When it comes to firearms, I love dogs, Bullpups that is! We all know that many special forces and police forces love bullpups due to their compact frame, superior balance and light weight, as a woman all of the items on this list work to my advantage. The Steyr Aug is the stuff dreams are made of when it comes to balance, light weight, low recoil rifles. Not to mention that it comes with a cool factor that would make it very much at home on any Hollywood set.

What makes a Bullpup a Bullpup you ask? When the trigger goes in front of the action, the overall length of the rifle becomes shorter, more of the barrel and action are contained in the chassis of the firearm.  This moves the center of gravity back and balances the rifle so it's not so heavy at the business end. A real plus for shorter arms and those of us girls that do not spend every afternoon at the gym working on our biceps!

The downside to any Bullpup is that due to the location of the action, an internal rod has to be used to connect the trigger to the action and if there is any flex along the line or in between the trigger becomes either sloppy or prone to biting ones fingers with each pull. While the break is crisp and at the same point every time, the trigger on the Steyr is a long pull and frankly tends to bite the fingers on the reset. There are good aftermarket fixes for this in the under $70.00 range and trust me, one of them is already on my Christmas list! I love the .223/5.56 caliber and its soft recoil, the rifle is extremely controllable and gave me excellent accuracy at both 50 yards out to 300 yards. The proprietary 30 round magazine is made of translucent plastic and I really appreciated being able to "spot check" my ammo reserves at a glance.

The folding pistol grip up front and pistol style rear grip make for a super solid platform and the composite butt stock fit great to my shoulder. Sometimes simple is better and the easy push cross safety and the mag button release, while a different than my other rifles, were easy to use and manage. There is a convenient front sling ring and and rear sling mount point for a The Steyr rifle is super easy to break down for cleaning and maintenance.

The Steyr AUG is overall one of the best balanced and efficient rifles I've experienced, I can hardly wait for Christmas morning to open my trigger accessory and teach this dog not to nibble on my fingers. - Anna