LMT SPECWAR vs. KAC SR15 SBR

0:00 [music]

0:05 Hey everybody, welcome back to the Armed Scotsman. Today on the table we are going to do a quick comparison between a LMT Specwar and a Knights Armament SR-15 SBR 11.5 inch. Let’s get this going.

0:41 [snorts]

0:48 All right, folks. As I said, we’ve got an LMT on this side. We have a KAC on this side. LMT or Knights? LMT or Knights? Let’s find out. So, the reason I’m comparing these two is well, I own both. Um, so there’s a start, but they’re both LMT and Knights are so prevalent in the militaries around the world. They’re used everywhere. But I thought I’d give you a quick comparison between the two. Um, and see, you know, if you’re trying to choose between these or if you’re just curious which way would I go? Uh, the pros and cons of each one. So, with all that being said, let’s get started.

1:14 Okay, this is my LMT Specwar 12.5 inch SBR. Both are SBR from their factory. Um, we don’t like having to do that paperwork, but here we are.

1:31 Okay, so LMT best stock in the game in my opinion. These are phenomenal. My personally my favorite. QD sling attachments either side. Nice rubber butt pad, large cheek weld. Uh, get really comfortable on there. And it has two little storage compartments right here. Just turn these and pull these out and you can store batteries and whatever else you need in there.

1:56 You can if you can hear this rubbing it. It just it’s so tight on that buffer tube and it locks. It is solid. There’s no wiggle in there which I love.

2:04 Okay. Um, moving down. Comes with an ambi charging handle which is pretty solid. It’s their own brand. Um so yeah, comes with that. It does not come with the iron sights. These are Magpul Pro iron sights that I threw on there. Doesn’t come with that.

2:14 And this is an EOTech EXPS 3-0. Does not come with that. Upper and lower receiver is 7075-T6 aluminum and then you’ve got just your brass deflector, your dust cover, forward assist.

2:35 You have a bolt catch and release on this side. Why do I love it? I love the bolt catch on the right side because if you don’t have it, you know, we have to change hands. You got to pull back, charge it, now you got to push that. It’s kind of a pain in the ass. Okay, with this one, just push down, pull back, it locks back. It’s awesome. I really, really, really like the bolt catch on that side.

2:51 All right, you have an ambi safety right here. Uh, you have your mag release. Moving down, you have essentially an Ergo grip, Hogue grip. Um, a storage compartment, rubber overmold, finger grooves. Feels great in hand. I really like this grip. It’s probably my second favorite behind the K2 Plus grip. Um, but I really do like the grip on the LMT and I think aesthetically it just goes well. It should just be on there. I don’t plan on switching it out.

3:15 You’ve got enhanced trigger guards. You got a slightly more flared magwell than the Knights on here. Um, and then we have a two-stage trigger in here. This is LMT’s. First stage, get that take up to the first stage. Nice break, reset, short, positive, and tactile. Um, it’s a nice trigger, and in my opinion, it is nicer than the Knights trigger that comes with theirs. Um, again, but these things are subjective, so just take that with a pinch of salt.

3:46 The best two-stage trigger on the market for me is going to be Geissele SSAE. Um, but these are definitely not far behind by any means. So, uh, overall excellent trigger.

4:01 Now, one of the couple big things with LMT is their monolithic upper. This, which meaning their handguard and their upper receiver are all one piece. It’s machined from one piece of aluminum, extremely rigid. There’s going to be absolutely no rotation in this. So, if you want to put like a laser or something up here, you know, if you’re zeroing it and it’s set, you do not have to worry about this handguard ever rotating because it’s all one piece.

4:32 So really cool upper. Um, and again, that’s kind of what LMT is known for. The other thing it’s known for is QD barrel changes. Um, so you essentially what you’re going to do is take out these two Torx screws and you can pull out the barrel and the gas tube all in one. You can either switch it out or if you’re doing maintenance and you’re putting that barrel back in, screw those down to 85 inch-pounds. And if it’s the same barrel, it should hold zero. If it’s a new barrel, you’re going to go obviously zero again. But that’s how easy it is to change the barrel on an LMT.

5:08 So yeah, up here, just because people are going to ask me, SureFire light, Modlite button, BCM, um and then we have a HuxWrks flow through can up here.

5:17 Inside you’ve got your bolt carrier group. Now the Specwar, when I’ve bought LMTs in the past, they have came with a semi-auto bolt carrier group. I wanted them with that. Uh, the Specwar came with the full auto solid BCG. This actual bolt though is upgraded. It’s LMT’s enhanced bolt. So, um, I’ve thrown that in there over the regular.

5:34 Okay, so that’s quick overview of the LMT. Let’s jump over to the Knights. This is the 11.5 inch SBR. And one of the things you’ll notice is um the LMT is definitely a little heavier. And that’s kind of generally across the board with LMT rifles. They’re they’re just a little heavier than I would say a normal AR-15, but they’re extremely rugged and durable.

6:07 When I bought this Knights, it came with some basic crappy furniture, which I wasn’t thrilled at considering how much and how hard these guns are to get a hold of. However, I know most companies will throw the basic furniture on there cuz they know people are just going to throw it away. And well, 99% of us are probably going to throw it away and put not even throw it away, but put it in somewhere a parts container and throw on some furniture that we prefer, right? And that was the case for me anyway.

6:23 No matter, essentially this is my favorite setup — K2 Plus grip with the B5 SOPMOD stock or LMT stock. These are my favorite furniture.

6:39 So um anyway, end plate and then you’ve got castle nut and you got an end plate with a couple of QD sling attachments on either side which is nice. I did change out the charging handle on this one to a Geissele Super Charging Handle cuz they are my favorite charging handles out there. The Knights one was okay. Wasn’t stellar but it was okay. Um I’m just a big fan of these.

