6.5 Creedmoor Pistol: Just Because You Can…

I am very excited this week to bring you a science experiment a year in the making! Thanks to some willing donors of time and effort, we have brought to life a Frankenstein Monster. Like many of you, I had entirely too much time on my hands at the peak of the Bat Flu scare, aka China Coof syndrome. My brain turned to crazy ideas, and I started wondering why we have AR-15 pistols, but not AR-10 pistols?

And when that light bulb came on, there was no shutting it off. While I at first planned on making a 308 version, there are at least a few 308 SBR’s. Including the H&K G3K, which produced a legendary fireball when the hammer was dropped. As the idea evolved, I started to wonder if 6.5 Creedmoor was a better choice. It should, in theory, not leave as much unburned powder behind. And, if we are going to be losing velocity from the start, would it not be better to be pushing the very high efficiency 6.5 projectile? And was this completely insane?

Over a couple of months, I was able to recruit enough other psychos that wanted the answer to those questions too. Aero Precision, the builder’s choice, rogered up with an upper, lower, and handguard. SB Tactical, the original inventors of the pistol brace, provided some excellent guidance along with an SBA4. And SB Tactical, in an EXPO ARMS heavy buffer, and shipped it lickety-split when it was apparent that I forgot that all-important part after assembly.

Most important to this entire equation was finding someone crazy enough to cut down a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel to 12.5 inches. And fortunately, I have one of those in my Rolodex. Craddock Precision is who I always turn to when it’s mad scientist time. They have done some amazing work for us here at GunsAmerica Digest over the years, and always at a fair price. They created our original 224 Valkyrie upper, which put the first one mile rounds on target in the history of that round. Yes, a mile. From 224 Valkyrie. Because Paul Craddock cuts a barrel like an artist, with built in accuracy blessed by the Angels of Copper and Lead themselves.

When I called Craddock up, I was surprised to hear he had done this before. Which perhaps should not have shocked me, he does have a reputation for custom even if it’s nuts. This was hugely beneficial, as we didn’t have to start totally from scratch. With a depth of experience, Craddock Precision was able to steer us to a 12.5-inch barrel length for optimal performance from the shorter side of the house.

Since we had also opted to build a semi-auto, knowing that beforehand was critical. Not only did we want a gun that would still perform to 1000 yards and beyond, but we had to make it run a direct impingement gas system. 6.5 Creedmoor is still relatively new to the semi-autos period, much less cutting that gas system down to pistol length.

With the shortages of the last year, it took quite some time to finish this project. And I will admit it had some teething pains. Due to our increased pressures, and the fact we also wanted to be suppressor capable, we opted for a high-pressure bolt. Craddock had to work magic on the gas port to make such a short barrel that would run both suppressed and unsuppressed. Buffer weight for such a project was a dice roll, but the Expo Arms 5.3 oz tamed the beast. And we had to wait months for a handguard shim kit to get our build to line up correctly.

Figuring this might produce some recoil, we turned to an expert at mitigating it. Area 419 kicked us a 2 port Hellfire brake, which did a fantastic job of keeping the Creedmoor pistol controllable. The Hellfire brake provides not only awesome performance, but it is super easy to install. If you are going short with big boy bullets, this goes on the highly recommended list.

The big question was always going to be, what kind of velocity would this short barrel produce. 6.5 Creedmoor is often used in 22-24 inch barrels, and you would be hard-pressed to find a factory one under 20. We were in a bit of uncharted territory here. Surprisingly, our Magneto speed showed a velocity drop that was not as bad as expected.

We still wanted to be able to use 140 grain Hornady bullets, as that is what I feed most of my 6.5’s. Unsuppressed, we still managed 2335 fps. With a TI-RAID 300 can, we bounced that up to 2350. Which is not too shabby for a super short package. Even with the slower velocity, according to 4DOF using a G7 drag model, that still beats a 308 Sierra Match King at 2600 FPS past 850 yards.

As this project evolved, so did the idea it could be a do-everything gun. Short and sweet to carry around? Check. Reach out past 1000 yards? Check. But what about up close? While to some degree it sickened me to use 6.5 Creedmoor in such a fashion during an ammo crisis, we needed to know. So we slapped a Trijicon MRO HD on top and tested at CQB range.

I can tell you, the 12.5-inch Creedmore is even easier to control in those settings than 16 inch 308. I was shocked at how easy the 6.5 pistol was to keep on target, and chucking 140’s would be devastating to anything on receiving end. I would gladly boot doors again with this setup.

All in all, this was one of the best projects we have ever done. I am pleasantly surprised that the idea of a single do-it-all gun has proven to be largely true. Having just one that does 1 meter to 1000 meters is pretty amazing. If you want something different, this is a build that is right up your alley.

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