
Jack Leuba, Knight’s Armament’s Director of Military and Government Sales, challenges you to find a rifle that can overall outperform their SR-15/SR-16. In my experience with these rifles, this is not boasting or hyperbole.
Knight’s Armament is on the short list of the world’s greatest firearms manufacturers, but their ability to create such quality firearms is much more impressive if you consider everything else they take on…all at the highest level possible. They’re perhaps the premier one-stop shop for a wide variety of innovative, rugged and reliable accessories, suppressors and optics.
We reached out to Jack Leuba to learn more about the company, where its been…where it’s headed, and have him explain just why its products are worth the premium price.
Q: Jack, thanks for taking the time to give our readers a bit of insight into Knightās Armament. Can we start with a bit of background on who you are and how you ended up at KAC?
A: I did 16 years with the Marine Corps in various positions, but I was an infantryman by trade. After being around the block, I came back and I wanted to go be an instructor for high-level marksmanship. I went to Quantico and worked at Small Arms Weapons Instructor Course. While there, we were tasked with the revamp of the Marine Corp Rifle Marksmanship Program. From there, I bounced over and I worked with the British Royal Marine Commandos as their marksmanship and CQB liaison.

Joining Knight’s Armament
After that, I did another tour in Afghanistan. Once I finished that, I realized I was going to be happier pursuing something outside. So, I started into consulting. Then, I heard about an opening at Knightās Armament. I was really familiar having used their guns, and I had been a fan. What really got me was the M110K1 when it was adopted by MARSOC. It was a new face for Knightās and I really liked it. So, seeing an opening, I started at Knightās Armament in 2012, and Iām currently the Director of Military and Government Sales.

Q: Knightās Armament is known for qualityā¦but also innovation. Many companies claim that, but Knightās really walks the walk while always keeping a fairly subdued profile. Can you talk about where that company culture comes from?
A: Knight’s Armament really started proper in the mid 1970s, doing small projects but even then in the early days, it always evolving forward. The next level really came when Mr. Eugene Stoner came to work with Mr. Knight on his vision of bringing the AR-10 back as a commercial product. At the same time, even then, there was work being done on machine guns, and suppressors.

You can also go back to around that time and see really early handguard and accessory rail stuff from Knightās Armament before anyone else was even thinking about it. Mr. Knight had the idea from watching soldiers in Grenada running around with items literally duct taped to their M16A2. He said there has to be another way to do thisā¦so what is it?
At the time, the only thing he was really thinking about was a flashlight. But, when he shopped his ideas around, no one knew what he was talking about or even saw the need.

Being Where No One Else Is
So, Knightās Armament was demonstrating that forward thought process we’re known for even thenā¦.asking: what is this, and how do I make it better? Mr. Knight would always search for the better path, even if people didn’t always get it at the time. Now, others not āgetting itā is no fault of their ownā¦you have to understand that many people look at the bigger picture of their jobs and donāt focus on the minutia. But Mr. Knight has always had a passion. And you look at a lot of the things where Knightās Armament initially gained leverage, itās in areas where no one else was.
What we do is today is no different and it’s a critical part of the Knightās Armament design philosophy. We identify needs before others do and then refine what we design through interactions with high-level performers.
For example, when Knight’s Armament won the M4 RAS, there really wasnāt any other attachable handguard system for an M4. You can look at it now and say itās outdated, and itās true thereās been a lot of progress in this area with us, but there wasnāt anything else then that was even close. Itās now been on guns for the past 20 years. Virtually my entire career, the original M4A1s had the M4 RIS on them.
Q. Many look at Knightās Armament and think primarily riflesā¦but the company is much more than that. You also offer optics, suppressors, and many other itemsā¦itās sort of a one-stop shop. Can you explain that to our readers?
A: Looking at us a one-stop shopā¦I think thatās exactly it. I donāt need to worry about āwill this suppressor work with this barrel, and this gun with this handguard with this Knight Scope.ā Itās all right there, in-house, tested together. It is built as a system together.

Thatās one of the huge advantages that we have. We have such a broad capacity and such a broad product line. However, while itās great to have thatā¦it cuts on the other side
Knight’s doesn’t just get to be very good at suppressors…just be good at barrel manufacturing, just be good at machiningā¦we also have to be good at ergonomics and thinking outside of the box with everything we doā¦and then have the time, patience, and resources to test it all and see if it works or not.
Q: One of your products that has just worked for me for years is your NT4 suppressor. It’s pretty legendary at this point…it really influenced the entire industry.
A: I could talk about the NT4 all day. Itās one of the things that even today, its 20 years old. It doesnāt seem like a lot, but think about how much technology has changed in 20 years. Look at everything around us and look at how many suppressor companies have come and gone in 20 yearsā¦itās incredible.

When you look at it, it has one of the original QD style attachment methodsā¦attaching to the muzzle device. Itās also just incredibly durable. I canāt even tell you the amount of NT4s that weāll bring back from a placeā¦someone will say “yeah, this one is dead”ā¦.or ones that are 1033ād that will come back to us. Youāll see theyāve been in the system for 15 years.
We get them back and cut them in half to see whatās going on, and it’s literally just completely full of carbon and copper. They probably have 50,000 rounds through them and theyāre still hanging on.
People say all the time āit’s a dinosaur.ā I say yes, it might be a dinosaur, but itās a T-Rex. Itās THE dinosaur. When it comes down to it, and you look at the NT4 and you compare it to other suppressors, it strikes that perfect balance of being good enough at enough things while being super durable.

