So almost exactly a year ago I was looking for a replacement to my Smith and Wesson M&P 10 which I sold in the pursuit of Night Vision, I have an ADM UIC10a in 308/762 Nato that I love at 16 inches and does everything extremely well with the exception of weight and that has been my “Deer rifle” for over 6 years now. Having said that, I really wanted that SASS system, preferably the Seekins or an LMT that gave me greater range, in a package that wasn’t much heavier and allowed for me to take on NRL Hunter matches which I thought would be my next shooting endeavor. Unfortunately the next year would throw a few curve balls that made me rethink everything, but in my pursuit to spend money on things I probably didn’t need I came across this DD5 V5 20" 6.5 Creedmoor on Armslist for an amazing price of $1900, having owned 5 DD’s in some sort or another I knew they were quality firearms, and have a good reputation, but the reviews on their full size rifles are not as thorough as I would like. I did make the purchase as it was bought through Cabela’s for a guy who wanted a deer rifle and found it heavier then he wanted for hauling into his stand and said he only shot some 60 rounds through it, which it did seem extremely clean and new when I purchased it. While this was not the Seekins or LMT, I did think that this could probably do the job well, and in some ways I was right and other ways I was wrong. So over the last year I have attempted to put it through its paces and attempted to create that SASS system, having shot out to almost 800 yards (about as far as I can get up north), and put around 700 rounds through it in the process to come up with my conclusion. For $1900 this is a good gun for what I want, but not worth the almost $3k new asking price in my personal opinion.
Ddv5 gun room by Hank Henry, on Flickr
I outfitted it with a Vortex 3-18x Strike Eagle, on a Geissele mount, I had both laying around after an SPR build that I ended up selling and put a B5 stock and a old ergo grip on it. Initially also a Magpul bipod I had laying around, but this was upgraded to a Harris later on and a Viking Tactics padded sling. I also put in a Larue 2Stage flat trigger.
So lets start out with what I really like about the rifle, reliability. This thing has not had a single issue in the all the rounds fired through it, and I have shot it in rain, snow and a combination of the 2. I have taken it up north into the woods of Wisconsin where pine sap finds its way into all manner of things, fine sandy dirt and a 10 year old nephew who dropped it repeatedly. I fed it mainly AAC 140gr you used to be able to find on PSA’s website for a decent price as well as a variety of Hunting and match ammo, and everything fed and shot flawlessly. I also really like the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge as a whole, this is slightly new to me as I did win a 6.5 Creedmoor Stevens 334 at a DU banquette a few years back and started to learn what that caliber could do, this rifle has really shown me the benefits of it over a 762 Nato/308 that I am so used to. I consistently think I need to over compensate for range and wind when I really don’t do to the speed and flat trajectory of the 6.5 in flight.
Ddv5 north 2 by Hank Henry, on Flickr
Lets talk about accuracy, the good and the bad. Firstly this is a very accurate rifle, for about the first 3 rounds… I can easily get sub-moa at 100 yards out of this rifle with Hornady Match loads and Hornady Black for at least 5 or more rounds, but as soon as the barrel starts to heat up, the group size opens up substantially. I shot a series of 7-10 shot group sizes I will post below as well as some amazing 5 shot groups, but it’s clear that this thing cannot hang with a bolt gun as much as I have seen with others in the new SASS contract rifles, granted those are going for upwards of $4500 now. This is a 1-1.7 Moa rifle with basic ammo and hunting loads, which isn’t horrible. I will say what really impresses me is the first round accuracy of this gun, when you place this on target with the first round or 2 it goes exactly where you want it to go. Shooting out to 500yards with just the BDC in my Vortex scope it just went right where I pointed it. A ipsc target at 700 was no issue with the first round, which I know is nothing to you Western boys, but in Wisconsin, we rarely have the chance to get out past 500, so that’s decent to me and my skill level, at the same time, almost 800 on a coyote Ar500 target I had to really try and dial it in.
Hank Henry, on Flickr
Ddv5 h 7 by Hank Henry, on Flickr
Ddv5 N 10 by Hank Henry, on Flickr
Ddv5 aac 2 by Hank Henry, on Flickr
Ddv5 nosler by Hank Henry, on Flickr
Up north range day by Hank Henry, on Flickr
So what I really don’t like about the rifle, the weight, the rail and the barrel length. While the weight is something that all Large frame AR’s share I just feel like the balance is off with this. The barrel does taper down slightly but this is a very front heavy gun, I mentioned the barrel length and I do wish I had gotten the 18" version as I think it would have helped slightly, but overall it just doesn’t feel as well balanced as some other AR10ish types I delt with in the past. The rail also bothers me as it doesn’t have a ton of real-estate to mount an ARCA rail and a bipod to it, on top of that it has a very odd angle under the handguard that makes mounting anything like an ARCA rail impossible, as it only fits things the size of the Mlok slot. I wish that I could purchase aftermarket, but this is a proprietary DD rail and I’m stuck with it. The length of the barrel is sort of unnecessary for my needs and a 18 inch barrel seems to make more sense for me personally. I don’t see for me needing the extra velocity, plus when I do suppress this it will be even more unwheeledly to handle.
Ddv5 norte by Hank Henry, on Flickr
Overall thoughts, I like this rifle and I think it is worth the $1900 I paid for it but I would not pay the full retail for this thing at all, it shocks me how accurate it is with the first round, all the groups posted above where I’m dead on target where the first round impacts with this gun. It has been fun to shoot and I really like having a semi-auto 6.5, having said that, I am not getting into NRL Hunter anytime soon due to my wife loosing her job and drastically cutting my fun budget for the time being and I am still looking to see if there is a deal on something else out there, with interest in the IWI Zion 25 in 6.5 as it has a lot of features that the DD fails at for a better price, but to my knowledge IWI has never actually released the 6.5 variants of these rifles yet so we’ll have to see. I also need to upgrade the glass on this, and was looking at either the Nightforce NX8 2-20x or the Vortex 4-24x Razor they recently released, but as I said my fun money has been cut back so that will have to wait. The 3-18x Strike Eagle is definitely a decent scope for the money but the drawbacks on it at 700+ yard targets are telling especially at 18 power, this is really a 3-15x scope at best. I hope to still get this out and suppress this, to see what that does with the groupings and to see how that effects long range. I know that I’ll still probably take this out up north to some clear cut land to see how far I can actually take this, and see what this DD in 6.5 can really do.