Steyr AUG NATO Magazine Issue

The Steyr AUG has been an iconic weapon used by militaries around the world and by shooters around the world too. The original magazines that this weapon was designed to use are not easy to come by still, and they are quite expensive to the tune of thirty bucks a pop. I really was not looking forward to coughing up that kind of cash for this rifle, which caused me to steer clear of the rifle overall for a long time.
With the NATO stock being available, I went out of my way and scored myself the rifle I wanted. I got one in black with a fixed 1.5x optic. Though I was originally wanting the classic OD green stock, I wwas satisfied that I was able to get a black one in its place. The rifle is impressive to me, even though I originally started from using the Tavor. In many ways, I feel like the AUG is built to last alot longer than the Tavor, though time will tell.
During my break in of the rifle I used 1000 rounds of M855 ammo due to it being very strong and having a good kick to help break in the rifle. I also threw in some 55 grain M193 and some other rounds like 55 grain VMAX ammo loaded by HPR. The 55 grain ammo required a fully opened gas system and sometimes had issues with cycling, though it has subsided recently as all the springs and the gas system have broken in for the most part. The other thing i did was test a variety of magazines in this rifle.
The AUG came with one Gen3 PMAG, which worked fine in the rifle. But I have a good sized collection of other magazines like Gen2 PMAGs, Troy mags, Hexmags, as well as standard stamp aluminum mags commonly referred to as STANAGs. I began trying out these other magazines in the rifle and immediately started seeing issues. The STANAG mags where the worst of them, though they also gave me issues in the Tavor due to the tilting followers. The Hexmags also had issues where the round would miss the feed ramps all together and get stuck on the wall right next to the feed ramps on the right side only. To correct this, I found that I had to slap the magazine bottom to the right, which would free up the stuck round. But this didn't always work because in many cases, the projectiles where shoved back into the cartridge case completely, which is never a good thing.
The Troy magazines seemed to function when it came to shooting anything but steel cased ammo or M855. They were the only magazines, aside from my PMAGs, that worked. I looked over all the issues and found out the root of the problem, and it confused the heck out of me.

The problem was with the magazine feed mouth. The opening at the top of the magazines that the rounds have to go through as they are being pushed out. On the STANAG, Hexmag, and even the Troy mags, the feed mouths are considerably wide open compared to the PMAG feed mouth. I found that there is just enough play in the magazines, when inserted in the magwell, to cause the issues I was having.

When I called Steyr, they told me that this is not something that they have seen much of, and it is unacceptable that this is happening. They offered to take the rifle stock from me and replace it, but I kindly declined for now because the issue isn't dire at the moment due to the amount of magazines I have that work in it. Though in time, I will take them up on their offer.
What I want you to get out of this is that the Steyr AUG NATO is not a bad design, and this is not a normal issue, but it is something that can happen. This occurence has actually prompted me to feel that the PMAG feed mouth design just might be the way to go in order to ensure reliability accross the spectrum of weapons that use M4-style magazines.

Author

David Donchess (Do It Rite)