Austrian made rifles have smaller gas holes – they use double base propellant in their ammo which has a different peak pressure charactersitic than the Aus ammo which is single base. The Aus barrels have a slightly larger gas hole to match the pressure/time charactersitics of the single base ammo which is used becasue it handles extreme temperature variation in storage (like on the side of an airfield in-theatre) than double base propellant. As the ambient temp gets hotter, double base propellant pressure gets higher than the Aus ammo – which by the way is more accurate and consistent than most other manufacture – certainly better than the M855 US stuff. Thats all to do with the projectile which is composite in structure and must be absolutely concentric if it is going to shoot properly.

There were some issues where some users fired their rifles full auto for as long as they could keep up the ammo to see what would happen. They cooked off – durrrr.

The rushed issue is also a reason why the Aus Army has such stupid and complicated drills. They invented fixes for things that were problems in pre-production rifles, and fixes for some things that are so improbable that it beggars belief.

There is even a drill for a broken firing pin. Hands up anyone who has seen one occur? As a matter of fact I have – it was done deliberately in a trial. It was snapped in half then re-assembled with the two pieces of firing pin and it worked just fine. You have to cut the end off the firing pin so it can’t reach the primer for it to fail.

I have fired thousands of rounds through the F88 and have barely had a stoppage. It is a very accurate rifle. Every rifle I have ever been issued with has shot pretty well. Some better than others, but all better than any but the best SLRs I ever used. There is truth in the rumour that carbines are more consistent than rifles but only marginally so. I have seen standard F88S outshoot specially prepared heavy barrel M16s with non-issue optics in international competition. The S variant offers the option of putting the optical sight of your choice for longer range shooting.

The biggest weakness with ALL of the 5.56 rifles is the stupid multi-lug bolt head. It makes them difficult to check the chamber is clear and it makes them vulnerable to sand and crud ingress. M16, SA80,AUG and just about any other Western rifle you can think of all have the same bolt head design. The M16 is the only one that has a half reasonable bolt-assist, which was added against the recommendation of the designer, Eugene Stoner.

The tipping bolt of the FN / SLR and the Czech VZ 58, or the tri-lug bolt head of the now defunct AAA (closed down by the Howard government)AR18 knock-off are much better designs.

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In the end, the NZDF decided to purchase the Aussie Steyr to cut down on weapon cost and to guarantee there would be no more ammo issues.

It is a highly overrated assault rifle and if given the choice, I would rather throw stones at the enemy than carry that stoppage prone piece of crap.

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as to the comments about the 1.5x integral scope, They can be used both eyes open for rapid target engagement. It takes a bit of getting used to but it allows one to both have a wide field of view, and a bit more detail of the target. having a ring rather than cross hairs or dot also means when targetting it’s simple to focus on the point of aim within the ring, rather than covering something with a dot or centering crosshairs on the point of impact.

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http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2008/08/28/steyr-aug-a4-adi-austeyr-f88-a4/

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ADI would probably upgrade to the A3

http://www.adi-limited.com/site.asp?page=148

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