🥇 Mk12 (Optimized) 🏁 Speedway [ Long Range On the Clock ] - Practical Accuracy

This video is brought to you by Slate Black Industries. For grips and accessories, visit slateblackindustries.com. I'm ready. Okay, stand by. Impact! Neutralized! Impact! Neutralized! Impact! Neutralized! Impact! Neutralized! Impact! Neutralized! Holy smokes! 56 seconds. Dude, that is as fast as any race gun or game gun or... Like, I can't shoot it any faster than that with the LSA. I mean, that was a smoking run. Okay, look, the reticle makes a lot of sense. Like, it's different. Did you shoot it on a flat 10 or did you gas it up a little bit at the further distances? No, I just used 10. You know me, I like 10x. 10x is my jam. But you're still using the full Christmas tree. Yeah, yeah, I did not do any dial going out. So these are 700 yard impacts for 77 grains. So those are the Mark 12s? Yeah, pretty insignificant when you see it actually on the steel compared to, you know, up close you get a nice full splash. We're saying that the ACSS is really good for like a, you know, like running in like when you're doing combat mine, you're like kind of doing mine dump on everything. But a lot of times too with specific calibers, I've kind of developed a repertoire with knowing the mills as you hold out and sometimes say like the Knight Force reticle when you contrast it with the regular Mark 12s, Leupold Mark 4, the vintage mill dot reticle, it's easier to use because you do have your hold off dots, you do have your numbers on the side and it's easier for my mind to correlate at pushing out. It's a very controlled run, understanding where the shots were going. Did I miss that all? Once at 725 on the bonus, your first shot was just off the left. Okay, so but I mean, yeah, I mean, that's, let's see, that's a value of good glass. Well, and especially when you can take into consideration, like at the Christmas tree with the mill spaced BDC points, similar to like you said, similar to what you get on a lot of the more modern reticles that are available. I mean, holy cow. Yeah. What a significant difference, right? Yeah, so there's a lot to talk about on this system. I don't honestly, I don't know. It's just good. It's just really freaking good. So I don't know if there really is a lot to talk about on the system, but we will talk about more of it in the debrief. See you guys there. Welcome into the debrief for this run. On the Speedway runs, we break down our evaluations based on segmented categories. So we'll talk about the overall run and the shooter's performance hitting on how the base firearm, the sighting system, the cartridge, and the environmentals all came into play during the course of the run. Now, unlike our regular practical accuracy series, the Speedway course challenges the shooter to shoot as fast as possible, while also accounting for constantly changing elevation and wind holds as needed. This presents a unique challenge that the shooter then has to overcome. So let's get into it. All right. I set it on the range and I'm calling it again now. I think this is going to be one of, if not the best run that we see on the Speedway course. I know this is a new series. I know we've only shot a few rifles at this point, but watching that back, I am just as impressed as I was watching you live do it on the range. And even with a completely decked out race gun, I don't think through the totality of the course, I would be able to shoot it any materially different. And I make that designation, the difference of the totality of the course, because most three gun rifles and race guns are set up for 500 and in. I think 500 and in, I could probably, probably beat the time you put up. This is big words. Okay. Big words. But after that, I mean, you just knocked that 650 and 725 out so fast. Any sort of advantage, I might make up fractions of seconds on the other targets. I don't think I would be able to maintain it out at the longer distance, even though the rifles that we're talking about here are all very capable. But go ahead. Give us your thoughts having run it and try to keep the ego in check. Okay. For this one, basically your Mark 12 addressed a few complaints that I had with the one behind me, right? So you've got a modern scope with a modern reticle with good hold offs that I could use. We're running it with no suppressor to eliminate any of the mirage and effects on my shooting position. What else? This one I shot with a bipod. Yeah. I mean, people, when they watch the normal practical accuracy, they're like, oh, Henry doesn't like to use bipods. That's not 100% true. It depends on the situation. I shoot a lot of C&R. So I mean, that's obviously you're not going to clap one of these Atlas bipods on a 98K sniper. It's just you're not going to unless you're a heathen. The bipod in this case, you're setting up the rifle in your configuration to a very good defensive marksman's rifle. In a sense that you have a high capacity magazine. You're shooting a rifle that is a very low recoil. It's extremely accurate with a mill grid that you could call the hits. Oh, hello there. You must have caught me freshening up the Ninehole Reviews Mark 12. Now, did you know the Ninehole Reviews is largely supported by Slate Black