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The story of Steyr Mannlicher began in 1821 when Leopold Werndl, a blacksmith, started manufacturing iron parts for firearms in the city of Steyr. His son Josef Werndl took over his business and founded the 'Josef und Franz Werndl & Comp. Waffenfabrik und Sägemühle in Oberletten ' in 1864. In the following years, he played a crucial role in the development of several rifles, including the straight pull-rifles M. 85 and M. 86. At the beginning of the 20th century, the engineers Ferdinand Mannlicher and Otto Schönauer developed the Original Mannlicher Schönauer, a legendary hunting rifle, the production of which took place until 1973. The company grew over the years and reached a production capability of 4.000 firearms per day before World War I. After the War, Steyr was prohibited from firearm manufacturing after the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was signed. To avoid going bankrupt, they used their knowledge and machinery to manufacture cars, bicycles, motorcycles, tractors, trucks, dynamos, electric motors, and other things (they were not allowed to resume firearm production until 1930). In 1926, the company’s name was changed to Steyr-Werke AG. It merged with Austro-Daimler-Puchwerke AG in 1934 to form Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG. Both Austro-Daimler (previously a subsidiary of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft) and Puch (founded by the Slovenian inventor and mechanic Janez Puh) were active in the automobile industry, with Puch also manufacturing bicycles, motorcycles, and mopeds.
They even employed Ferdinand Porsche for a time – he made several contributions to the company – one of them was designing an air-cooled 3.5 L V8 engine for the Steyr RSO Raupenschlepper Ost tracked vehicle. Steyr is known for modifying Fiat cars and adding their engines to some of the models (Steyr-Fiat 1100 Mod E and Fiat 1400, for example). In 1972, they cooperated with Mercedes in the design of Puch G, also known as Mercedes Benz G-class.
During World War II, the company focused on firearm, vehicle, aviation engine, and ball-bearing production for the German military. After a short firearm manufacturing ban after the end of the War, Steyr resumed the production of arms in 1950. In the years that followed, they presented many innovative firearms such as StG 77 (also known as Steyr AUG), an assault rifle with a bullpup design; SSG 69, which was ahead of its time after its release in 1969, and many others. In 1989, Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG broke up into different sectors; Steyr Mannlicher AG became independent. The company has strived to be internationally oriented, so it changed its name to Steyr Arms in 2019.
Steyr AUG is a bullpup assault rifle which was initially used by the Austrian law enforcement units and military; however, the rifle was also offered in several civilian variants. It was first introduced in 1978 and is still in production today. What is more, the Australian army adopted the AUG and renamed it F88 Austeyr. It is still manufactured under the license of Steyr Mannlicher AG.
The AUG rifle uses a gas operating system and is designed as a modular weapon to be used for various purposes - as a rifle, carbine, sniper rifle, sub-machine gun or an automatic rifle. Moreover, the AUGs with 407 mm (16-inch) and 508 mm (20-inch) barrels are suitable for rifle grenades or mounting a dedicated under-barreled grenade launcher. The charging handle is positioned on the front left side of the receiver and the cross-bolt button-type safety is on the right side beneath the ejection port.
The rifle is exceptionally lightweight as it is predominantly built from light polymer materials and aluminum. Inside the action, between the guiding rods, there is a rotary bolt with seven locking lugs. AUG boasts a progressive trigger which is pull-weight sensitive – a softer pull puts it in the semi-auto mode and pulling it to back sets the rifle in the full-auto mode. The entire trigger group is made of plastic. A double-column magazine can hold up to thirty cartridges, although an extended 42-round version is available for the light-machine gun variant. The takedown of the rifle requires no tools - turning the front handle to the left separates the barrel from the stock. Moreover, pressing a knob placed on the right side of the stock splits the entire receiver chassis from the stock allowing for a further disassembly. The stainless-steel rods, buttplate, swing swivels and trigger group can all be easily removed within seconds. Contrary to the older models of the AUG that had integrated scope sights, the modern versions come with an integrated Picatinny rail for mounting purposes. The current civilian version is available as a gas operated semiautomatic rifle with an integrated Picatinny rail.
Steyr AUG is available in the following barrel lengths: 350 mm (13.8-inch), 407 mm (16-inch), 420 mm (16.5-inch), 508 mm (20-inch), and 621 mm (24.4-inch).
Figure 1: An old version of Steyr AUG with an integrated scope sight, chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO (Source: https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/55/1865/steyr-augrifle-223)
Figure 2. A modern version of Steyr AUG with an integrated Picatinny rail chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO (Source: https://www.cordeliagunexchange.com/product/steyr-arms-aug-a3-m1-blk-20in-nato-ca/)
Steyr AUG is available in the following calibers:
5.56×45mm NATO
9×19mm Parabellum
.40 S&W
Steyr AUG is available in the following variants*:
Steyr AUG P
Steyr AUG P Special Receiver
Steyr AUG SA
Steyr AUG Z
Steyr AUG Z Sport
Steyr AUG Z A3
Steyr AUG Z A3 9mm
Steyr AUG Z A3 SE
Steyr AUG USR
Steyr AUG A3 SA USA
Steyr AUG A3 SA NATO
Steyr AUG A3 M1
Steyr AUG SPR
*Only civilian variants are listed.
The receivers of modern Steyr AUGs come with an integrated Picatinny rail for mounting purposes, whereas the old models used an integrated scope sight.
Figure 3: Integrated Picatinny rail on a modern version of Steyr AUG, chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO (Source: https://atlanticfirearms.com/steyr-aug-a3-m1-black-extended-rail)
Figure 4: The old Steyr AUG model with an integrated optic sight, chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO (Source: https://www.zib-militaria.de/Steyr-AUG-EU-deactivated-assault-rifle-M13614)
The necessary condition for rifles to have one-piece scope mounts interchangeable is that the mounting surfaces of these rifles match in every dimension. Rifles that have one-piece scope mounts interchangeable with Steyr AUG are the following:
Rifles featuring a Picatinny rail for mounting purposes
For two-piece scope mounts to be interchangeable, the mounting surfaces of the rifles must match in every dimension except the action length which can vary. This is because the distance between the two pieces of the mount is not fixed. Rifles that have two-piece scope mounts interchangeable with Steyr AUG are the following:
Please note that the upper information only applies to the modern version of AUG featuring an integrated Picatinny rail.
If you are looking for a fixed mounting solution to install on your Steyr AUG, we recommend this mono-block mount for Picatinny manufactured by the German company ERA-TAC. It is made of high-quality aluminum and comes with a two-year warranty.
Order ERA-TAC GEN-2 One-Piece mount
We recommend this cantilever mono-block mounting solution manufactured by the German company ERA-TAC that provides the user with the flexibility of easily attaching and detaching an optic without any tools and retaining zero at the same time.
Check out ERA-TAC GEN-2 One-Piece mount
If you happen to own this or any other rifle, we would appreciate it if you could help us expand our database by sending us some photos of the rifle receiver (the bare mounting surface of the rifle without the scope mounts installed). For your help, our company offers a fair return in terms of practical rewards.
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