Need fast advice on a "special" MSAR AUG

Guys:

I was at a gunshow today and saw an MSAR that caught my eye. I've always wanted a bullpup but I am a lefty so few work for me. This MSAR I found takes MSAR mags, comes with a left hand bolt installed, and the owner claims it has a special factory trigger job that is not offered to the public. The rifle has a serial number that starts with 2 or three letters followed by 0001, like a BVT001 for example. So, it is a first of some kind-does anyone know about these triggers, or am I getting a plain-jain MSAR with a bolt and an aftermarket trigger job for $1500? FWIW, the trigger is nice-it won't impress anyone who has shot a well tuned match trigger but it was good enough that even I could tell it was 'special'.

We didn't talk about mags, he says he has a bunch to make the right person a deal on. The gun is Mint.

I'll go back and pick it up if this is something rare like the seller says it is, might still go back and pick up a mint Sterling Costa Mesa AR-180 with 20 rounds thru it.

$1500 is way high for a standard MSAR, especially if it's an older generation model. The "special factory trigger job" sounds like BS to me, he probably installed a $25 neu-trigger or even worse, did some bubba trigger job in his garage. I'd pass.

How hard is it to get parts for one of these rifles?

Not hard at all: http://www.ratworxusa.com/ratworxusa.com/pagCatalog.aspx?xCategoryID=Accessories

The price is a bit high.

Likley the serial # starts with BLK, GRN, or TAN and it was one of the early speical edition rifles- they came in a pleican case with a matching Microtech Crosshair or Curahee knife and some mags, but a lot of the sets got broken up.

$1500 is steep, although the number of mags would help deermine the price. Did it hav a factory optic or top rail and any other accessoryes.

the "custom trigger job" - Dave Robertson sent out a few stock trigger packs he had smoothed out and tweaked by hand to get a lighter, smoother trigger pull. I have one and it is nice, but I wouldn't give it any value beyond the stock one as their is no way to I.D. It could be a Neu Trigger, or a Ratworx/2020 trigger pack but that is unlikely as they just came out. Simply pull the trigger and see if you like it.

If it has 3-4 mags and a rail on top I would say $1100 or so is fair market value for a FTF

It might have been BLK now that I think about it.....

I see a left hand bolt is about $150, we didn't talk about mags. There is no optic either, no case that I saw and no knife-just a rifle.

There is another MSAR on the other side of the table, don't know if it's his or not for 1050, and they claim to have a left hand bolt for the gun somewhere there.

Would the $1100 you would offer include the lefty bolt?

For $1100 I would figure one bolt. If it was me I guess I would value a second bolt at $100-$125 depending on how useful a bolt of the opposite hand would be to me (a gun with only a left bolt is only going to be useful to lefties, so having a left and a right bolt if you are a lefty does have some intrinsic extra value in my opinion)

If someone had another MSAR for $1050 I would definitely look it over, that is a really good price. Look to see what color, barrel length, rail or factory optic on top, STG-556 or E4 stock, and if an STG-556 stock if it has the square or round crossbolt and a forward assist or not. Number of mags is not important if an E4 ar-15 mag type stock, but STG-556 mags are worth about 420-$25 each so they add up quick.

FYI lefty bolts are readily available at Ratworx for $150 IIRC, and their bolts are good stuff.

What does the square or round bolt hold open mean?/ Which would I want?

This is the takedown latch, used to disassemble the rifle. The earlier versions were rounded w/the later versions being squared. If squared you can swap between the STG stock that uses STG mags and an E4 stock that uses AR mags. Personally, I prefer the STG mags & STG stock's dual trigger bars but YMMV.
Tomac

Square is the "current" design that about 75% of the STG sotcks have and 100% of the E4 stocks have. That being said, it is very easy to convert an earlier round lock stock to a square lock (as long as you can get a square lock piece), as simple as pulling the round lock piece out, filing the upper coreners of the lock hole with a needle fiel to make them square, and then install the square lock.

Some round lock guns have been found to have the receiver/stock fit loosen up a bit over time, hence the change to square lock. If I had to pick I would go with a square lock gun only because it is no messing around for STG/E4 stock swaps and you can even get Steyr Aug stocks to work.

If the receiver was made to accept a round lock piece originally then the slot in the receiver will have to be milled from round to square in order to fit in a square lock stock such as the E4.

Well, I didn't end up buying it-he was only offering 4 mags and I didn't feel it was worth it to me. Maybe if I see the gun at the next show, I dunno...

Here's the deal with the rifle:

It was made for a "friend" of MSAR's, a guy that helped them out with the development. His name was Brian J. Castano, Castello or something like that. The serial number was was his intials, and it came with a fancy trigger job they don't offer to the public-I don't know if it was MSAR Dave that did it or not. So, it was BJC001 for the SN and he had the original shipping carton to this Brian guy with his name on it. There were between 700 and 1000 rounds thru it, it was sent to Brian to replace the test mule he worked with.

It was a nice rifle, I just couldn't make the stretch without the magazines-I'm trying to buy a house and suppressors now that they are legal in MI-hard to justify a grand and a half when disposable income is far and few between and you already have a lot of nice guns.

One other factor was that the price was getting perilously close to the price of the real AUG A3.... if I ever bought an MSAR I know that somewhere down the road I would wish I had bought the Steyr no matter how good the MSAR was.

Maybe when I see it again.

This.

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