Earlier, we covered Microtech Small Arms Research’s immediate close and the sale of their assets. As a result of his coverage of the closure, Ethan of Aftermath Gun Club received several emails from a well known manufacturer seeking to buy the MSAR tooling. As Ethan is not affiliated with Microtech, these emails left him understandably confused:

This morning I received some awkward emails that I didn’t understand at first. After some silence on my part (being in a time-zone not awake yet) another email came in before I woke that explained the nature of the inquiry. A firearm manufacturer with a well known name was inquiring about purchasing the tooling and machines from MSAR for thier firearms and related products.

Somehow my brief write-up on MSAR caught their attention and they mistook my site as the seller of the equipment. I received so much appreciated attention from The Firearm Blogand Reddit, it took me awhile to scan all the emails*.

I called the inquiring company and straightened out the details. With MSARInc.com posting only their closing press release, I was able to provide a little more contact information than what was listed as just tooling@msarinc.com. Since this was a mistake on their part, I didn’t feel it was ethical to give up their name. Falsely attributed to George Orwell, but meaningful nevertheless, this quote came to mind, “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” Regardless, I’m not going to take advantage of a mistake, especially since said company may not be the name that purchases it in the end (assuming someone finds the pricing reasonable enough to buy).

The important detail here, is there are interested parties looking at continuing production.

As a fan of the AUG’s design, I certainly hope the MSAR tooling is purchased by a manufacturer looking to continue Microtech’s work improving the USteyr. We’ll have more information here as it becomes available.

Thanks to Daniel for the tip.