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Kind of Special - LMT MRP-L Specwar 12.5
Updated
23 months ago
Good morning, everyone, this is John with gun.deals, today we are going to be taking a look at one of the higher end uppers on the market, this is the LMT MRP/L Specwar 12.5-inch.
Full disclosure on this LMT upper is that I have no relationship with LMT whatsoever, and this was sent in for testing and some work by a kind viewer of the channel, and I have no relationship with LMT whatsoever.
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A few notes on this upper that makes it a little bit special in more than one way is that this was pieced together by the owner from a few different places, the monolithic receiver set is the MRP-L Specwar. The barrel is from LMT, but it actually started its life as a 16-inch mid or maybe even a 14.5 mid, and was converted down to a 12.5-inch mid by D. Wilson Manufacturing.
LMT does offer a factory 12.5-inch mid, but this was a cut and thread job performed by D. Wilson. Starting out with the barrel, since this is a 14.5 or 16-inch cut down, we actually have some interesting features. First off this is a stainless steel barrel, probably 416, but it could be something else since their website is a little bit vague, 5.56 chambering with a 1:7 twist, which is my personal favorite, I know some people like 1:8s, but for the heavier stuff I tend to prefer 1:7, and the most important part is the barrel, actually quality.
The barrels appear to be phosphate on the outside chrome-lined on the inside, but they don't really go into details on their website so some of that stuff on the exact coatings is up in the air. Also of note is that the barrels are cryogenically treated for long life. This is something that has been done by other manufacturers in the past as well to varying degrees of success, but can be a nice feature, and when we come to the cost of these barrels, which is about 600 bucks, we are hoping to get top tier performance out of them.
The gas block is unique to LMT, it's kind of low profile with a longer contact surface than most gas blocks, and it is pinned at the top for security. The 12.5 through 16-inch versions utilize a black nitride straight gas tubes, some of the other versions, at least on their website, show a standard stainless steel gas tube, but black nitride and straight gas tubes can take a little bit more heat, so it's a nice touch. The barrel extension is also unique to LMT, you have a retaining/stop ring for inserting the barrel into the receiver, and it also holds the gas tube in place. On the barrel extension is a cutout for the locking system on the receiver set, which we will get into shortly. The profile on the barrel is about a middleweight I would say, not super heavy, but certainly not a lightweight.
Getting into the actual receiver set, this is the 11.5-inch MRP-L Specwar. Eagle-eyed viewers who aren't familiar with LMT may have already noticed that the rail and upper receiver are one continuous piece of aluminum, meaning that there is no play whatsoever between the upper and the handguard because of course the whole thing is monolithic. “Rail section” is about 11.5 inches long, making it perfect for 12.5-inch barrels. You have seven-sided M-LOK all the way down the rail and full Pic on top for all of your mounting needs.
To install and uninstall the barrels you need to have two torque bolts that you loosen to be able to remove the barrel, and LMT actually makes a specific torque limiter tool uh for about 100 bucks, and that tops out at 140 inch/pounds on the screws. In theory this is a quick change barrel system, though I don't think that's how most people are going to be using it. I think it makes a lot more sense on the larger frame versions where you could be going from 308 to a large variety of short action calibers. With the AR15 system you're basically going from 5.56, maybe changing the barrel length or maybe going to 300 Blackout, but you don't necessarily need the quick change system. The main benefit is getting the monolithic receiver system.
If you don't want to spend $500 to $600 on an LMT Barrel you can actually get a standard barrel converted by D. Wilson for about 150 bucks. You can go for a top tier barrel like Geissele or Criterion or some other barrels out there as well, and you can get into a LMT system for about 450 bucks, which can actually save you some money and get you a lighter better profile, either way the system is cool it doesn't add much weight and allows you to have that super solid one piece rail and upper receiver.
Moving back to what we would consider the upper receiver section of the monoblock, it is kind of Mil-Spec, though the dimensions are not quite the same. For instance, this does not work with the PDQ levers because the dust cover retaining pin geometry is slightly different.
Moving on to what I think is the most expensive BCG on the market, this is the full auto enhanced 5.56 BCG, these retail for about 550 bucks complete, though you can get the bolt and carrier by themselves, if you did want one without the other. For the sake of expediency I'm going to go over the improvements nearly verbatim, the can path is altered for longer dwell time and better extraction at a lower pressure, the gas hole on the inside of the carrier is redesigned to have a more consistent flow on the bolt tail, an extra hole on the side of the carrier vents gases faster, probably better for shorties and suppressed shooting relief cuts on the carrier rails to clear debris and maintain fluid movement.
For the bolt, the bolt is made from a proprietary material that is supposedly stronger and easier to clean, though I think that's more of a coating’s thing. The bolt lugs have relief cuts to provide more flexibility and less chance of cracking, supposedly it's better with high pressure loads and over-gassed situations. I wonder why I would need that? The extractor is their lobster tail extractor with dual springs for better extraction force and reliability, and it also enhances spring life. All of those things wrapped together gets you to the nearly $600 price tag for just the bolt carrier group.
Moving on to the shooting experience, I'm not sure who to blame this on, but the gas tube was installed incorrectly, and by incorrectly I mean upside down. At first I had a $2,000 bolt action upper, LMT supposedly test fires their barrels so they probably should have caught that. Maybe D. Wilson for some reason took the gas tube off and reinstalled it incorrectly during the cutting process? But I'll let you guys decide who's to blame on that.
After I fixed the issues it was over-gassed, like very gassy. Suppressed it was obnoxious. At first I thought perhaps D. Wilson opened up the gas port due to them cutting down the barrel, but they went a little bit too overboard on the gas port side, but having talked to them they do not open up the gas port on their 12.5-inch LMT Cuts. Even with an H3 buffer I was getting gassed out using my Turbo K on a Griffin Gate lock system, with steel case ammunition I was getting about 3 o’clock ejection, but with full power loads or anything suppressed it was just very over-gassed.
Because the gas block is basically fixed on the upper receiver, the only couple options you have are to add a VLTOR A5 system to slow the system down as much as possible or possibly to use a flow-through suppressor.
Reliability was almost 100% after I fixed the glitch. I did have one instance where a case got stuck in the chamber and had to be mortared out. That's possible that it was a barrel issue or an extractor issue or some combination of the two, it's also possible it was the cheap ballistic stream manufactured ammo that I use for training.
Getting to some sort of conclusion with my time with the LMT so far: I really like the receiver set, I think that it is fantastic, you can get them for around 800 bucks, sometimes a little bit cheaper, and if you want to add your own barrel, plus BCG, plus 150 for the conversion, you could have a super cool upper for about 1,400 bucks give or take. If you want to add the real LMT-E BCG, which is about 600 bucks, you're moving that price much closer to $2,000, not including a muzzle device. I wouldn't say I am super in love with the system, though I think it is a cool concept, and some of the QC quibbles aside, I think it's a lot of money to drop for maybe a slightly better system, but only time will tell, this is just very early on in the testing and I will certainly be doing a lot more shooting with this upper receiver.
