MK12 Mod 0 fans?

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vanfunk

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Hi All:

I’m not sure if you’re as into this kinda thing as I am, but I’ve always been enamored of the MK12 Mod 0 and Mod 1 rifles as used by our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last, I don’t know, 20 years? I’m semi-retired now and have decided to try to buy or build some of my “affections” and just have more fun than the last 31 years of work have allowed. I had never put together an AR lower before (for shame!) so I decided to start there. I sourced a stripped LMT lower, along with an LMT receiver extension, buffer tube, buffer, etc. and finished it off with a Geissele SSA-E trigger. I don’t know why it took me 40+ years of shooting to realize that there are some REALLY good triggers out there, and I owe it to myself to get the best trigger possible in all my firearms. The Geissele is just superb. For the upper I turned to Precision Reflex (PRI) as I lacked the tools and the know-how to put this kind of upper together. PRI pit together the original uppers for Crane NSWC and Special Ops. The upper has an 18” stainless Douglas 1/7 barrel, free floated carbon fiber handguard, and other niceties. It’s not clone correct, but I slapped on a Trijicon Credo 1-6x in a Larue QD mount for now.
So how does it shoot? Beautifully. I sighted it in with Winchester 62gr green tip and was pleasantly rewarded with a 1” group at 100 yards. Moving to the expensive stuff, things really tightened up. Black Hills 77gr OTM went into 1/2” - 3/4” at 100 yards, through the 80 rounds my wallet allowed me to fire. It’s the most accurate rifle I’ve ever fired and honestly, I didn’t think I was capable of groups like that (I’m pretty blind now and more of an enthusiast, not a benchrest shooter). Not a great picture, but here she is in her birthday suit:
IMG_3085.jpeg

Thanks for listening!
 
I built a clone Mk12 with an A2 stock for a retired Sheriff’s Deputy ~2yrs ago, it has been the only rifle with an A2 stock I can actually say I enjoyed shooting. His was the shorter barrel, double stamped, and it was really a joy to shoot.

I’ll have to dig them up, I also shot a PRS last season with a guy on the squad behind mine shooting his issued Mk12 - it was actually pretty awesome to watch.
 
Very nicely done vanfunk. I really appreciate the guys who take the care and money to build clones, for myself I like doing inspired builds with my own twist.
I've read a lot of the history of the various configurations that SF use and since I like to do my own thing the Recce spoke to me, the Mk12 mod 0,1 have too much big Army's (Navy) influence, the Mod H got back to the roots some with the 16".
My Recce inspired build has evolved some over the 15 or so years since I first put it together but at the heart has always been a White Oak 16" mid gas, mid weight barrel, currently it's got Aero M4E1 upper and lower, a generic 15" M-loc handguard and a Larue MBT2 trigger. The scope is a US Optic TS12 in an Aero mount. 20221114_155003.jpg
 
Nice rifle- looks very similar to the ones we were issued back in the day. They were very good shooters. Ours used a Leupold 3-9X TS30 scope on both the early ones (like yours) as well as the later ones with the KAC rails. The ARMS scope rings they came with gave us problems so they were often replaced with Larue SPR mounts- which it looks like you have on yours. They also came with the OPS INC suppressor- which worked really well. Ours really didn't do so well with the 62 grain green tip- MK 262 was exclusively what we fed them. They were issued with the longer Harris bipod in order to keep the bottom of the standard 30 round mag from hitting the ground, but many users obtained 20 round mags and used the shorter Harris like the type used on the M24 in order to get lower. The unit purchased 20 round mags from Brownells for these rifles. What was interesting is that they were originally issued as a upper to be placed on the M4 lower if desired, but later were issued as a complete weapon. The lowers used by Crane to do this were all types of old vintage M16 and M16A1 lowers that were re-purposed to build these rifles, and they came with ambi safety/selectors installed (which every M16/M4 should have). While they were well-built and gave good performance, the limitation was the 5.56 round that they used. Even with the improved accuracy, effective range, and terminal performance of the 77 grain MK 262, they were found wanting in significant crosswind as compared to 7.62 (no surprise) as well as lack of performance when firing through glass.
 
