98's Mk12 Mod 2 (a vision)

[98Z5V]

If you could improve the Mk12, what would you do?  How do you make that platform better? 

The entire rifle was a vision of 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne).  In it's entirety.  They started it, made it a reality, CRANE NSWC made it a military NSN, and it was off to the races. For the Mk12 original, the "SPR."  Back in the day, "SPR" was "Special Purpose Receiver," and it was only an upper receiver, to slap on your issued lower receiver.  It quickly turned into an entire gun, and that one was the Mk12 Mod 0 gun.  Precision Reflex was a huge part of that.

At that timeframe, the modern extended one-piece scope mounts were not really going, not invented and perfected, so there had to be a way to mount the proper scope, at the proper location, and that was "bridging the rail."  That's a no-no, so other companies were involved in solving that solution.  SWAN was a big one.  DICK.  Swan.  The "Swan Sleeve..."  Here's what Mk12 Mod 0's look like:

Now, the US Army (SF) went Mod 0.  Some of the Navy went Mod 0.  Most of RGR Rgt went Mod 1.  The Mod 1 incorporated the "newish" then extended scope mounts, and went with a KAC freefloat quad-rail handguard.  The goal was to lighten it up, but there's nothing really light about one of these 5.56 guns, at all. It's gonna be a 12-pounder, no matter how you slice it.  But, what it gives you for that weight has never been seen before on the modern battlefield.  It's exceptional in what it does, what it was designed for, and how it gets to that goal.  It's the perfect small-frame weapons system. No other precision system in the US inventory has been this intensively developed, from soup to nuts, gun to ammunition, than this platform.  Ever. 

This is what a Mod 1 is:

Then came the Mk12 Mod H.  Once again, this is a 5th Special Forces Group creation, and it's all that's Mk12, but with a 16" barrel instead of the "standard" 18" barrel of the other Mk12s.  Here's a Mod H (Mod Holland)...

They were built a few different ways - with the PRI carbon fiber handguard, shortened "Swan sleeve" and standard rings, or with the PRI handguard, with extended one-piece scope mount...  the flavor was all over.  Most of them retained the PRI handguard - because most of them were still 5th SFG(A) original Mk12 Mod 0 guns - just with the new, shorter 16" barrel...

 

 

Sooo...  What do you do to improve that platform?  HOW do you make that platform better?  I have a way.  It's coming up. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by 98Z5V

[98Z5V]

To continue this, in a way, here's a small pile of the Mk12s.  The Mod 0, Mod 1, and Mod H (in 6.5 Grendel). 

Now, there's a way to perfect the platform, but you get away from the original platform to do that - you need to get away from 5.56.  I did that with the Mod H, and made a 6.5G gun from the Ballistic Advantage 16" SPR-profiled barrel, in Grendel.  I heard about if from the guys at SHOT, they didn't have one there, and I ordered it the Monday after SHOT.  Dirt fukkin' cheap, too...    I think I was charged something like $150, WITH a pinned gas block.  It took the lady at customer service 20 minutes on hold, to even find out what I was talking about, because it wasn't even announced yet.  That barrel went to 500 yards, MOA, within the first 25 rounds, not even broken in yet. 

So, I digress...  again...  How do you make this platform better?  I went 6 ARC, as soon as it was announced, and went with a full LaRue 6.5 G gun - that I'd replace the barrel on immediately, with a BA SPR 6 ARC barrel...     This thing is ridiculous.

Random Mk12 Madness, at High Angle, because...  squirrel! 

 

Now, this is probably the baddest small-frame AR Mk12-ish gun I've ever built, but there is a history here, with 18" SPR barrels from Ballistic Advantage, and one bad motherfucker Mk11 gun built on a Fulton Armory Kreiger-Criterion (when they did that) custom barrel for Fulton Armory.

Grendel SPR -first Grendel I ever built - that's a rabbit hole you don't wanna go down, cost you 5 x Grendels, then the .224 Valk SPR, then the Mk 11 gun...

 

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by 98Z5V

[98Z5V]

It just gets ludicrous, after this.   It's a sickness, and you want to make each platform the best it can be.

 

At any rate, this is probably the baddest small-frame Mk12-ish gun I ever built.  The 6 ARC LaRue.

 

Didn't stay that way for long...

Turned it into "Sexual Chocolate" right away...

