6.5 Grendel build inspired by the military SPR Mk12

[Jinkx]

I feel it important to say how amazing this thread is and how high quality these pics are. I think you must be a pretty accomplished photographer.

Amazing build, I think I'm gonna have to go through this thread for hours just to soak it all in LOL!!!

[Mustangfreek]

Nice rifle.. optic choice is a little extreme for a woods type gun..

How heavy is the rifle ?

[Nonmongunamous]

So how does it shoot?

[spr mk12 mod 0]

Nice rifle.. optic choice is a little extreme for a woods type gun..

How heavy is the rifle ?

I've been thinking the same thing. Every time I pick it up it just "feels" too heavy for an AR. As it is set up now, it weighs 9 3/4 pounds. Of course this is a personal thing and that weight might be fine for others.

I've got some new parts to remove about a pound (I hope!). I'm getting them for Christmas so I'll have to wait a bit before I get them on the rifle.

As for how it shoots......I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm 70 and my rifle range is not wide open spaces where social distancing is possible. The members don't seem to be mask wearers either. With a vaccine so close for me I'm going to wait just a bit longer for it. If I were to bring this China virus home to my wife with her health issues it could be very bad. I can't risk that just so I can have fun at the range.

Thanks for the interest in my build and I can't wait to shoot it and report back.

[spr mk12 mod 0]

Six dark covid months have passed since I last posted. I'm fully vaccinated now and back at my RO duties at our local rifle range.....HOORAY!

During that "down time" I reworked my rifle and shaved a full pound off of it down to 8 pounds 13 ounces. Almost half of that (6 ounces) came from replacing the Magpul rifle stock with a carbine stock. I tried the lightest Magpul and a new one by Thril:



They both weighed exactly the same so I decided to try the new Thril shown on the bottom:



I started out with these components for the buffer tube:



The Timber Creek buffer tube was a mess. It was full of FDE overspray. After that crud was cleaned out look at the inside surface finish of the thing:



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[spr mk12 mod 0]

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I ended up tossing that thing and using a nice buffer tube from UTG:



The pic below shows the bad buffer tube but I wanted to show the other components out of the packages:



Installed the stock is comfortable and pretty solid:



Next up is a change out of both the scope and red dot...........

[danm]

Nice update!

[spr mk12 mod 0]

Thanks Danm.

The rest of my 1 pound weight reduction (10 ounces) came with a lighter scope:



I also ditched the little Noblex red dot. It's just a bit weird using a plastic cover placed over it to turn it off. And the auto brightness function
wasn't working for me.

I switched to a Trijicon RMR which is a couple ounces heavier but bulletproof and I'm very familiar with it. I also had to switch an Arisaka mount:







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[spr mk12 mod 0]

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I like the placement of the red dot low on the top handguard rail. I can just lift my left arm a bit and the rifle rotates that RMR into view:



Here's what I ended up with:



It's OK but I still didn't like the scope on this rifle. :confused:

Father's Day is coming up so I'm moving this scope and red dot to other uses and I've ordered a new scope and mount from EuroOptics