Y'all's are way more "correct" than mine, but for just plinking and some coyote hunting, my "inspired by" Mk12 Mod 0 is plenty fun.

index.php


I'll update with a new picture later since I've got my muzzle brake and can for it now.
 
Nice all, and thanks for your input and pics! I too was somewhat surprised to find that my rifle shoots well with “white box” 62 grain green tip, which is nice because it’s less than half the cost of mk262! FL-NC, I can see the limitations of the package as you’ve pointed out. Thanks to people like YOU ( and many others on this forum), I do not have to be burdened with trying to engage anything other than a Shoot ‘n’ See target at my local range, so I can just enjoy the thing. I have a Daniel Defense DD5 v3 with a 1-10x FFP scope that’ll get out a bit further if necessary (I also saw a LWRC R.E.P.R. at the store the other day and I have to say I was tempted, but I’m holding on to that $4400 for now). My MK12 Mod 0 is largely correct and I actually like having a basic A1-style lower on it, with the aforementioned ambi safety being the only departure. I really like the Larue mount; honestly I got it after I couldn’t get the requisite A.R.M.S. mounts but I’m glad for it. I should get a Leupold or a Nightforce for it but I had the Trijicon already and it’s a great LPVO optic, FFP and very clear glass. The 1-6x gets me out there to 200 yards no problem, more if I concentrate. I didn’t think I’d like the Harris bipod but I actually do; it’s very, very steady for bench shooting and is technically correct for the rifle, I believe. Anyway, it’s all good stuff and I am thankful again that we can enjoy our hobby and compare notes on the forum.
 
mavracer said:
Very nicely done vanfunk. I really appreciate the guys who take the care and money to build clones, for myself I like doing inspired builds with my own twist.
I've read a lot of the history of the various configurations that SF use and since I like to do my own thing the Recce spoke to me, the Mk12 mod 0,1 have too much big Army's (Navy) influence, the Mod H got back to the roots some with the 16".
My Recce inspired build has evolved some over the 15 or so years since I first put it together but at the heart has always been a White Oak 16" mid gas, mid weight barrel, currently it's got Aero M4E1 upper and lower, a generic 15" M-loc handguard and a Larue MBT2 trigger. The scope is a US Optic TS12 in an Aero mount.View attachment 1156586
Click to expand...

Nice rifle. How do you like the USO TS12? It's one of the scopes I'm considering for my current Mk12-ish build.

Thanks
 
InTheSwamp said:
Nice rifle. How do you like the USO TS12? It's one of the scopes I'm considering for my current Mk12-ish build.

Thanks
Click to expand...
I really like it class is clear, reticle isn't too busy, knobs are pretty crisp and it tracks perfect. It's super compact as you can probably tell. I liked it well enough to buy a second one for my dedicated 22 AR. The only drawback I've encountered is with the FFP the center of the reticle gets pretty thin at 3x not really a problem on the 5.56 hitting relatively large moving targets up close you can use the heavier lines but on the 22 for small game I have to turn it up to ~5x of course now that both have a mini red dot on a 45° it's no problem.
Eurooptics.com has the best prices on USO TS line.
 
mavracer said:
I really like it class is clear, reticle isn't too busy, knobs are pretty crisp and it tracks perfect. It's super compact as you can probably tell. I liked it well enough to buy a second one for my dedicated 22 AR. The only drawback I've encountered is with the FFP the center of the reticle gets pretty thin at 3x not really a problem on the 5.56 hitting relatively large moving targets up close you can use the heavier lines but on the 22 for small game I have to turn it up to ~5x of course now that both have a mini red dot on a 45° it's no problem.
Eurooptics.com has the best prices on USO TS line.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, that wouldn't be a problem for my type of shooting. usually between 100 and 400 yds.
 
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