Update: Question has been resolved. (See post at the bottom of the page) Short of it is - it's an A.R.M.S. #18 mount & the KAC rail has been hacked.

I am currently in the process of building a clone similar to the rifle depicted below.
I have the Knight's Armament Rail (#22121), but I cannot figure out what type/brand of scope mount (circled in red in the image below)
that this rifle is using that mounts in conjunction with the receiver end of the KAC hand guard rail.

(open the image in a new tab or window in order to view the full size image)


Thanks in advance.
FlDiveCop71

At first I thought Sadlak, but that might be too long.

Didnt the KAC RAS come with a scope mount option P/N 22121?

-Edit-

There is a thread out there about fitting the Smith mount to the KAC RAS.

Yes, I do have the Kac rear scope mount for it, and that's probably what I'm going to end up going with in the end, but my OCD simply has to find out what is going on in this picture, if you know what I mean?

Just a guess, but it could also be an A.R.M.S. #18. I have the older version on my M1A

Attached File


Attached File

I agree it Looks like an arms 18.  Have one on mine at the house.

Looks like an A.R.M.S. #18 scope mount and Vltor railed handguard.

Yeah, the ARMS.

That is not a Vltor handguard. Right-click the image and open it in a new window to see the full-sized image & then you will see that it say "Knight's Armament" (along with their logo) right on the side of it. The Kac railed handguard pictured is one of the early Vero Beach designs which doesn't have the later air-cooling slot cutouts incorporated into it.  

It is also not an ARMS mount, as I've already called ARMS and discussed this with them & it is not possible to use their mount in conjunction with the KAC railed handguard without both removing the front set screw and also making serious modification to either the rail or the mount itself.

From what I have researched thus far, the weapon is an M25 (photo credits found elsewhere on the internet label it as such), and thus the original mount used on those weapons were a Brookfield design (Brookfield has since went defunct/OOB). Sadlak later made improvements in the Brookfield design, and at this point I'm pretty sure the mount in the photo is a Sadlak design, though I won't be certain until I call them next week.

From what I have gathered over on M14Forums.com, GG&G also made a special mount for the USMC's M14s, though I don't think this is a GG&G mount as 1) - it is an Army marksman in the photo & 2) - I'm pretty sure that if it were the GG&G mount, you'd be able to see some of the circular relief cuts that are present in the USMC mount.

I am somewhat curious as to why they apparently chose not to use the standard KAC rear scope mount, and instead went with a separate mount which actually sits slightly higher than the rail itself, even though the scope that is being used doesn't actually require the extra height.
The only thing I can fathom is to enable the front lens cover to open in the position that it is in rather than opening toward the top or side as on most other type setups. I don't know. just seems kind of screwy to me.

The reason is probably because it is what they had on hand.  

I've seen the army use Aimpoint mounts to mount a scope to a M14.  There is no rhyme or reason to these things.

This photo was taken May 13, 2004 in Iraq. I believe it is a "new style" ARMS #18. All it would take to perform said modifications is a grinder.

I agree the GG&G mounts were mostly Navy/USMC distribution. The ARMS 18 had a NSN since 1990.
Some people replace the ARMS 18 front screw with a set screw so they can use the 18 with a Sage EBR stock.

Here's a 2487x1844 JPEG of the same shot: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/M25_2.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sniper_of_the_1st_Battalion,_23rd_Infantry_Regiment,_2nd_Infantry_Division,_U.S._Army.jpg

Not sure why you're linking to photos that are the same resolution & image as I have posted in the op, but oh well. I'm aware of the date/captions/credits of the original photo.
As I stated in my previous post, the ARMS 18 cannot be used with the Kac without significantly modifying either/both the mount or the railed handguard.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see what input Sadlak has to add to the matter when I call them next week.

Regardless of the outcome/info I manage to dig up - I think I'm just going to go with the KAC rear mount and call it "Good enough", as there are plenty of photos out there that show the KAC rear mount being used without an additional scope mount anyways.

Thanks for all the replies thus far everyone.
FlDiveCop71

I just mounted a Sadlak within the last week on a relatives rifle. The pic rail extends past the top of the receiver and ends above where the original hand guard clip would be. In this pic that rail looks like it is about an inch short of that spot unless someone hacked the front end off it to get it to fit with the kac.  Also as you blow that pic up to see the kac logo you can see where there is a rectangular slit "window" or air space between the bottom of the mount and top of the receiver towards the rear of the mount under the clip guide. The Sadlak mount has a curved almost circular radii machined geometry in that area about the size of half a penny, no right angles in that area. Just my observations

The question has been resolved...

After a rather lengthy chain of phone calls with a number of ex-armorer veterans, I've been informed that the mount in question is in fact an A.R.M.S. #18 (newer style) mount which has not been modified other than (as KitBuilder has stated above) by the replacement of the front bolt with an internal hex-head set screw, and has otherwise been mounted to the receiver in the normal fashion.

Apparently some time back @ 2004, there was an issue with supply getting the Knight's rear receiver scope mounts, and so they simply cut off & then ground down the rear receiver attachment arms of a number of the KAC hand guard rails & used the A.R.M.S. mounts they had on hand to mount the scopes. Thankfully, the KAC handguard rail I have came with the rear receiver mounts and thus I won't have to incorporate such shenanigans.

I don't know why I was expecting (hoping?) that the military would do things better than when I was over there... I so hate it when perfectly fine equipment gets deliberately trashed for no other reason than expediency.

Thanks again for all the replies.
FlDiveCop71

Thank you for posting your findings.

I had not checked the resolution of your photo. 
At least later, if this is archived, someone will find an image that displays. lol