The Steyr STM-556- A Rare Piston AR-15 with AUG DNA.mp4

Hey everyone, James Reaves, TFB TV here at Austria Arms with my buddy Martin. You guys have seen him on the channel, you've also seen him, he's an international celebrity with the Austria Arms YouTube channel. Their channel far superior to the ---- that we put out in TFB TV, but fortunately for us they do it in the German language. Here at Austria Arms, we're looking at some stuff to bring to the range today. Martin says, hey James, have you ever shot the Steyr SDM 5.6? I'm like, I don't even know what the hell it is, and then I start looking at it and it's like, okay, this looks a little like an LMT MRP, and then the more I looked at it, the more I realized how unusual this gun is. This is a one of, they only made 300 of these. And it's extremely unusual, and you're going to have to walk me through everything because I had never even heard of this gun prior to today, Martin, but I know Steyr's right down the street, you know all the people there. Tell me about this, what is it? Well, this is actually a Steyr AUG, which always wanted to be an AR-15. Yeah, a transition to an AR-15, basically. It's still got some Steyr AUG pieces, like let's start with one of the weirder things. It's got the quick change barrel, like the AUG, with the same lugs, and this lever that you see here with my bandaged, crippled, leper thumb. Why? They wanted to make, this gun is actually the one and only, or first AR-15 made by Steyr, and of course they wanted to make something different than everyone else, and then they thought, hey, let's take a few of the features of the AUG, which are cool and awesome, and put it into an AR-15. And having an AR-15 with a barrel change mechanism like the AUG is actually very neat and unique, and the idea was to give the operator the ability to change barrel lengths, and also in terms of caliber, maybe switching to another caliber on the trip, blackout, and with this mechanism, it's similar like the AUG, super fast and easy, and gives the user more options. Yeah, I mean, for me, it's one of those things where it doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. It makes total sense when you look at the AUG, because the AUG doesn't work the way an AR works, and what I mean by that is if I want a 300 blackout AR-15, I just buy a 300 blackout upper. Like, you know, again, would it be nice to buy just the barrel? Sure, but at the same time, I'm not sure that it's worth having a proprietary system where I've now got to go with these proprietary barrels. It's going to be heavier, probably. It's going to have this unorthodox system of, look, if this were the way the AR-15 were designed 60 years ago, then maybe I might be a little more enticed, but to me, it seems like taking a concept that worked from another rifle and forcing it onto this one. So change the barrels, that's cool, but when you look at the ecosystem itself, it doesn't make a lot of sense for me personally. Yeah, yes and no, I mean, Steyr is used to do that for the AUG series, and obviously the AUG is also intended as a military service rifle, and the same thing they also wanted to make with an AR-15, that they have some kind of towards military clients, which have one gun, which they adopt, and then getting some spare parts and stuff like that for the supply chain. It's like just a barrel instead of the whole upper, so from that perspective, it was intended for that purpose. Steyr also teamed up with Rheinmetall, and they called it the RS-556 for the German Bundeswehr tender for the replacement of the G36. This rifle was also in the trials of that selection, but it did not surpass that. Yeah, and it's also kind of an unusual, it's like the LMT MRP, or like the Colt, basically the Colt that borrowed from the patent for the LMT MRP, where you've got this monolithic upper, which is nice, but then it kind of has this unusual, you've got the Picatinny rail, right along the top at the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, and then kind of like, I mean... Proprietary. Yeah, proprietary bullshit. That gun is also not that current when it comes to development. That gun was introduced the first time, I think it was 2010, 11, when the public first saw it, and then it was not available on the market at all, and just recently, 2020, they released it to the commercial side. So, at that time, back in the days, there was no M-LOK, there was no Keymod, or not that much of these systems available in Steyr, so let's make our own system, and the cool thing is that with these holes, I would call it, you have QD attachment points as an option, but you can also screw in, with that distance, you have two threaded holes here and here as well, you can screw in the Picatinny rails of the Steyr AUG side receiver rail, which is like a 45 degree, it fits here as well. I mean, that's not like totally dumb, I mean, everyone is kind of doing M-LOK, but I also understand at the same time in Europe, a lot of countries are still doing Keymod, and a lot of units are still doing Keymod, so in the grand scheme of things, not terrible. Now, if you look at the barrel, it's got an adjustable gas system that looks very similar to the AUGs as well. It's a piston operated rifle, where you have the ability to adjust the gas block as well, here even with a shell of ammunition of 5.56, you can go in and adjust the gas block to your settings, which you need. Then it also has a Picatinny rail on the gas block, which in my opinion isn't that great because every backup iron sight would probably melt away, but whatever, they just added it here. Barrel length in that rifle is 16 inches only, so when they released it to the commercial market, they only gave away the 16 inch versions. In the prototype phase of the gun for the military applications, there were for sure different barrel lengths, but you can only get them in 16 inch if you have them commercially, so the whole barrel change feature doesn't make sense at that point, but as I said, this gun was aimed for a more military driven client. It's got A&B controls, but they're a bit unusual. It's almost like an old school shotgun bolt release for the magazine release on the right hand side, and it makes no sense. You were explaining to me on the range, that's one of the weakest points of this rifle. Why? I mean, not only does it kind of suck ergonomically. The mag release is in that configuration, the only configuration, so it's not a mil spec or AR spec bolt release where you have this more squared button, it's a very tiny rounded button, which is hard to press, especially if the bolt is closed, but also a few of these STM rifles had the issue with the magazine catch, which was not 100% at that point where it should be. So meaning that on a few of the STM lowers, the magazine was a bit deeper, and they caused issues when it comes to