Ever wonder how a former elite military member would go about building a rifle? Maybe you’re curious about what options or features they would focus on and why. You’re in luck! Jason Pike with Frogman Tactical, a former Navy SEAL breaks it all down for you in this video of his latest build.
Jason Pike from Frogman Tactical has years of experience behind the trigger. He recently finished a build on a 10.5” pistol, and while it was built for speed and function, he wanted to have a more versatile rifle that could reach out to 650-750 yards. Enter his latest build.
Jason knew it would be a struggle to get all the parts he wanted for this build, thanks to the global pandemic and supply issues, but he stuck it out and completed the build with the final parts coming in from a shop in Florida. He wanted this rifle to be similar to the ones he used while in combat — very limited upgrades and military reliability. He took into consideration the barrel length and optic choices when he decided he wanted the system to be able to reach at least 650 yards.
Overall, he says that the Frogman Tactical rifle turned out to be an amazing platform. Jason does say that at the time of the video recording, he was only able to get it sighted in to about 100 yards thanks to the weather but could not wait to get it out on the range and see what it could really do.
Jason starts out talking about one of the last components to join the build — the stock. It’s a Magpul MBR Gen 1 stock that he says extends very quickly and easily. He goes on to say that the stock is very sturdy with a trap door storage compartment. He didn’t have much experience with the stock and the QD attachment points, which will come in handy with the One Shot sling he is looking to attach once he uses the rifle more.
Jason discusses other components such as the buffer and buffer spring, both of which came from Geissele. Also from Geissele is the charging handle, specifically the Geissele SCH Super Charging handle that is ambidextrous. He feels that the ambi handle is a must, especially for left-handed shooters such as himself, to help keep the rifle seated against the shoulder. Also, the grip is from Magpul. He really likes the grip because it’s heavily stippled which he really likes for better friction and contact in the hand.
Mr. Pike went on to talk about the safety and how he handles it as a left-handed shooter. For the safety, he chose an ambidextrous short-throw or 60-degree safety from Troy Industries. He gets asked a lot how he manipulates the safety as a lefty. He gave three different options for his operation.
- Use a regular grip and brings his left thumb over to swipe the safety down.
- Leave the thumb on the left side of the rifle, to begin with. But he cautions that this grip will eventually lead to forearm fatigue.
- The last option is that he uses the first pad of his trigger finger to swipe down on the safety.
All of these options allow for the rifle to remain shouldered and can get on target easily for him. He says that he uses option three more often than not.
To round out the internal options of the build he went with stock options for the pins, bolt, etc. He also omitted the dust cover and forward assist button. He went on a small diatribe on that topic, but suffice to say, his message was that if you aren’t comfortable getting your system dirty or not in a tactical scenario, those parts are not required for the build, in his opinion. The upper and lower parts are billet and machined with tight tolerances.
The rail is a 14” M-Lok style from Midwest Industries. Yes, he knows they are expensive, but again it is a pandemic build so there weren’t many options to choose between. He has a Magpul RVG “rail vertical grip” to go with the Magpul bipod. The muzzle device is from Sons of Liberty, is a flash hider and brake in one, and will work with a few different suppressor manufacturers for mounting suppressors.
He ended the video by talking about the optics on the system, for which he has two. The primary optic is a low-powered variable optic with a secondary red dot. The primary is the US Optics TS8X 1:8 power optic with a first focal plane and a rapid ballistic reticle that is illuminated. For the second optic, he went with the US Optic DRS 2.0 red dot with a 6 MOA and 1 MOA adjustments. He went with those optics saying that he will never outshoot them on this system.
Jason says this is a solid system that works for him, and most of his commenters think it’s a good build. His parting comment is that he can’t wait to see how far he can get this rifle to shoot consistently.
