Title asks it.  Any experiences with this?

I will say, I have one of their 5.56 GUNNER 16" barrels, and am completely wowed at how light it is, how accurate it is, and how well it holds zero even when heated up.   Blows my mind - very happy with it.

So, well heck, my PSA 20" SS heavy BBL is kind of heavy; and is starting to show its age.  So heck - thinking about running FAXON's 20" 6.5 Creedmoor GUNNER barrel on the next rebuild.  How is that working out for others?

And while at it, thinking of putting a .300 BO Gamma V6G brake on it; which has the same small dimensions as an GI flash-hider sized profile, to also help keep the weight down.  Currently running the V6G 6.5mm 3-chamber brake on my HBAR, and it works very well, but is loud, and a bit long.

And on a final note, 6.5 CM isn't 5.56; so is keeping the weight down in a 6.5CM AR10 really a good idea?....

I have no experience with Faxon barrels, so I can't comment with regard to that.  

However, I can comment about weight and my 6.5.  Mine is an older DPMS with a 24" bull barrel.  It's an absolute beast with the NF 5-25, bipod, and the can attached.  I believe loaded with five or ten rounds it weighs about 17 pounds.  The upside of that is that it's mild mannered when shooting from a bench or prone, so I don't get fatigued by concentrating on recoil mitigation.  I shoot it only from a supported position, so it's a pleasure to shoot and quite accurate.  Of course, the downside is that it's heavy enough that I wouldn't attempt an off hand shot unless I was goofing around.  It would be OK for sitting in the deer stand, but if I had to hike a couple miles to get to the stand instead of taking an ATV, I'd probably opt for a lighter gun.  

So what barrel profile you want depends on your planned use.  Plinking or hunting from a stand, go heavy.  If you need a more maneuverable gun, go lighter.

Oh, and get the longest gas system you can.  Your brass will thank you.

Thanks for the reply.  Good thoughts.  And yes, my current AR10 is a pretty darned heavy.  I once spent a whole weekend stalk-deer hunting with it, as there were possibility of 400+ yard shots.  So I lugged that beast around for 2 full days on my feet.   And then I did take a deer with it; at 15 yards on a snap-shot.   1,000 yard gun and, and I took a deer at 15 yards.   That's when I bought a Grendel.

Now my Creedmoor is mostly used as a distance range gun, out to 1400 yards at times, from a bipod and bench.  Now that the barrel is aging, I'm leaning towards going more general purpose.  Which means lighter, but still reasonably accurate.  And still 20" long for the velocity, but not 22" to keep it from getting toooo long for field usage.  

So yea, this project is intended for a more cross-purpose general gun.  It needs to shoot 1 MOA level; but beyond that, I don't care.  Wish me luck, I put one on order; but of course everything is back-ordered.  They are indicating a couple months out; which is fine - I'll wait.

Isn't 20" a bit short for 6.5creed?  You are going to lose some velocity.  I usually run 24" on my 6.5creeds because velocity is king with these lighter high bc bullets.

Depends on the load and math.  Here's a 140 gr load with H4350 in 20 and 24" bbls



So yea, the 24" is faster, by about 40 FPS in this load.  That's not much.  In terms of distance to transonic flight; the extra distance from the 24" ends up not being very much.  Some, but not the night and day you might hope.   So for me at least, the 20" length is about as long as you want to go, and still be able to handle it; with pretty little trade-off in actual distance and power.  Some, but not much.  I tried hunting with a 24" RPR in 6.5 CM, and it was just too long and ungainly for me.  20" I could handle and maneuver through brush and vehicles with.  

For a bench-only gun; sure, 24" would probably be even better.  For a general-purpose gun; there's a cost to it.

I would go with a heavier profile on 6.5 to maintain a similar accuracy level with heat. It more powder etc and my experience is that it could use a stiffer barrel. I have an 18” gunner 5.56 and also pleased with it.

I do wish you luck, lazy.   I've sought a general purpose gun for years, but I don't think that unicorn exists for me.  I want a hunting gun that's flat to 300 yards, but I also want an SBR for portability and maneuverability with a can attached.  Short barrel and flat shooting are pretty much mutually exclusive.  I want an optic that allows for fast shooting close in but also offers magnification for the odd long-range shot.  If one's pockets are deep enough that optic exists, but it's a weight penalty for a lightweight CQB gun.  I like SBR barrels for maneuverability, but that takes a quicker toll on suppressors.  For a general-purpose gun it seems it's a matter of which compromises one is willing to accept.  

That reminds me of the work project axiom--given the three options of fast, cheap, or good, pick two.

