TimeOut

Marcus Hanke
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The Steyr (!) AUG was introduced in 1977 ...

... into the Austrian Army, but only in tiny numbers. It lasted more than fifteen years, until all the army was equipped with it. Its predecessor, the StG (Means "Sturmgewehr", which is the German word for "assault rifle") 58 was a typical post-WW II rifle with 7.65mm calibre; heavy it was, large, and consisted of many parts, that needed a full set of tools to disassemble it. When I started my army drill in 1982, we had to deal with this vintage tool, and the typical cleaning drill was very time-consuming, due to the parts count. Shooting, too, was poor, since the old weapon did not like hard bumps and beats very well.

The StG 77, or "Steyr AUG", as it was called internationally, was based on a private draft of an Austrian army weapons master, and was a huge leap forward in ergonomy. When we got it, the difference was apparent: lighter, more bullets in a magazine, due to the smaller 5.56 NATO-caliber, sturdy, and can be disassembled without any additional tool. The parts count is minimal, so for the first time the weapons assembly drill in absolute darkness made a real sense. And the best thing was the cleaning. Many parts being from plastic, you simply threw them in a bucket with soap water and cleaned them with a tooth brush. The shooting was a lot easier as well: there is no selector for single and series shots, you just pull the trigger a little harder to fire a series. The problem there was, that untrained soldiers often were nervous, and fired their whole magazine in a moment, instead of several single shots. Additionally, the safety lock was a bit too easy to be unlocked, and more than once I witnessed a shot going off when soldiers passed dense forest areas; the safety pusher lock had somehow unlocked, and a twig getting caught at the trigger was enough to relase a shot. Thankfully, these were only training bullets.

Finally, the introduction of a simple, but very effective optical visor was revolutionary. It had only a 1.5x magnification, and no real bull's eye, but a small circle marked a diameter of 1.8 meters at a range of 300 meters, which is the typical tactical firing range. Suddenly, the average soldier became a sniper.

Regards,
Marcus