OIF
Glad you made it back (: There were just two Austrians in Iraq, afaik, as unarmed medic (neutral country, contractual obligation like Finland)
ACOG
Had to look that up. Yes, looks like a fany piece of hardware.
point of pride
... that makes old craftmanship and skill obsolete... The technical advantage sounds like a prothesis for a gift a friend has, which is that he has a shortsighted and a farsighted eye or something so he can see both the target and iron sights at the same time, what made him an IPSC natural
lax gun laws
Why? Popular theories (this really is a thing in conversations, many armed friends):
1.) Austrian companies make that stuff and want to sell sell sell
2.) Hunting is a thing, especially with ex-royalty, who still has a lot of leverage
3.) 20th century military doctrine, which is essentially training for winter war (Finns got the Soviets BTFOed like 10:1 bodycount or so) and requires an armed, motivated militia
4.) Austria is a money-laundering narco-state, so running guns is a natural extra economy
Ammo sold out
I keep reading about that and think you guys are doing it right.
socialist
Austria is breeeety socialist on the face of it, but only in the big city. On the countryside, not so much (Hitler).
Not anymore. I'm an old man now. I also have to suck other men's dicks because I'm not flexible enough for sucking my own. Alas, the youthful days are gone for good... Live fast, do many Angstroms, because the fun won't last forever.
I'm actually really interested in your opinions (I've never worked with the Austrians).
Glee. Are you military? Or a trainer?
For example, let's say you're shooting at 500 yard and you set your site to 500. But, suddenly a target pops up at 200 yards. Now, your sites sent able to properly hit so you "aim lower" or maybe instead of looking through the rear sight ring,
Sounds like a more advanced level of technology we had. Our rifles were "calibrated" by a grumpy old authority/armorer for good with tools in his shop (apparently for 100 yards) and there was no way for endusers to change that, especially from target to target. In fact, woe was to folks who had "abused" their weapon in such a way that it had to be "re-calibrated". Factoring in the drop/lag of the bullet for more distant targets or for moving targets was apparently difficult for some people who had not been exposed to vidyas before basic training. 500 yards sounds like a lot to me. Chapeau, marines! [1]
ammo in Austria
In the army, it is an extremely bureaucratic process (waiting in line, reporting name, officer checks name in list, other officer passes a certain number of bullets, report reception of bullets), but people with a license (hunters, recreational marksmen, etc.) can buy rounds like q-tips, and many do. (Fun fact: not a single day of lockdown for gun shops during the 'rona. Churches, gyms, schools: no such luck. National saltmine.) Getting a license is no problem in Austria; getting it revoked rarely happens, even if you were to run around drunk spraying bullets in public, for as long as noone is hurt. Such things do happen, and the judges at the gun-authority office who rule over such cases usually side with the offender, downplaying incidents. "Look, don't we all get drunk once in a while? And do stupid things? Nothing happened!"
In the states that's a necessity for zeroing a rifle now a daus
I don't understand what that means. You have to prove that your gun is correctly zeroed in for buying ammo?
Semi-personal account:
Underage baby brother and cousins got busted with a (small) pistol and no license in the woods, practicing. Local residents felt bothered by the noise. Arresting coppers made conversation, talking shop, on the way to the constabulary and were impressed by how much the boys knew about firearms. Cops kept the gun and told them to GTFO. No receipts, no names, no paperwork. (Many people can tell such stories about lenient gun law enforcement. Germany is VERY different in that regard. It is much harder to get a license.)
[1] I checked the numbers for the first time. The required precision is stunning. At a distance of 100 yards/m, if you or your scope is off by an arcMINUTE, you miss by 29 millimeters, more than an inch. It's five times as much for 500 yards. An arcminute is not much. What is counter-intuitive here is that the tilt from the recoil is apparently negligible, at least at 100 yards.
You spend years learning a weapon then
Austrian basic training is only a few months, so sunk cost would not be an issue here. Guns are too expensive for me right now, or better: getting good with them is quite costly and time consuming. Buying a gun without the will to put effort into it is probably a big mistake.
for sniping out at range. I'd guess 500 yards
"Sniping" was meant as "shooting at a range with a telescope" without the target shooting back. 500 yards is quite a distance and takes a lot of skill. Apart from that: afaik, sniping is extremely demanding, because you can't take the bus to your target, but must get there on foot in the moutains or jungle. I'm not a sniper.