Industries and the patrons of Patreon? That's true. All those 77 OTMs, all those heartbreaks and range fees that we experience. Behind us, we have the patrons of Patreon, who support us not only financially and intellectually, but emotionally. So today I'd like to invite you to become one of us. Join us on Patreon and become a patron of Patreon. And if not, completely understand. We'd be just as happy to hear from you in the comments section down below. But for now, onwards we go. The mill grid that you could call the hits or misses and adjust your fire to it. Very clean glass. And also you're eliminating your mirage and you have a good stable platform to push out with nothing really hindering the base of it outside of maybe the long shots with a long magazine. But the rifle itself was kitted out and set up as a very, very capable defensive marksman's rifle, in my opinion. Which is effectively... When we really dissect what allows a rifle to be effective on the speedway, that's probably what we're going to ultimately conclude on is a defensive marksman's rifle is probably the best configuration for what we're doing, which is sitting in a fixed position, engaging multiple targets as quickly as possible. Now, one thing you said, just to add some clarity here, because the internet exists, when you say a high capacity magazine, what you're referencing, if I understand correctly, is standard capacity, but high capacity for the purposes of a DMR, which normally runs shorter, smaller mags. So just for you there. Typically DMRs, you want to run a shorter magazine, not because it looks cool. I mean, yes, it does look super cool. But you also want to have enough space underneath in front to where you could give it enough elevation if you need to, to make the longer shots. You don't want it to bottom out on the deck. And so in this case, if we're faced in a defensive role, which it very much is, you're in a static position, shooting a target rich environment at various distances. Having more ammunition is a greater advantage than making sure that you wouldn't bottom out because it takes longer than will continue. And then no mag change, right? Yes. Okay. It harkens back to why the Mark 12 is such a beloved platform in many ways, the ease of being able to shoot it and what it is at a base level. I made some comments that it, based on how it compares to a gamer rifle, even one that's completely gamed out. And most gamer rifles for three guns specifically, or IPSC rifle include a extended gas system length, i.e. a rifle length gas system on an 18 inch barrel with a muzzle brake and a tuned internal system with lightweight internals. On this Mark 12, you got four of those five things. Plus you got even an enhanced optic over what would be on most three gun rifles, which was usually LPVO territory, right? 1.6, 1.8, maybe 1.10. And thus we have an extremely, extremely capable platform that is almost right in line with any of the gamer platforms that are out there. Talk us through from a recall perspective, Henry, and an overall performance perspective on the gun, what it was like shooting through the course, how much you were coming off target. Say in between your two shots, how much the reticle was leaving the target, how easy it was to take follow-up shots and so on. To be honest, that's gotta be one of the big talking points that we get back to. I mean, if you're talking about a bolt action rifle, even a bolt action rifle, the decision to quickly cycle right after your shot is a conscious one because you want to observe if it's a self-guided course, you want to observe if there's a hit or not. And especially if it's a miss, you want to know that it's going to be a miss and you need to adjust it so, right? So you fire, you may have some recoil, you still try to observe where your hits or misses are because then in your mind, then you make a decision on whether you're going to transition to the next one, next target or not. I will say though, Josh, with your Mark 12, the recoil was low enough. I was able to spot the targets, but also I had enough confidence in the accuracy of the system and I knew the drop and I knew the wind well enough that there were some targets, especially the close ones, before you even called neutralized, I was already on the next target engaging. And for some targets, you're confident enough to where you know that's down, you know those are two shots or hits and then you're pushing on. Right, we would call that calling your shots as a shooter, calling your own shots in three gun, we would call it calling your shot. So you would call the shot as you break the trigger and you would go, I know that that's an impact before you've even observed the impact, especially before the spotter had a chance to observe the impact and then make the audible call that it was an impact. So as you're breaking the trigger, right? As you're breaking the trigger, you're aware of your reticles placement, you know on 150, 200, 250, 300, you know that those are gonna be hits if you are realistic with yourself and are being truthful to yourself about where the reticle was and whether or not you had a good trigger press. I'd say honestly, with the long shots, even if they are hits, you still want to