Q: Youāve released some new suppressors which are similar to the NT4 but differ in regards to attachmentā¦In my use, Iāve found these cans to be just as rugged and high quality.
A: The biggest thing with our QDC suppressors is they isolate the attachment mechanism from gas flow, so you have a far reduced issue with getting suppressors on and off after some pretty consistent use. Theyāre also tough. You look at the 762 QDC and itās basically an NT4. They are built with the same mentality of durability and robustness. We want the suppressor to be lasting at least as long as your barrel. When it comes time to throw them away, it should be because you literally shot them out and itās gone through a gun or two.
Q: Every year, one of my personal SHOT Show highlights is what is coming from the Knightās Armament booth. Can you talk at all about the process by which new products from KAC come to market?
A: The true vision of Knightās Armament is Mr. Knight’s. Heās still in the office day-to-day and has his hands on every item that goes through our system and comes out the end as a finished product.
Mr. Knight is always looking at everything going on and asking: How can we do that better? What doesn’t this do well? What doesn’t this do right? How can we fix that?
Mr. Knight is involved in every project that comes through Knightās Armament, whether it’s a suppressor, a Knight Vision scope or a bipod foot.

If he wasn’t the one who came up with it completely originally, heās the one who saw a tweak to be made to make it better than what the thought process was by the engineer, or by the user who originally had the need.

I canāt tell you the amount of projects Iām working on where I have something in front of me and heāll come in and ask: What it is? What does it do? Who are our competitorsā¦and is it better? And if it’s not better, he will want to know why weāre wasting time with it. If itās not betterā¦if it does not outperform, and if itās not in the top three of anything, weāre simply not going to chase it.
Product on Request
Another great thing is pretty much every product we make or have made is based on a program requirement. Very few things other than perhaps a rail cover is something that wasnāt pretty specifically written out as a requirement. There was something that
Finally, Iād mention that at Knightās Armament, we are constantly striving to make everything better. Thereās a constant evolution path. There are very few things where we ever say āyep, thatās done.ā
Q: Speaking of evolutionsā¦Iāve had Knightās Armament SR-15 IWS, a Mod1 and now a Mod2. Iād like to talk a bit about the Knightās Armament SR-15 line of rifles and why a shooter might want to consider one? Thereās some things internally that these rifles do differently than other manufacturers in regards to bolt design and gas system. While other rifles look similar, these rifles feel quite different in hand and when shooting.
A: Itās almost hard to find a bad manufacturer right now. You have to go out of your way to really find the cheapest of the cheap and not get a decent AR-15. Thereās a litany of good manufacturers out there that put a lot into what they do, and they are coming out with some good, creative stuff.
You can go out and source really roughly equivalent stuff to some of what weāre doing, but thereās certain things you are just not going to be able to find anywhere else. For example, you cannot get a better bolt than what we have in our gun. It just does not exist on the open market.

Thereās a bunch of good cold hammer forged barrels, but thereās not many that have a gas system that so specifically controls your gas flow and works so efficiently across the band of decent ammunition types. Itās going to be very hard to find a gun that has been built and tested to ensure it works suppressed and unsuppressedā¦and not just with one suppressor, but with a whole family of suppressors.
Also,

A Knight’s Challenge
I challenge anybody out there to find a rifle that’s is going to outperform us in every category. You might be able to find a gun that is marginally more accurate. You might be able to find one that’s a little bit lighterā¦but when it comes time to put everything together into a gun that shows up at your FFL that you donāt have to mess with…well, I donāt know. I donāt know how much thatās worth. Weāve got a price tag on them. Itās a question of whatās it worth to you? Whatās it worth to have a gun that you can look at and know that gun is going to work for 20,000 rounds?
If I buy the cheapest ammo, Iām going to have to invest 10,000 dollars to break that thing…Knowing that if anything ever goes wrong and that gun isnāt doing what it’s supposed to do and youāve been doing what youāre supposed to do to take care of it, that itās backed by Knightās. Thatās a strong challenge, I think.
Q: Can you speak about what the future holds for Knightās Armament? Overall trends you see in the years ahead?
A: Of course thereās trends we see like 300 Blackout, .224 Valkyrie, 6.5 Creedmoor. Those things are really interesting to us, but it comes down to what is the userā¦what is a government buyer looking for? What high-performance item do they need but not have?

As far as what we’re working on…weāve been doing machine guns for awhileā¦we look at lighter weight, shorter barrels, better performance. Itās all about capability. We ask: What is the capability gap? What is there to be exploited?
Weāve got all kinds of programs and projects in-houseā¦mostly government, but it’s about what new technology will make this new thing do something better than something bigger? How can I match or exceed this capability with a lighter shorter, faster, quieter system? Thatās where Knight’s Armament is going.
Shorter, Faster, Quieter
Suppressors are another huge thing. We’re always asking “how do we improve that gun/suppressor integration to get the absolute best performance?” A benefit there is we truly build suppressors for our guns and our guns for our suppressors. By keeping everything in-house and keeping everything tight, we can do things with systems that other manufacturers simply arenāt able to do beyond the conceptual phase.
And really, at the end of the day, all of this benefits not just our Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Coast Guardā¦folks that deserve the best, but also the American buying public that deserves the best. You have a place where you can get the bestā¦and it says Knightās on it.

Tremendous thanks to the staff at Knight’s Armament and to Jack Leuba, Director of Military and Government Sales for taking the time to speak with ARBuildJunkie. Visit them on their website for more information.

Question. Need help. My kac 14.5 i just got with a few hundred rounds already through it keeps having FTF. No rime or reason and no round count matters. Could be at 2 or 6 rounds in. The first round always works and the bolt locks open on the last round. Using pmc .223 And Speer gold dot tried all different kinds of mags used plenty of geisslie grease lube. Stock recoil spring with KAC buffer. Geisslie ssp trigger (hammer spring is in correct on top of the roll pins. I looked at my KAC 16in Upper to compare firing… Read more »