New dog on the block


Very good news for fans of bullpup rifles: Steyr has just released a new version of the AUG. It has a fully modern Picatinny rail system. You add the sight base that best serves your needs. Options include an AUG scope with rail slots on it.


Steyr AUG A3 M1



So now people shopping for a bullpup, and wanting to take advantage of modern options in sighting equipment, have an additional gun to look at. Steyr quality is always very good and the AUG is a well proven design. The basic AUG rifle has been around since the late seventies and is in military and police use in a number of countries around the world.

A rifle in the bullpup configuration makes outstandingly good sense for personal protection or home defense and is great for hiking. Because the receiver is set back into the buttstock, you can have a usefully long barrel in a rifle of short over-all length. The idea is an old one but it has taken a long time to catch on. There are certain technical issues to sort out in building a gun that way and there is a bit of traditionalist inertia involved too--riflemen who like rifles that look like what they have seen before, or work like the ones they had in the service, and some people just have an atavistic attraction to polished walnut and gleaming blue steel.

But the future has definitely arrived with the availability of top quality, up to date bullpups from Steyr, IWI and FN; doubtless more makers will join the market. These rifles look like prop guns from fifties sci-fi movies, but they offer an advantage in portability with no compromise of functionality.

You can read more about the new AUG here: http://www.nrablog.com/post/2014/10/20/Steyr-Arms-starts-shipping-the-AUG-A3-M1-Rifle-Platform.aspx

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