Well...I am in the Grendel club now...
Decided to rebarrel my MK12 Mod 0-ish clone. Built this rifle in 2000, and did a lot of stuff with it...was even my primary 3gun rifle for a good while. Barrel was a Colt USGI 1-7 that I cut to 17.5". It was lightly used when I acquired it and I stoped counting rounds through it at 15,000. I bet it has over 20k now, and while it still holds an inch or so with ammo it likes I want more out of this rifle. The barrel will go into another 3gun upper for CCMU to use.
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I have been thinking about a Grendel for a while, and since the last thing I need is another 18" 5.56 this rifle started looking like a good candidate. In a weak moment before Christmas I was on the AR Performance web page and they had a sale on rifle length 18" 6.5 barrels with fitted bolts...that's sort of like a direct order from the Gods of Odin, right?
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I had a YHM billet upper from a recent trade. I have never worshiped at the throne of billet receiver components, but if you were ever going to use one on a rifle, this is surely the one to use it on.
I like the looks of this receiver. It's also coated on the interior. I need a forward assist for it, and it doesn't fit in standard receiver vice blocks, but otherwise it's well done.
Internals are mostly JP from way back. This receiver is an old Bushmaster, which for you younger guys was considered one of the best you could get besides Colt...and I never thought Colts were that big a deal.
If you look on PRI tube you will notice the offset irons. These are JPs and these are what started the whole concept. I picked these up off the prize table at the Rocky Mountain 3Gun in the early 2000's. Back then there were no low power optics. You ran a dot, irons or something like a 3x9 scope. The big 3Gun matches ( and there was only five or six) were all very different. RM3G was John Paul's match and being at Whittington Center it was one of the few that offered real long range shooting. Most had nothing over 1-200 yards. So when you went to RM3G you brought a rifle with a scope.
Now understand scopes have come a LONG way in just 15 years. I remember when Simmons came out with a turkey scope that was 1.5 -5x and it was a sensation! Holly cow! You could almost run it like a dot! It was a different time. That scope also had a diamond shaped box around the crosshairs...talk about fast. Remembet most guys were running deer rifle scopes. Leupold had a 2-7x if you could find one.
So at the RM3G that year John Paul had paper at 4-10 yards that had to be engaged in between the long range (out to 500) steel. It was fun to watch since that had never happened before. He was selling these sights for $175. That's less than most of the scopes of the rifles at the match...and brother, you were happy to have one!
The sights are the same length as a 5" 1911 and on the handguard they are the same distance from your eye and easy to use.
Since I am on the Gemtech ProStaff it is a no brainer to use their new brake and blast jacket.
To be continued...