THAT is what I think the perfect Mk12 Mod 2 should be.  Evolve the platform, make it better.  I didn't stop with the paint, I just couldn't stop myself...  

Edited May 17, 2023 by 98Z5V

[98Z5V]

So, that's the best thing that I can think of that you can do to a Mk12 platform - lighten it up, change the caliber, make it better - through technology and modern weapons platforms.  I'd LOVE to see every single NEW Mk12 be a LaRue gun, with the integrated rail and upper receiver -it just makes a gun more accurate, inherently.  It can't be denied.

But, that's not a Mk12.  It's a 6 ARC.  That's not a Mk12, which is a 5.56 gun, by it's very design, definition, and it's perfected nature.  The most accurate 5.56 rifle ever developed.

So, let's get into this, and make a Mk12 Mod 2...  

Edited May 17, 2023 by 98Z5V

[98Z5V]

So, first, here's my first vision for refining this platform.  Make the rail lighter.  It's the only thing you can do to make the GUN lighter.  A Mk12 is a 12lb pig, no matter how you slice it, once you get glass on it.  No other way.  But, it's WAY better than a 10lb M4A1, 14.5" barreled gun, when you hang all the shiit off that M4A1 gun.  The Mk12 blows the M4A1 away, in capability for distance, and BY FAR.  Going from M4A1 to Mk12 - you lose in the "Short length war" of one versus the other by 3.5" of barrel length - but you GAIN a tremendous amount of distance capability going to the Mk12, and 18" barrel. Clear a house with a Mk12?  Gonna suck, but definitely doable.  Practice.  Shoot a bad fuqr with the M4A1 at 850 yards?  Yeah, not happening, not even with God on your side that day, and loaded Mk262 ammo.  Mk12 wins.  That's exactly why the two different platforms exist - different missions.  Different capabilities. 

So, let's just lighten this Mk12 up a little bit, do what we can, improve the platform however we can.   

Mk12 Mod 1.  KAC freefloat handguard, a quadrail.  Modern extended scope mounts were out by then, reliable, and you could mount the scope with the proper eye relief without "bridging the gap" past the upper receiver end.  Great.  Other options are better than the KAC Rail, though.  The LaRue rail has a WAY BETTER lockup and mounting system than the KAC rail ever had.  If I was building a Mk12 Mod 1, I'd take the LaRue rail all day, every day, over that KAC rail that the .gov went with, just because it's a WAY more solid lockup and mounting than the KAC.

Ironically, the original PRI mounting system, is very similar to the LaRue mounting system - but LaRue took it a step further.  LaRue made it even better, and PRI should try to copyright-infringe that shiit, and make their own rails better.  JMHO.  Risk it, PRI, the shiit is great lockup... 

Now, what do you do to make a Mk12 better?  You can't change the barrel contour - it's the best precision 5.56 barrel contour out there, and proven for decades now.  So, changing barrel profile is out.  Changind alot of shiit with the gun is out.  We already went t a quad rail, and extended scope mounts (when they came out and were legit)...

So WTF do we do?  Only thing left is to change the handguard, to something better.  IMHO, the original LaRue quadrail has a better lockup then the spec'd KAC rail, on the Mk12 Mod 1, so I built all my Mod 1's with the LaRue rails.  Just a better rail.

Well, LaRue has IMPROVED that rail.  They made a version that's M-LOK, and not a quadrail, it's lighter, less money, and just the same mounting system, which is rock solid...

(I'm not seeing this hanguard on LaRue's website right now, to link it in here, but it's the LaRue LAT handguard...)

The way to make the Mk12 lighter is to drop the quad rail handguard.  Ditch it.  Put the M-Lok on it, and that's the only way.  THAT is the path forward towards a real "Mk12 Mod 2" gun.  It's THE ONLY THING that you can do to try to lighten up the entire gun.  Nothing else in the platofrm can be compromised - and that's the last remaining component that you can fuk with, to make it lighter.

This is what it would look like:

Mk12 Mod 1 - but with a LaRue LAT rail - a rail that's not quad, but M-LOK on 3 sides...   If you added a Stern Defense RAB-AD to it, you could still stuff an entire Mk12 inside a tennis racket case...   That whole gun is INSIDE this case right now... 

I'm just sayin'...   Not my rifle, but I was here to recommend on it, advise on it, and build it. 

It'll get shot soon, and prove my theory right - and I'll report when that happens.  I'm at the mercy of the owner on when that happens, but it won't be long from now.