6:55 It did come with iron sights though, which is nice. The LMT did not. So, it’s nice. I didn’t have to go out and spend, you know, 100-200 bucks on some decent iron sights.

7:08 Upper and lower receiver, 7075-T6 aluminum. Um, and then you’ve got your brass deflector. Um, you’ve got your dust cover, your forward assist. You have a bolt release, but not a catch. The new KS-1s have bolt catch and release, but the old versions only have the release, um, which is a downside for me. I really like the bolt catch on the right side.

7:37 Um, and then so this is the safety. This is the newer safety. I had an original safety on here from Knights. This is still a KAC safety, but the original older safeties, it actually cracked on me and then um they sent me a replacement part, but I ended up just going with the new safety on here. So, it’s pretty nice.

7:58 You have your mag release. Again, my Knights SR-15 came with a standard A2 grip. I swapped it. Um, and again, when you’re paying the money you’re paying for these guns, and I get a lot of times people say, you know, they put on that furniture to keep the cost down, you can switch it to whatever you want, cuz 99% of us are going to switch it anyway, which I kind of understand.

8:14 Anyway, so this is a K2 Plus grip, storage compartment, rubber overmold. Awesome. Has an enhanced trigger guard right here. And the trigger in here is actually a Geissele two-stage SSAE trigger. The Knights trigger is good. The LMT trigger, in my opinion, is better. And the SSAE trigger is the best. Um, they’re so good. Little bit of take up at the wall. Really nice break, reset, short, positive, and tactile. The SSAE triggers are so nice in my opinion. They’re the best two-stage trigger on the market.

8:39 Okay, moving up to the handguard. This is the URX 4 handguard it’s called. Um it’s not monolithic like the LMT. Um you do have QD sling attachments on either side. M-LOK slots all the way along. Um so very nice. Again, SureFire light, Modlite button. Um we have a SureFire suppressor up front and the barrel is a cold hammer forged 11.5 inch barrel.

9:02 Inside actually we’ll go over the bolt carrier group. I did change out the original one to another Knights bolt carrier group. I have what’s called their Sandcutter. Um, and then I put in the new V2 bolt in here. So, this has the dual ejectors. Um, so I really like this upgrade. It was very expensive though.

9:30 Um, which is kind of crazy. You pick both these up. I mean, they’re both extremely rugged and durable. The Knights feels a little more refined um than the LMT. The LMT is just like a hammer, right? He’s just like, let’s just go and bash stuff. And the Knights just it just feels a little more refined. I don’t know if that makes sense. Um they’re both freaking amazing.

9:54 I’ve owned LMT rifles. This one again is relatively new. I’ve owned LMT for a long time. I’ve never really had an issue. I had a 308 I reviewed from them. Um and the extractor was bad out of the box, but they sent me a new extractor, replaced it, all good, right? Um, but from like shooting and things like that, I’ve never had a failure in either.

10:18 Now, again, I’m thousands of rounds into this. I don’t, again, I’m low round count on this one, but I’ve never had issues in either. The actual shooting though, um, if I’m comparing, um, how they actually shoot. My Knights SR-15 is the smoother shooter. Um, I would say noticeably, not crazy noticeably, but noticeably softer shooting um, than my LMT.

10:34 And I did forget to mention um this has a mid-length gas system in there because we have a 12.5 inch barrel. Um we’re able they’re able to put in a mid-length. So it is a smooth shooting gun. Um but my Knights is just smoother.

10:51 So shooting they’re great. Pros and cons. Okay. So um cons — the LMT is a little bit heavier than Knights. Um but that’s okay. I mean you’re getting just a crazy rugged AR-15.

11:07 Pros. Um, no proprietary parts. Uh, monolithic upper. Um, you’re getting a QD barrel change system. Everything’s upgraded. Great trigger, enhanced trigger guard, you know, you’re getting your ambi safety, great furniture. Like, this is just ready to rock out of the box. Like, it’s just ready to go.

11:21 Moving on to the Knights. Pros. Very smooth shooting gun. Lighter than the LMT. Um, insane durability, like extremely sought after gun that could come under as a con because good luck getting a hold of one. Um, so the shooting is phenomenal. Super soft.

11:46 Cons, proprietary parts, right? That’s probably going to be your well hard to get a hold of for one. Expensive and proprietary parts. Um, again, look, if something goes wrong on here, I can’t throw a standard bolt in here. Now, I don’t expect this bolt to ever break, but if it does, I can’t throw a standard bolt in there. If I shoot out my barrel, I can’t just go and quickly replace it like the LMT. It’s a proprietary part. I have to send this in to Knights to have them do a barrel swap. That’s the cons.

12:15 However, it’s probably one of the best shooting rifles I’ve ever shot. Um, it it’s just there. You just got to choose between pros and cons, right? Crazy expensive, almost impossible to get a hold of. Um easy to get a hold of um you know parts easy to get a hold of um so yeah if I if I was just basing this on shooting only I would be going with my Knights. If I’m basing it on everything else like proprietary parts cost everything else the LMT makes more sense however you know we do things that don’t make sense and we go and buy Knights.

12:50 So if you’re looking at these and you’re just trying to decide or if you just wanted to see that comparison. And here we go. I’m curious, which one would you choose if money was no object? If you’re just like, I don’t have to worry about money. I could just pick LMT or I could just pick Knights. Which one are you taking?

12:58 All right, folks. That is me. I’m done. Any questions, any comments, please ask below. Happy to help. Catch you later.