Houston, we have a problem
This week I reached 500 rounds since the last cleaning of the AUG. I wish I could say it was without issue, but, there were some problems functioning with the Hornady 75gr steel cased training ammo.
The AUG functioned flawlessly for about 420 rounds since cleaning, until I loaded a 30 round magazine with this ammunition. My friend Ray was shooting prone at a target on the 300 yard line and I was noticing VERY inconsistent ejection. The casings were ejecting at 1 o'clock about two feet forward, 3 o'clock about four feet away, and a few were ejecting at 2 o'clock about six inches from the gun. After 10 rounds or so, the AUG started stove piping with every round. I double checked and made sure that the gas regulator was on adverse, which it was, still having issues. After six FTE's in a row Ray loaded up the remainder of the ammunition into his 20" AR to see how it worked in his gun. It did feed and eject properly, but for lack of better terms, his gun was "patterning" with the ammunition. Shooting at a target at 300 yards he was having impacts varying from 20 feet high, to 40 feet low. To say it was inconsistent is an understatement. Seeing that his gun was functioning with this ammo, I switched back to the previously reliable Wolf 55gr FMJ. It fired one round and experienced a stuck casing in the chamber. After removing the stuck casing from the chamber, I did a quick cleaning of the barrel and chamber using an Otis cleaning kit. Once the barrel was clean the AUG functioned properly with another 80 rounds of 55gr Reload and Wolf 55gr FMJ.
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It is worth noting that this ammunition features a lacquered casing, something that most steel cased manufacturers have went away from due to issues of the lacquer melting in the chamber and causing stuck cases. Upon inspection of the casings, there were signs of lacquer missing off of several of them, along with one with a split neck. One thing that is interesting is this same type of ammunition functioned reliably earlier this week, and turned out the best 4 shot group during our accuracy testing. I plan on checking the lot number of the box I have versus the rest that The Giant Ginger has to see if this is from a different lot or not.
Due to these issues, I decided to do a full cleaning of the AUG. I plan on keeping it clean now until the 1,000 round mark, and then letting it go without being clean until issues arise.
Due to these issues, I decided to do a full cleaning of the AUG. I plan on keeping it clean now until the 1,000 round mark, and then letting it go without being clean until issues arise.
Malfunctions aside
Up until the nightmare with the Hornady ammunition, the gun functioned completely reliably. Since I have not decided on what sling I want to use, for the time being I have put a sling from an AK74 on the rifle. It works, but is a bit shorter than I would like. pulling up the rifle results in a tight sling, which works great for accuracy, but for more dynamic work I could see it causing some issues.
Performing Reloads
One of the biggest complaints people have online about the AUG is that reloads are slower. I did a little bit of work on performing reloads out of my chest rig while at the range on Thursday. One thing I noticed coming from the AR platform is I instinctively went to press where the magazine release would be on the AR. After slowing down a bit and being methodical, my reloads started to get a bit smoother. One thing using the AK74 sling, is with how short it was space was very tight performing a reload. With the rifle in the up position the sling is tight, not allowing much room for manipulation of the weapon. Once I have a proper sling I plan on doing a writeup and some videos on reloads on the AUG.
Feedback From Other Shooters
One thing about the AUG is it definitely gets attention at the range. After clearing up the problems caused by the Hornady ammunition some shooters came over and asked about it. I showed them how it breaks down and the features of the weapon. All of them were impressed by the balance and short overall length of the AUG. Everyone agreed that even though the trigger is heavy, it is still a workable trigger. After giving them a demo of the features and breakdown of the system, I let the shooters each fire 15 rounds through the AUG. They found it easy to make hits between 100-300 yards using the ACOG. The only real negative feedback was the cost of the weapon and the price of the AUG magazines.
Other Observations
- The creep on the trigger is starting to work out and the trigger is noticeably smoother since the gun was out of the box.
- Even after 500 rounds without a cleaning the bolt group was immaculate. There was a bit of carbon on the piston, but it easily wiped off.
- The stock has a few dings from the casings behind the ejection port, but this is expected and purely cosmetic.
EZ
