug bad stocks (roughly 5 years), There are between 5 and 10x more reports of the Aug failing than of a Desert Tech MDR rifle failing. The MDR rifle reliability was so bad that Forgotten Weapons and In Range called them out on it back in the day which lead to a redesign by the OEM. |
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Originally Posted By FrozenIceman: To put this in perspective. Over the same time frame of the Aug bad stocks (roughly 5 years), There are between 5 and 10x more reports of the Aug failing than of a Desert Tech MDR rifle failing. The MDR rifle reliability was so bad that Forgotten Weapons and In Range called them out on it back in the day which lead to a redesign by the OEM. Is that adjusted for sales numbers of each? |
Sweet baby Jesus on fire. Gonna need a damn lawyer and a miracle to pull my ass outta this.
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Originally Posted By FrozenIceman: To put this in perspective. Over the same time frame of the Aug bad stocks (roughly 5 years), There are between 5 and 10x more reports of the Aug failing than of a Desert Tech MDR rifle failing. The MDR rifle reliability was so bad that Forgotten Weapons and In Range called them out on it back in the day which lead to a redesign by the OEM. That doesn't really tell the real story , though. Desert stuff started out messed up from the beginning and has stayed messed up this whole time. The multiple many tens of thousands of a u g s made an Austria since the 70s and through this day are perfect. Some few u s models had problems. So just getting austrian one, or A3 SA by sabre or vltor, and it will outlast you. |
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Originally Posted By TSH77769: That doesn't really tell the real story , though. Desert stuff started out messed up from the beginning and has stayed messed up this whole time. The multiple many tens of thousands of a u g s made an Austria since the 70s and through this day are perfect. Some few u s models had problems. So just getting austrian one, or A3 SA by sabre or vltor, and it will outlast you. In general Desert Tech Stuff was more or less fixed by year 3 of production (more or less a year after the MDRX released), when In Range/forgotten weapons did the redesign progress video. There were some quality issues here and there but for the most part new failure reports went down to one or two a year maybe. Note, the issues were by and large localized to only the 7.62 Caliber, the others didn't have many issues and none were as catastrophic as the Aug failures. As far as production goes, a product is only as good as what they sell. You can take a guess that prior experience increases odds of a successful next product (including each new tweak/version of the Aug as a separate new product) but it isn't a guarantee. Similar goes for a comparison between the SIG P2XX vs the P3XX series. We had overwhelming evidence that a current product being sold was bad (and not a whole lot of evidence saying it is good now), we shouldn't just accept it based on the feelings of manufacturing from 50 years ago. |
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Originally Posted By BillyDBerger: Is that adjusted for sales numbers of each? I haven't seen any real numbers by anyone of production of certain models by year. I think I saw someone able to go into publicly available records to pull how many rifles are produced by a company but that doesn't get us to production per model or mil vs consumer. I imagine there are less MDR guns that were produced over the time frame, don't know if it is 10X fewer guns. That also doesn't give us an idea of average rounds per gun before failure. For boutique guns, including all bullpups, I imagine most people take them out in rotation with their other 20 guns in their safe for equivalent to one range day a year and we only hear about the enthusiasts that pick that gun as their primary gun over say an AR15. |
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In 2021 Desert tech made about 2600 rifles, a mix of MDR, SRS and others. In the same year Steyr made about 9400 rifles in the US. Sporting rifles iirc are made in Austria, so the majority of those would probably be AUGs, so I would guess there is 4-6x more AUGs sold than MDRs. I would disagree Desert tech fixes stuff in 3 years or less. My Wlvrn still had mag dropping issues, and the rear tackke down pin walking out issues are still persistent it seems. Imho those designs are poorly done and really should have been scrapped and completely re engineered. The AUG is a mature design where as the MDR, WLVRN still has design issues . Desert tech has been making MDRs since 2015 ish and have always been controversial with constant issues popping up. Steyr AUG has been around the late 1970s, and generally has been good reputation, the stock being a short issue overall. |
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Sounds about right on the numbers. That being said, due to export laws the guns imported to the US need to be finished in the US. They may be double counted as production in both countries. I wonder where their mil guns are made. As far as 3 years go. Internet tells me the first mdr shipped to the customer in july 2017. MDRx in 2020. WLVRN isn't even 3 years old. But I do agree, the rear pin and mag issues should have had a better fix, but it may have been good enough on the MDRx, but not good enough on the WLVRN. Mdr and MDRX are pretty close systems. Wlvrn really isn't. Between the gas system, BCG redesign, and being lighter/more energy going into the parts fixes that worked in the past may not be solving the same problem. As you pointed out, a mature system like the Aug, with decades of experience, having catastrophic failures at the frequency it had over 5 years without a public acknowledgement should be far less tolerated by the public than growing pains on new designs. Especially using the numbers you have that show failures per unit sold would be equivalent. |
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