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

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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