observe where the hits are and keep in mind what the wind is doing downrange because it may not be one wind channel coming through. And so even if those are hits, it doesn't mean all just because you see the plate flex that you're not going to observe where it hit to your best extent. Now, sometimes that may be observing on the peripherals when you're still already on the next target, but that also comes down to, you know, the low recoil enabling your scope to sight the effect of the target then feeds more information to your mind and helps you on the multitasking process of engaging multiple targets at multiple distances under time. And being able to do that with a semi-automatic rifle, I mean, that basically just takes a lot more work away from the shooting and gives you more time to process what's going on downrange and adjust to it. And as compared to a bolt gun, right? As compared to a bolt gun. Yeah, correct. I mean, so when you're talking about shooting bolt guns in PRS competition being harder, it absolutely is because your mind is focused on other things that detract away from just a firing solution. Right. So that leads me into a second piece I want to talk through with you. You are different than me in respect to optic magnification to a degree. I generally find that I like more magnification than you do when I'm shooting. You, I believe, shot the entire course with the ATAK or 4-16 at 10 power, correct? Mm-hmm, yes. Right. So you shot it with a fixed flat 10 power, didn't dial it up, obviously didn't need to dial it up to gain any advantage at the further targets. You basically went one for one on everything, except like I think one miss pulled for wind that you then corrected immediately on the next shot and scored a hit. But talk about with us, if you would, the balance between over magnifying and how that impacts your ability to perceive those impacts on target and perceive the reticle through the entire firing sequence coming off and on target, as well as your ability to perceive or not perceive hits. So we're talking about, okay, so we're talking about two different things here, the reticle and the magnification, right? And how those things kind of work together. Obviously, so this is a first focal plane scope. So you don't have to run into any second focal plane issues of, you know, you have to dial it all the way to take advantage of the reticle. And that's one of the biggest strengths of first focal plane scope. I prefer to run it on 10X. Honestly, at that distance, I'm still very comfortable running it on 8X. The reason being that you have a better field of view, you have better situational awareness of what's going on. As I'm going through a target tree, I can figure out, okay, the next target is here. So I'm just transitioning here. Sometimes I transition to the next target and I still have a wider field of view to see that, okay, that target that I've already transitioned to the previous target is hit. Now I can hammer the new one. So I'm still spotting my own hits as I'm moving away. But at the end of the day, just because it's like, if you have a car that goes to up to 200 miles an hour on the highway, you don't have to rev it up to 200 miles an hour wherever you go because that takes away from your ability to change lanes very quick to figure out what you're doing while you're driving. You know, that takes away from your situational awareness when you push it at that high speed. Same concept. When you're pushing ultra high magnification, now that may be useful at longer range targets. I would say if I'm shooting 1000, I'm more comfortable with a 14X or even 16X. But I am not comfortable, however, with the 27X shooting at 1000 because then that detracts from my situational awareness of what's going on around me. And I also don't need that high magnification to do it. And you also have less of a propensity of being able to transition to the next targets. Anyways, if we were to dial back to what we're talking about, your reticle still works at 10X very effectively. You're still able to spot whether the target is hit or where you had missed with the reticle at 10X, but you then have an increased advantage of still spotting and seeing what's going on around the target and being able to adjust to it. Really well said on that. I think that the car analogy was actually probably really good for somebody who might not be super familiar with dialing in all the way or not on the power lever for your optic. So I think that that covers off in combination with the previous run that we've done on the other Mark 12, covers off the majority of the conversation points on this. So what I do want to do though is address one very interesting thing that I noticed watching back the run. And that has to do with the position of your support hand. So when you first got down on the gun, about zero to 300, zero to 250, your support hand actually starts out on the fore end of the rifle, whether it's on a bag or in this case, off of a bipod, as opposed to underneath the stock or gripping the rear bag. Then when you go to the further targets, the 350 and beyond, I've noticed that you then take that hand and go back to a rear bag. Can you walk us through what's going on in your head? Or