All this is more theoretical in my case. You guys have told me more than I can process at the moment. Thanks, btw. This brings us to your first paragraph, because I have only a vague understanding what you are talking about. Perhaps I should buy a "rifles for dummies" book before I get back. Guns and war are very interesting, though. I can relate to your passion.
BuLoMu in SLICK???
Are there blacks in Salt Lake City now? Or LEFTISTS???
I'm not teasing you; I really did not expect that. It has become a fuckedup silly world, but then again, there is a communist abortion homo pope now.
with the magwell being by the operator's torso
Interesting, because I guessed that that's better for absorbing the recoil. (As far as I remember recoil was a non-issue with the AUG/StG77, at least while lying on the belly.)
but the short barrel leaves a lot of ballistic performance on the table
makes sense.
Threading or button-rifling a barrel is actually pretty easy.
Thinking about it, you can probably cut it with a a tap-and-die [1] like a thread for a screw. (Been there, done that, btw.)
This complex bit is the receiver extension- the bolt itself would be even more impossible to make at home even with a full machine shop.
The part in pic looks indeed complicated. Beats me how you make the inside cogs without a CNC mill.
Look up the mechanics of a Sten gun or similar- it's just a cylinder of metal
Thanks for your patience. I'm feeling awkward for lack of vocabulary and metalworks knowledge. War is hell. It's an interesting subject, though.
[1] If this makes no sense, I have to look up all the technical terms.
Plus it'll take some training to re-familiarize the average american with a bullpup reload.
Interesting, because wikipedia sez that it is easier to manoeuver (the mechanics checks out with me; didn't know there is any other way, though.)
The AR is not bullpup? The AUG/StG77 definitely is.
barrel extension
That I've pieced together myself, it's the rifling in the rifle, right? (I had to look up "grooves and fields"; it's "6 Züge/6 Felder" for the StG77. Was yelled at because I did not know when quizzed by sergeant.)
Reliable home-builds are the domain of open-bolt, tube-receiver sub machine guns imo.
Why only submachine guns? Aren't they more fragile due to smaller parts?
3D-printers can help a lot, but have limits for force-bearing parts at this point. I doubt that Talibans use them. Not sure what a "lower" and "upper" is, although I read the piece on quora.com .
Also: Automatic rifles are probably a mere incremental improvement over semi-auto in real-life combat.
AUG has a great reputation for reliability and general goodness.
An advocate, great!
If you can get an AUG, get an AUG. Super sexy rifle.
Austrian army procurement cost in 1987: ~ a 1000 dollars. I hope I'm not revealing state secrets. I could probably own one legally, but not a fully automatic one ("weapon of war"). For people who are preparing for the worst, spare parts and how to get them are an issue, of course. A friend told me that you can saw and file spare parts for an AR with a jigsaw and manicure utilities from sheet metal. Is that true? No such luck with the "AUG" (never heard that, thanks.)
You US-killers are living in an arms paradise. I doubt that I can buy spares just like that in my country (Austria), although it has fairly libertine gun-laws when compared to Germany. (I keep hearing that folks on the Austrian countryside often have large illegal arsenals at home, including weapons of war. Cops are into it, too, and turn a blind eye. That's the Austrian way: strict laws, non-strict enforcement.)
zeros it's rifles kentucky windage
Thanks, nerd, for expanding my vocabulary, but I'm at odds with
owhll dehy and 3hundo
the reload mechanism is awkward, even to people who train on them
I'd be curious to see other mechanisms, because it looked elegantly simple to me, but then again, never saw any other rifle. Apparently it was not obvious that my experience is limited to mandatory army service. (In Austria, so that's why StG77.)
really want to pop armor indoors then I guess that's fine.
That was outdoors in one of the harshest winters on record. Thanks again.
Also eye-opening: my focus was on sniping; forgot that typical use is self-defense.
kekus toppusss