feeding. So in case this rifle is jamming, it's probably because of the magazine, because someone is resting on the magazine or whatever. Interesting. Worst thing about this gun, this is the shittiest magazine release I've ever used in my entire life. It's little, and you have to be precise and apply a lot of pressure. Look at that. I was pressing it, and you guys saw it wasn't coming out. On the other hand, were it me and I were training off this, here is not so bad, actually. That magazine release right there, if you just, I guess you can go thumb up, grip it and rip it, and you're fine, but this is, look, I'm pressing it. It's easy to shoot, but that magazine release, Jesus. I see it's got an ambi bolt catch, which actually is pretty nice. Yeah, it's very large, it's oversized, so you have it like LMT rifle, or any other kind of ambi AR rifle, so you can release the bolt forward, you can also hold it, and you have the same thing on the other side. That magazine release is great, we were talking about it on the range, it's like, you may as well just do that, with your support hand, and strip the magazine out that way. And then I see it's got some interchangeable hardened components, which is like a next generation rifle thing, we see that on the Sig MCX, for example, on the Bren 3, where it's like, I can see, right now there's an insert, yeah, for the bolt catch, because that's, I'm sorry, for the charging handle hook, because that's like a wear area. You can see the bolt carrier is on the spring tension, similar like the AUG, and the fun fact is that the bolt head of this gun is also compatible with the Steyr AUG bolt. Interesting, really glad this is compatible with Steyr AUG bolts, instead of those really hard to find AR-15 bolts, again, it makes a whole lot of sense. And you see many design elements of the Steyr AUG, also like this piece of metal here, which is also, in a way, similar like the AUG bolts, but the carrier itself is different than any AUG bolt. Oh my god, yeah, I'm sitting here looking at it, it's totally different. You have two kind of guide milled out rails, I would call it, and you have a reinforced steel bolt guide, which is also, you can replace that, because a steel bolt on a steel rail is also a bit more long-living than steel, a bolt carrier, and an aluminum, makes it also heavy on the other side, so it's, you know. And again, I feel bad for just dunking on Steyr here, because you know I not only love the company and the guns, but I love the people, but this, to me, I'm just seeing as a huge miss, like I was, you know, the pistol grip, I think will, I'm fine with it, but I think this will evoke a lot of emotions, this is Steyr's pistol grip, yeah, yeah, and it's different, like it's, you have a trap door, which is cool, and I believe it's got interchangeable back straps on it, yeah, yeah, so you can interchange all this, but then I know a lot of people are going to see it, and they're just not going to like it, because it's far too unconventional in appearance, and it feels unusual whenever you shoot it, the stock looks like ----, but it's actually not bad, like I, yeah, let's hear it, yeah, it's reinforced, so it's very harsh and durable, especially when you take this for a certain NATO test, which also includes a drop test, and this stock will withstand that, drops from higher heights on concrete, but these holes here also have, or had a certain reason, I only heard that from people who told me that, and, what's the hearsay rumor? The rumor about these holes is that you were able to attach a IFAK or a medic kit to that stock with these holes, yeah, you know, again, kind of unusual, but this is not a terrible stock, I mean, I kind of like, you know, right here, you've got a little, kind of like a bench rider almost, like a perch, yeah, yeah, yeah, which is kind of cool, you know, again, the stock looks like ----, but it is quite functional, you've got a whole ton of QD points right here, yeah, yeah, and it locks in, I mean, whenever you adjust it, and it, like, it is in there, not a lot of movement, what do you think these little screw holes are for? Well, that's a good question, I have no clue, maybe for a cheek riser or something like that, yeah, but I mean, this is just a very unusual design, now, we shot it at the range today, of course it shot flawlessly, we didn't have really any issues with it, I can kind of see why they only made 300 of these for the commercial market, I could have told you the first time I saw it, that this was not going to be a success, unfortunately, yeah, and it's also quite expensive, and I think the cost of that project, they were way too expensive for anyone, and, how much were they? Quite a lot, like, do you know? The project costs, yeah, for sure, beyond a million, yeah, yeah, yeah, and, yeah, because of the lack of units adapting that rifle, or actually nobody adapted, yeah, it had to be, you know, turned down, yeah, sure, that's terrible, I mean, you know, again, I love Steyr, I hope all the good things in the world happen to Steyr, but, holy ----, this is an abomination, Martin, abomination at Austria Arms, now, let's get that scale down, and, can we take the optic off, is that cutie, or do you gotta, yeah, take it off, and let's find out how much this son of a bitch weighs, I want to say, let's compare apples to apples, because we've got a similar design here, this is the LMT MRP, very similar to the Steyr, unfortunately, this is like a 14-inch barrel versus a 16-inch barrel, however, what you'll see here, Martin, this says, I'm actually surprised it's this light, it won't stop moving, you're looking at 7 pounds, 2 ounces, I'm actually really surprised that a piston-operated gun like the LMT MRP is that light, versus the Steyr, which is 8 pounds, 6 ounces, so, even though this one's got a barrel that's 2 inches shorter, god, it is substantially lighter than this gun, so, you know, love Steyr, love those guys to death, unfortunately, pretty unimpressed with this gun, I can see why they don't make it, yeah, it's, the concept was interesting, the attempt was there to make something like the AUG, maybe also for end user who already has an AUG, and maybe want to adopt to a different system, like an AR system, I don't get it, yeah, nobody would, I mean, the barrels probably cost as much as any AR upper, I mean, it just doesn't make a lot of sense, and that's unfortunate, but, Martin, I'm fortunate, personally, to be here at Austria Arms with you, my good friend, always good to see you, guys, it's always good to see you, thanks for coming by TFB TV, if you're here in Austria, make sure you stop by Austria Arms, I promise you, it's like a pilgrimage to Mecca for gun people, so, and it's also right behind the, one of the best gun companies in the world, Glock is just a few hundred yards away, so, thanks again for watching, take care.