maybe it's something that has just sort of been trained into your repertoire. And can you walk us through why you're using those techniques? So it's something that I wasn't conscious that I was doing before, but I've actually identified it in the last few years. And this is right as we started Nine Hole Reviews, I identified that I would be subconsciously figuring out if I want speed or if I want accuracy. Which side I'm trying to balance on when I'm shooting. It's kind of like USPSA. You always talk about this, right? If your shots are too close and you're going too slow. Now, some rifles you can't help it because you're throttled by the bolt with a bolt action. You can't with a bolt action. It's a lot more different because you have to also deal with a bolt and you may as well just use a precision method of a rear bag. But with a semi-auto, by having your forearm up front, you're able to pull it into the pocket of your shoulder and exercise better recoil control to drill that second shot on as quickly as possible and then just move on. I'm not worried about the very precise hits. Now, once I transition towards the longer distances, once I transition to a point where I want to exercise better precision on target, typically my mind will start saying, OK, switch to the rear bag. And that kind of made sense. I think I'd start doing that whenever I move over to the 350-400. As I traverse over, I just then tuck my support hand underneath the stock as a part of the movement as I transition over. And that sort of then pushes towards the longer distance targets. And that's where my mind is starting to also switch to. You cannot miss fast enough. So to sum all of that up, you have a calculation that's going on where you're looking at stability of the shot versus ability to take a follow-up shot in terms of speed faster. And as you can adjust those two things, you can flex those two things based on the grip by which you're holding the firearm. And on those closer shots, as you say, you have more room for error. The speed of the second shot becomes more important than milking every little bit of stability out of the setup that you've got going on. And then as you pass a certain point, and I agree with you, it happens when you traverse across the range to the 350. I really don't think you're losing any time either, as you say. You're not really losing any time by making that adjustment at that point because you're already in motion and having to recenter behind a different set of targets. Then mentally you're going, okay, now I need to begin to bump up the level of precision and I will sacrifice my ability to take as quickly of a follow-up shot. And for the audience, I think it's important to identify what Henry's talking about here is fractional seconds in terms of the differences here and small percentage changes in these two categories. But when you're looking to try to maximize, these are things that come into play. But I mean, you've got to understand too, the terrifying fact that you're slapping two rounds onto a target in a fraction of a second at 300 yards away, like three football fields away. You land two shots in a C-zone chest, right? That's a terrifying aspect to... It's not just about precision at that point. You're putting two rounds on target at that distance. We've got to remember the size of these targets. This is less than a chest-sized target. This is the center of your chest, really. So imagine in a fraction of a second before a target could move, they get two 5.56 heavy match projectiles stuck in their chest. Even with a plate, that's a terrifying aspect from three football fields away. It really harkens back to why this platform is so beloved. Does it not? Yes, absolutely. Extremely effective. And I think we've shown it now multiple times. And especially, as you say, three football fields away, when we start talking about the true performance pocket of this particular rifle, yes, you can push this to 800, beyond 800 even. Can it be pushed there? Sure. But where it really shines, in our estimation anyway, is sort of 450, 500 and in, I'd say, where we think that it's really hyper, hyper effective. Maybe you could call it 600 and in, but the point is, is that in that performance pocket, zero to four, zero to five, zero to six, this thing is incredibly effective. Incredibly effective. I mean, it's one of the reasons why I think Josh, as a competition shooter, ended up buying a Mark 12. I think you shot mine quite a bit. Yeah. And then it's, if it's honestly, if there's an AR type rifle within the US military from that era, I'm not saying current, that resembles sort of a hyper optimized race gun, I don't think there's anything else, except for the Mark 12. It really does. It is the sort of platform. Well, again, Henry, this was a run that, as I said at the beginning, I'm calling is going to be one of the runs to beat, if not the run to beat for the duration of the speedway. And I mean, just what a heck of a job, what a heck of a run. Thank you. I mean, it's a good rifle, but I hope it gets beaten, whether it's by you, by me, or somebody else in the future. I really do hope it gets beaten because that's more for us to learn. Guys, until next time, we'll see you on the range.