Thread: At least it's a nice colour green - NZDF choose AR to replace Steyrs

I used to get on the piss a bit with a retired Colonel who had a fair bit to do with the Steyr trial, R93 probably knows him. He got himself in a bit of strife later in life but was quite a good dude. I remember asking him about Steyr selection once and sorry to quell all the conspiracy/butter theories but vaguely(as was quite chopped @Cowboys Bar) remember him saying it tested far better than the other options available at the time. The AR's we get now are possibly made a bit better than the ones 20 odd years ago provided to be making fair comparisons with, as have tested up tops this time and as a result they have selected them.
Many grunts back then may have also had personnel preferences to AR'S like if everyone on here were told this is the one rifle you can buy to go hunting many would be pissed off.

Originally Posted by jackson21

I used to get on the piss a bit with a retired Colonel who had a fair bit to do with the Steyr trial, R93 probably knows him. He got himself in a bit of strife later in life but was quite a good dude. I remember asking him about Steyr selection once and sorry to quell all the conspiracy/butter theories but vaguely(as was quite chopped @Cowboys Bar) remember him saying it tested far better than the other options available at the time. The AR's we get now are possibly made a bit better than the ones 20 odd years ago provided to be making fair comparisons with, as have tested up tops this time and as a result they have selected them.
Many grunts back then may have also had personnel preferences to AR'S like if everyone on here were told this is the one rifle you can buy to go hunting many would be pissed off.

If his first name begins with a G and last with a B then yeah I know him.
He was our shooting team coach for a number of years. And prevalent on a few weapon trials.
And he is lying thru his teeth😆

The A2 trialed the top in everything except accuracy and that would be due to the sights. To be fair tho, we were just the grunts and the end user. We didn't have to think about economics and such. We just said what we liked and why. There was set criteria we were familiar with and had to rate performance according to it

The AUG was defiantly a favorite and up there but we were surprised it was selected.

The sniper rifle trial in 90-91 was also a surprise selection as the M24 variant was the most popular with the users.
The AW although accurate was far to heavy and cumbersome for the intended role.
Most blokes shot a modified Hawkins style and it was achievable with great results with most other rifles on trial.
The AW raised your profile too much and a lot of blokes struggled with it when first in service. I hated the thing and especially the optics being fixed 10x. Vari powers were not known for reliability back then.
I still hate the system and hope they come to their senses and go to a more user friendly system in the future.
The AW would suit static positions on roof tops and rubble loopholes but carrying around in the green role it is poos.

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R93,I completely share your view regarding the AW.
The fashion is to things standing higher and higher, with scopes to fare up the bore axis that canting error are more likely to occur.
Carlos Hathcock would be spinning in his grave if he was seeing that!

Originally Posted by Friwi

R93,I completely share your view regarding the AW.
The fashion is to things standing higher and higher, with scopes to fare up the bore axis that canting error are more likely to occur.
Carlos Hathcock would be spinning in his grave if he was seeing that!

White Feather wouldn't give a fuck. His Military uses sensible gear. Ours on the other hand.
It is all just personal opinion but pretty much shared from what I remember by most of my era of grunts. FNG's and pogues, especially pogues wouldn't know any different as they have not used or trained with anything else. Limiting their knowledge and experience.

The role of the infantry is to seek out and close with the enemy, to kill or capture him, to seize and to hold ground and to repel attack, by night and day, regardless of season, weather or terrain.

The role will never change. They just need sensible gear to achieve it.

R93, to be fair, that is more correct what he told me, it was the accuracy tests the AUG topped and was why they chose it. Think he also mumbled something about was it Austrian Steyrs for tests but later supplied with Aussie built ones which weren't as good? Welcome to correct me here R93 also as was sometime ago and heavily on the diesels....

Originally Posted by jackson21

R93, to be fair, that is more correct what he told me, it was the accuracy tests the AUG topped and was why they chose it. Think he also mumbled something about was it Austrian Steyrs for tests but later supplied with Aussie built ones which weren't as good? Welcome to correct me here R93 also as was sometime ago and heavily on the diesels....

I think the Aussie ones had a problem with the mold for the stocks which was sorted rather quickly iirc. Few other minor issues they also sorted over time.
Dunno why they chose the reticle they used compared to ours. It was a weird decision imo.
I managed to pass their AWQ using it when I was attached to one of their battalions for a while. Was difficult when you had to hold a fig 11 target central as best you could inside a large circle at 300😆

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Originally Posted by R93

I think the Aussie ones had a problem with the mold for the stocks which was sorted rather quickly iirc. Few other minor issues they also sorted over time.
Dunno why they chose the reticle they used compared to ours. It was a weird decision imo.
I managed to pass their AWQ using it when I was attached to one of their battalions for a while. Was difficult when you had to hold a fig 11 target central as best you could inside a large circle at 300��

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R93

As I recall, that was the Austrian Army reticle in the Austrian video that they showed us when we got our Austrian Steyrs,which were later swapped out for Aussie rifles (during another pointless reorganisation). Still not a good reason to choose it BUT ... what can you expect from people who get their gravy in red bottles labelled tomato sauce?

Funny that about the Sniper rifles, I often think....fuck imagine trying to lug some of those heavy sniper contraptions around with all your other shit through bush with massive scopes on top, not like you're cruising around on a quad!

Originally Posted by jackson21

I used to get on the piss a bit with a retired Colonel who had a fair bit to do with the Steyr trial, R93 probably knows him. He got himself in a bit of strife later in life but was quite a good dude. I remember asking him about Steyr selection once and sorry to quell all the conspiracy/butter theories but vaguely(as was quite chopped @Cowboys Bar) remember him saying it tested far better than the other options available at the time. The AR's we get now are possibly made a bit better than the ones 20 odd years ago provided to be making fair comparisons with, as have tested up tops this time and as a result they have selected them.
Many grunts back then may have also had personnel preferences to AR'S like if everyone on here were told this is the one rifle you can buy to go hunting many would be pissed off.

I know a retired Captain that participated in the AUG trial, @R93 will know him, first and last name start with a T and is a Vietnam Vet.

He said the A2 won hands down and they were pissed when the AUG got chosen. He said it was pointless as they'd already made up their mind.