That's a good-looking barrel.  If it shoots as good as it looks I bet you'll be pleased.

Oh for that project; that's easy - Grendel.  It's ballistics are 7.62x39 at close range, and once you get long range, it behaves like .308 (better actually).  12"+ BBL has 1000 ft-lb out past 100 yards, and still supersonic out to almost 1000 yards.  Make it a 14.5", and it gets even better.  Fits on a small frame AR.  takes 27 round combat tactical mags of cheap 25 cent Wolf steel for blaster practice (well, when things return to normal at least); and for anything serious feed it the brass.  Converts 7.62x39 brass in one-step, so brass is almost always available.  And mostly runs on standard AR 223 speed powders; so cross component compatible.  Grendel is the as close as you're going to get to the ultimate do-all round, do-all range, do-all size, SBR that shoots 800 yards all day, and you can defend home with, and hunt game with.

Actually, that's where my old Creedmoor barrel is going - it's going to be turned down into a skinny 14.5 pin and welded Grendel barrel.  That project begins as soon as my replacement FAXON barrel shows up for the Creedmoor; and I can pull my old one off.

I like Creedmoor for when I want to reach out past 600 yard and hit stuff pretty hard still.

I have the 18” Faxon heavy fluted in 6.5 Creedmoor I just installed in my PA-10. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to shoot it yet to give a performance review. Unless their weights are off the Faxon website shows the heavy fluted barrels to weigh less than the Big Gunner.

How does it shoot for you?

And yea, the GUNNER cut profile on their Creedmoor line, a good bit thicker looking than their Gunner profile they run on the 5.56 profile.  My 16" GUNNER .223 is CRAZY light, yet shoots good.  Here's the cut of the 5.56 profile.  They even run the skinnier 0.625 dia gas block size, for weight savings.  


They have a very good design philosophy on where to put the ounces.  So the philosophy is not so much skinny, as it is as light as possible that still actually shoots well, even with some degree of sustained fire.  

Based on the cut of their 6.5CM GUNNER (first post), it looks to me like they feel like needs a bit more meat for 6.5 CM.  There is some cut-down in front of the gas block, but from chamber to gas-block portion, while isn't HBAR, it's not really A2 cut thin either, it looks like.  As mentioned above by @robpiat , apparently with 6.5CM you have to be a little more careful about going too thin, if you want to still be accurate; which I guess is why their GUNNER is still thicker than bare minimum for pressure rating.

It may be a bit before I get to accuracy test it, first I have to find some ammo then time to go shoot

I used a 16" 6.5 CM Faxon Gunner to do a lightweight alternative to my heavy 20" Ballistic Advantage bull barrel upper and am astonished by how well it shoots.  That is absolutely the most consistent gun I own, and it is a large frame AR with a near-pencil barrel...  who would've thought?  147gr ELD-M Hornady factory stuff easily shoots <0.75 MOA consistently easily and most groups are < 0.5 MOA.  That is with the Nomad direct thread on board.  My 20" shoots almost as good, but weighs a lot more.  I now have a 16" 223 Wylde Gunner and 10.5" 300 Blk waiting to be assembled, if those shoot anywhere near as good then I will be happy.  YMMV

Yea I have a theory on that.      I think the world of metallurgy and manufacturing has progressed quite a bit in the last few decades.  

Until quite recently, getting the metallurgy correct, the machining practices correct, and the QC correct, required skilled artisan craftsmen with pride in their hand-perfected trade.  In the 2010's, the world of metallurgical purity and consistency, CNC machining, and automated QC check's, that changed.  Try getting a skinny barrel to shoot well with the same zero hot and cold, in 1980's, just wasn't happening.  But today, the metallurgy purity is such that there's no composition variation causing stress variations as a function of temperature.  And machining isn't done with "some-guy and a drill", level practices anymore.  

In the last 10 years or so, we've gone from "WOW, a 1 MOA BBL?!?  This is something special!"   To ho-hum; if not almost disappointment that it's only a 1 MOA BBL.   I find that remarkable.  

And with that, the ability for a company like FAXON, to make a skinny barrel, for under $300, that you can just slap on and it shoot like it does, is now a real and normal option.

I built an upper last spring with a 6.5 Faxon Gunner barrel and it really want to be a tack driver.  I've got around 100 rounds through it and during load development with H4350 and 143 ELD-Xs, it put 5 shots into about 1 MOA.  129 Interlocks with IMR4350 shot pretty much the same.  I haven't had a chance to get back to the range and fine tune the loads, but I'm very impressed with it.  I have the VG6 Gamma 3 chamber brake on it, which allows me to spot impacts, but as you said, it is loud.