Looking into Knights Armament SR25 6.5 Creedmoor (.308?) 14.5 to 16” barrel-full time suppressed. Looking for experience with reliability, accuracy, issues, etc. Thanks
Knights Armament SR25 6.5 Creedmoor
- Thread starter Milspec Longhorn
- Start date
Realize 6.5 CM is newer, so if anyone has info on the .308 KA SR25 as opposed to 6.5 in terms of reliability, accuracy, issues, etc. that would be helpful.
I have a 16" 308 PC. Other than being a little grumpy with a high back pressure suppressor, which I fixed with a Tubbs spring, it has been fantastic. Not a single issue, and it is generally around .8 moa with GMM. I'm probably at 2k rounds. I picked up mine during covid and got it at retail. They are starting to become prohibitively expensive after the price increase a few years ago. If I were looking now, I would grab an SP10 (I wish they came in 16") or a JP.
I will say it is not a gentle giant. It is made to be a reliable military weapon, which means it is overgased to some extent, but not as much as the LMTs I have shot. I had the barrel dimpled by Nefarious Arms, which sheds a half pound. I think it's 8.5lb naked. But that quickly grows with glass and accessories.
I love it. When they release a 16" 6.5, I will pick up an upper.
I will say it is not a gentle giant. It is made to be a reliable military weapon, which means it is overgased to some extent, but not as much as the LMTs I have shot. I had the barrel dimpled by Nefarious Arms, which sheds a half pound. I think it's 8.5lb naked. But that quickly grows with glass and accessories.
I love it. When they release a 16" 6.5, I will pick up an upper.
I wondered about how it would interact with a Suppressor. I have a Dead Air I plan on using. What were the symptoms that told you to change the spring. Tubbs Spring? The overgassing results in more recoil? Agree on the pricing now.
I am an AR armorer several times over, and I could tell the BCG was running crazy fast with my SiCo Omega. I took a SOTAR class, and Chad had done a lot of work on early SR25s that had issues. He said the easiest upgrade/fix is the Tubb spring. The difference was night and day. It should be standard from the factory, but Knights is all about standard springs.
I also have a 16" PC. My experience has been similar to Monk's, Im still using stock springs. I cant recall ever having a failure with quality ammo.
Not a gentle giant, but 308 gassers generally arent. No time on a 6.5 yet, but a buddy had a 6.5 OBR and that gun was awesome to shoot, so i suspect the 6.5 KAC is the same.
The prices are insane since they became internet nerd flex-guns.
“Not a gentle giant”? More recoil? What ammo do you find works best?
I also have a 16" PC. My experience has been similar to Monk's, Im still using stock springs. I cant recall ever having a failure with quality ammo.
Not a gentle giant, but 308 gassers generally arent. No time on a 6.5 yet, but a buddy had a 6.5 OBR and that gun was awesome to shoot, so i suspect the 6.5 KAC is the same.
The prices are insane since they became internet nerd flex-guns.
Yeah, they're tougher to control. Not unmanageable, but it will not forgive sloppy recoil control like an AR15.
I shoot Hornady TAP or Federal GMM almost exclusively.
More constant tension with a faster rebound. It slows things down and elongates the operation.
Yes, everything I have heard is that they have lighter recoil. 6.5 generally has less recoil. X-ring just did a great video on the 22":
My 65 year old mother shoots my 22" and 18" 6.5 gas gun no problem. She actually shot some decent sized groups.
I have 5 sr25s. They are by far my favorite rifles to shoot and own. My pc which is shot regularly is a damn tack driver and probably my favorite rifle I own.
None of these groups are cherry picked
Kac is the pinnacle of large frame gassers. They did the homework that everyone else just copied.
None of these groups are cherry picked
Kac is the pinnacle of large frame gassers. They did the homework that everyone else just copied.
You and @KimberGuy we're the only two people to step up, Kimber kept a respectable Average but he used the 22" 6.5CM and Handloads, you used a .308 with Factory FGMM and if it wasn't for that one group 1.15" MOA group it would have been damn close.
Have you done any Load Development for your APC? I've seen some excellent accuracy out of SR25's with IMR 4064 and 175gr SMK's
I am not sure about that barrel length. We provided ammunition for evaluation with the MRGG project and I will tell you that all of the rifles were pretty fantastic. I may miss some but the KAC, Geissele, LaRue, Seekins were all better guns than I am a shooter. All of the rifles I saw were longer barreled than what you are asking about and tuned to the military bid.
So not sure if you would consider this an option (mainly because so many of the SR-25's are unobtanium) - you could always put a MWS upper on a SR-25 lower. The fit/finish between upper/lower is very good, and complete SR-25 lowers are available from time to time. Chop a 20" SS 6.5 CM barrel to 16", and voila overgassing drastically reduced. The LMT SS barrels generally have a good rep for accuracy (at least mine have delivered).
