My AUG Setup

I've been eyeing a bullpup rifle for quite some time. I finally settle on the classic Steyr AUG. Even though this rifle has been in production since 1977, it has yet to be surpassed by any other bullpup rifle. That's not to say newer bullpup rifles don't have some features that surpass the AUG. The IWI Tavor X95, for example, has a more ergonomic magazine release. The FN FS2000 solved the problem of getting a face full of brass when firing the rifle offhand. The Springfield Hellion has a handguard that makes mounting accessories like lights easier. But the AUG remains, in my opinion, the best overall bullpup rifle on the market.

Rather than review a rifle that has been available for almost 50 years, I decided to discuss how I setup my AUG. Nothing in this post is meant to imply that my setup is the best or even better than other setups. It is setup to meet my needs. Your needs might be different. A military's needs are certainly different. My needs are modest. I want to shoot the AUG in two and three-gun competitions and have it on hand for home defense.

Here is a picture of my AUG. I'd apologize for the photograph not being great, but I don't pretend to be a photographer.

The most notable addition to my rifle is the MK2 AUG QD rail. It was the availability of this rail that convinced me to go with the AUG as it overcomes one of the limitations of the platform: mounting a light to the front of the rifle. I mentioned that one use case for this rifle is home defense. I add a light to all of my defensive firearms. Typically a light is mounted to an AUG using the small section of rail on the right side of the rifle. The problem with attaching a light to that rail is that you can't operate the light with your support hand unless you use a tape switch. In most cases the tape switch is attached to the foregrip by wrapping tape around the switch and the foregrip. The upside to this is that the tape switch is securely attached. The downside is that I can see myself unintentionally activating the light by gripping hard on the foregrip in a high stress situation. The other common place to put the tape switch is on the left side of the stock near the trigger. The upside to this is that the tape switch can be activated with the thumb of the trigger hand. The downside is that the tape switch is only attached to the rifle by the adhesive on the back of the tape switch (I've had too many tape switches fall off for me to be comfortable with that setup).

The MK2 rail includes an M-Lok handguard and an extended section of top rail. Both can be used to attach accessories. Originally I attached a Surefire M640DFT-Pro Turbo Scout Light to the right side of the handguard and a tape switch to the left side. I found this setup to be too bulky when testing it so I went back to the drawing board. The solution I ended up with was attaching a Streamlight TLR RM 2 to the top rail. Because the extended section of top rail on the MK2 is lower than the rest of the top rail, placing the light there doesn't obscure my optic. As you can see from the picture, the Streamlight fits perfectly there. I can activate the light with both hands by c-clamping the rifle (another capability the MK2 enables). The only downside to this setup is that gas-port cover on the handguard diverts gas in every direction besides the right side of the rifle. This means your hand ends up covered in gas when you c-clamp the rifle and your index finger ends up with a nice black mark where the bottom rearmost M-Lok slot sits when gripping the foregrip. If dirty hands bother you, you won't like this setup. If you do use this setup, make sure to wash your hands afterwards to get any lead off of them.

I settled on the Primary Arm GLx 2X Prism Scope for the optic. The original AUGs came with a built-in 1.5X magnified optic. I wanted to keep with the spirit of the low magnification optic on my rifle. The GLx 2X optic uses the ACSS reticle, which I like. The large circle makes the reticle easy for my eyes to pick up (I have a tough time picking up a red dot for some reason) and I like chevrons as aiming devices. The ACSS also has a built-in bullet drop compensator, which is nice when shooting at longer ranges (which I admittedly seldom do). This is the first rifle on which I've mounted an optic so I can't give much of a review of the GLx 2X other than to say I like it and it has been working well for me.

The other accessory I added to the rifle is a Corvus Defensio case deflector.

My wife is left handed. She doesn't appreciate getting a face full of brass when shooting a bullpup. Therefore, a case deflector was mandatory, but I also like having it for shooting offhand (I also don't appreciate a face full of brass). I chose the Corvus case deflector because I like the look of it better than all of the other AUG case deflectors on the market. Sometimes even I can be a sucker for aesthetics.

For the sling, I'm using the Magpul MS1, which I use on all of my defensive long arms. I've tried a variety of slings including the Ferro Concepts Slingster and I always find myself coming back to the MS1. I like that it's wide enough not to necessitate padding and the adjustment slider is quick to operate and stays in place for me.

If you're playing along at home and calculating the cost of this setup, it's absurd. I got the Steyr AUG on sale through Berelli, which saved me a few hundred dollars. Everything I saved went into the MK2 rail, the brass deflector, and the optic. Cost is the biggest downside to bullpups in my opinion. You can build a very nice AR-15 and buy a lot of accessories and ammunition for the price of a bullpup rifle. In fact my home defense rifle until I setup this AUG was an AR-15 that I built close to a decade ago. Bullpups bring two significant advantages to the table though. Maneuvering a bullpup rifle inside a house is a day and night difference compared to an AR-15 with a 16" or longer barrel. Even a short barrel AR-15 will typically be slightly longer than an AUG and the AUG gives you a full length barrel (which is valuable for the ballistic performance of the 5.56x45mm). The other advantage is that bullpups are typically balanced in such a way that holding them with one hand is comfortable. Firing them with one hand is feasible. That means you can keep your rifle in the fight when using your support hand to open doors, turning on light switches, and pushing loved ones to safety. The trade-off is a worse trigger and a manual of arms that is slightly less ergonomic than an AR-15 (mostly the magazine release, which is behind the magazine on the AUG). But for a two/three-gun and home defense rifle, I don't need a fantastic trigger.

I've shot a lot of rounds through my AUG and run it through a few two-gun matches. I'm very happy with the performance of the rifle and the setup I just described has been working very well for me.