SPR coming along

I finally decided on a scope for my new rifle project. I went with the Leupold Mark AR 3-9x40mm after all. My basic intent with this project was to mirror the US military's Mk 12 Special Purpose Rifle, only without dropping $4,000+ on the thing.

First off, I want to thank everyone who gave other suggestions. I checked them all out, and from those found even more to look at, but I finally drifted back to the Leupold. And after taking it out just once, I'm glad I bought it. The clarity is amazing, and in the 3x setting, it still functions like a traditional red dot thanks to the Leupold Fire Dot, an adjustable electronic sighting dot in the middle of the mil-dot reticle.

That green dot draws your eye right to reticle center FAST even at low setting. It's much handier than I thought it would be.

I mounted it on a LaRue Tactical SPR/M4 QD mount and it mounted with very little difficulty. (Full disclosure, I had scope rattle in the mount at first but a quick call to LaRue's customer service line and they diagnosed the problem--you need to tighten the bottom screws first instead of doing them cross-pattern like car lug nuts, which I had done. Once I undid it and redid it their way...rock solid!)
Once zeroed, it was just a matter of placing this dot in the 10-ring of the 100M target and depressing the trigger. Best group from the bench with my range bag for a rest was four out of five rounds touching in the middle of the 10-ring with basic 55gr handloads. And when cranked up to 9x, I can actually see my 5.56 bullet holes on the target, eliminating a need for the spotting scope at 100M. At longer ranges, I foresee great things coming from the mil-dot and serious ammunition. And since it's the same reticle system as my Savage M110's Super Sniper 10x, I don't have to try to learn another sighting system.

Now all it needs is a Harris bipod, a quality sling and mounts, and a suppressor, and it'll be all set.

Oh--and perhaps a case of two of 77gr. Mk262 ammo.

Set up thusly, I think she'll do anything I want done out to 600M or so. Anything past that...it's the Savage, at least until I get the next planned project rifle in 6.5 Creedmore completed.