All of Knights guns are done in batches. A few months back there was a batch of SR25 lowers and some 22" uppers. In speaking with Jack at AUSA last year the 6.5 22" will be first, followed by the 14.5 and lastly followed by 16". Generally you are more successful buying the upper and lower separately. I did not find it all that hard to get one when available and they are also financially out of reach of most of the reddit scalpers. Just need to sign up for in stock alerts everywhere.
I usually only hand load for bolt guns. I need to but just can’t find the time. It’s hard to when fgmm prints like that though lol
How do you find the accuracy of the KA SR25s compared to same caliber bolt?
So consistently for the KAC you find the .308 FGMM the best > Berger factory?
I also shoot an omega on my large frame gasser. My last one (PWS) I went round and round with buffer/spring combinations and even went so far as to turn my own custom buffer. Ended up going to a PWS H3 buffer and a tubbs spring and it lined it right out. Shot better and just much more pleasant to shoot in general.
Now I've got an MWS, and in stock trim it just wasn't having the omega at all. After some digging here I found another member with an identical setup running a BRT 50/50 gas tube and a sprinco red spring and that's the direction I went. Long story short, it runs, but it's still not entirely happy. Another tubbs spring is in its future for sure. They're worth every penny.
This is one of the best videos out there on shorter barrel KAC SR-25 6.5CM performance. He compares both 16” and 22” KAC SR-25s chambered in 6.5CM from 100yds out to 300, 500, 600, 940, and 1250yds.
The color combos on the 16” are sick.
The color combos on the 16” are sick.
Generally a bolt gun is much easier to shoot. Large frame gasser is another animal to shoot well in my opinion. I mean my apc will shoot .5moa groups consistently but I don’t call it a .5 moa rifle. I’d call most of my bolt rifles legit .5 moa guns. But again much easier to shoot in my opinion.
Thanks. I like the compactness and the modularity of the SR25 compared to a bolt - but I am sure will take a good bit of practice to shoot like you did.
This. My SR25 will shoot under a minute if I do my job, but ive gotta do my job a lot harder when shooting my SR25 than I do when shooting my AI or a 556 gun.
I dont look at bolt guns and big bore gassers in the same way, bolt guns to me will always be 'precision rifles', SR25's are for quick followups or multiple threats when you need a hammer to keep somebody down.
Absolutely. Those are great groups. Im curious what cadence are you firing at? Quicker than you could with a bolt gun or are you taking your time? Either way, excellent shooting.
I'm naturally impatient with a gas gun (a personal problem, I know), so it's probably the same cadence as a bolt gun. Most of the time, it involves shooting and then going through the fundamental checklist, then shooting again. In my experience, unlike a bolt gun, where you can engage the bolt after breaking the shot, on the SR25, you need to wait through the unlock process before shooting again.
When I'm doing a private training course that is the number one issue I have with most people, keeping that trigger pulled to the rear until your rifle recovers then reset.
Next time you're out give this a try.
Spend a good couple hours shooting your Large Frame gassers to the point you feel it's just mussel memory and your accuracy is consistent (not a bad AR day). Then switch to your Bolt rifle that usually is the hardest for you to group well, I know this sounds weird but don't even look at the damn bolt gun and keep in your mind your just grabbing your Large Frame Gasser. Once your behind your bolt rifle just do everything the same as you do with your gasser and I guarantee your accuracy will improve.
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Absolutely. I have the same impatient tendencies with the bolt gun sometimes. Followup is yuge on the gassers.
I find shooting 10-20rd groups easier than multiple 5rd groups, especially if you're coming on and off your rifle to load your mag after every group.
I forgot who asked, but someone asked to see some 20rd groups out of the new 18" Geissele SPR Cut Rifled barrels.
I used this as a Data Collection Exercise and treated it as a high round count 2 minute PRS stage, basically 3-4X the normal round count, so these two 20rd groups were shot with Factory Black Hills 5.56 77gr OTM one after the other and in haste but once you're locked in they just keep stacking.
I shot the first 20rd group on the right first, then moved left, you can see as the barrel temp increased the groups started to open, but it gave me a solid Data Baseline.
Now I know I can maintain MOA Accuracy shooting a Ambient Temp (71°) Barrel Surpressed for a total of 40rds.
I know this isn't Apples to Apples but I've found the same to be true with .308 and 6.5CM, but Large frame Gassers Barrel temp increases faster so I've only done two 15rd round groups for a total of 30 for Large Frame Rifles in a two minute time frame.
Good groups. I shoot Black Hills 77gr MK262 OTM only and even out of a 12.5" Craddock Precision Bartlein barrel supressed it groups very well
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