Smith & Wesson's M&P 10 6.5 Creedmoor

I always hoped the personality of my writing would develop like the 1964 short haired, clean shaven Leon Russell’s metamorphosis into 1970 long haired, bearded, Mad Hatter topped Leon Russell. Unfortunately, the personality of my work appears to begin and end as a mature Wayne Newton singing  “Danke Schoen”.

What is this all about, Joe? You seem very stressed. It’s just that the Smith & Wesson Performance Center M&P 10 in 6.5 Creedmoor is a serious firearm that deserves better coverage than, “…is a (tired cliché) firearm, with (worn cliché) performance and (redundant cliché) quality that is (boring cliché) suited for its intended applications. So let’s start here, fresh, and see where it all ends up.

The facts as I understand them…

“…The Smith and Wesson M&P 10 has been with us since 2013, the 6.5 Creedmoor SKU: 10057 version was introduce in January 2017. While the M&P 10 has a number of proprietary pieces, an owner can still take advantage of future trends in AR furniture, triggers and other hardware bits and pieces…”

The M&P 10 6.5 Creedmoor is a well thought out package that suits the rifle’s intended applications, which S&W lists as: Enthusiast, Home Protection, Hunting, Law Enforcement & Military, Recreational Shooting… which I interpret as hunting, law enforcement & military, and recreational shooting where moderate to long shooting distances are anticipated. The M&P 10 6.5 Creedmoor might be suitable for rural home protection, but probably not first choice for densely packed residential living.

Can the 6.5 Creedmoor be used to drop a whitetail or hog inside 40 yards? Sure, and more than competently so, but the cartridge is designed to shine at a distance. Subsequently, the rifle is shipped with a fixed Magpul MOE butt stock, no sights, a 20″ long barrel, a Troy floating handguard with a full top rail and a two stage match trigger.

Lots of Chris Stapleton, no Justin Bieber…

The Smith and Wesson M&P 10, at just under 8 3/4 lbs, is a substantial firearm. The weight is steadying and contributes to a shooter’s ability to manage the M&P 10 from the bench or virtually any shooting position and the ambidextrous controls aid those processes. QD Swivel sockets and the Troy M-Lock system handguard accommodates a variety of slings, sight systems and bipods.

Great trigger. At 5 lbs 4 oz measured, the pull might seem heavy, but in feel it is not. Clean, creep free, crisp let off, the trigger poses no impediment to accurate shooting.

Feed reliefs (arrows) assure that any ogive types makes the trip from magazine to chamber without hanging on the barrel extension. Small poly inserts (arrows) make for a rattle free fit between upper and lower receivers.

The carrier, carrier key and bolt are familiar pieces, but unique to the M&P 10, including fit to a proprietary barrel extension. The bolt is made of 9310 steel for durability. The firing pin is chromed. During any of the live fire, there were no instances of assistance required to close the bolt, early release or failure to cycle, feed and eject, suppressed or not.

The 20″ 4140 alloy steel barrel has a tight 8″ twist to assure stabilization of 0.264″ bullets up through 140 grains heavyweights. There are no opposing lands with 5R rifling so a bullet is not swaged from cross sides and the angle of cross section transition from land to groove is more shallow to reduce ejecta and contact fouling. For addition protection against wear and corrosion, and to reduced bore friction, the barrel is treated inside and out with S&W’s infused Armornite® nitride process.

The 6.5 Creedmoor M&P 10’s muzzle is finished with 5/8″x24 threads, capped with a supplied thread protector. The thread standard allows the use of flash arrestors, muzzle brakes and silencers like the AAC unit pictured for suppressed applications. A silencer does take the edge off of report and recoil to a meaningful degree by neutralizing jet effect.

Factory ammo, handloads and COL gauges that take a turn….

6.5 Creedmoor bullets tend to offer a better ballistic coefficient across its useful bullet range and in comparison to the 308 Winchester. At typical match bullet weights, the 6.5 Creedmoor has a reduced time in flight as a result of greater retained velocity, which means better down range bullet stability, less wind drift and much flatter trajectory. The Creedmoor also has less recoil and, for handloaders, good bullets are less costly.

What about the 260 Remington? The 260 Remington operates with 2,000 psi less pressure, a distinction which is easily lost when handloading or using performance loaded factory ammunition. The 260 Remington case is longer, which suggests more deeply seated bullets to meet the 260 Remington’s shorter 2.800″ maximum overall length. I have rifles chambered for both, as well as the 6.5x55mm Swede, with a preference for the 6.5 Creedmoor because of its short length and longish neck and because of the type and quality of firearms generally available… like the M&P 10.

In more real world terms…

Some factory ammunition and some handloaded ammunition were selected to evaluate the S&W M&P 10’s accuracy… or “precision” if you subscribe to the NRA lexicon. The 6.5 Creedmoor has been handloaded in the shop with some frequency and I wanted to see how the M&P 10 handled favorites.

Warning: Bullet selections are specific, and loads are not valid with substitutions of different bullets of the same weight. Variations in bullet material and length will alter net case capacity,  pressure and velocity results. Primer selection is specific and primer types are not interchangeable. These data represents maximum loads in our firearms and test equipment and may easily be excessive in other applications. All loads should be reduced by 3%,  and developed following safe handloading practices as represented in established reloading manuals produced by component manufacturers. Presentation of these loads does not constitute a solicitation for their use, nor a recommendation.   Cartridge: 6.5 Creedmoor  Firearm: S&W MP 10  COL Min-Max: 2.700″ – 2.825″  Bullet Diameter: 0.2644″ +0.000″/-0.0030″  Primer: CCI 200  Barrel: 20″ 1:8″ Twist  Reloading Dies: Hornady Custom  Max case length: 1.920″ -0.0020″/+0.0000″  Group: 100 Yards All groups 3 shot from fixed rest

COL and Capacity   Load Data & Performance Bullet Type Bullet Weight C.O.L. Inches Net Grains Water   Powder Charge Grains MV FPS Actual Muzzle Energy Ft/Lbs Group Size ” 100 Yds Sierra Varminter 1710 100 2.650 50.7   Re 15 45.0 3221 2304 0.6 Sierra Varminter 1710 100 2.650 50.7   Re 17 50.0 3250 2346 1.1 Sierra Pro-Hunter 1720 120 2.730 49.7   Re 17 47.0 3032 2450 0.9 Sierra Pro-Hunter 1720 120 2.730 49.7   Win 760 47.0 2977 2362 1.0 Lapua Scenar-L 4PL6019 136 2.800 47.4   Re 17 44.5 2821 2404 1.1 Lapua Scenar-L 4PL6019 136 2.800 47.4   Win 760 44.0 2748 2281 0.8 Hornady SST 26302 140 2.685 44.8   Re 17 42.5 2706 2277 1.4 Hornady SST 26302 140 2.685 44.8   Win 760 42.0 2625 2143 1.2 Nosler Custom Competition 26725 140 2.775 47.4   Re 17 44.0 2798 2434 0.7 Nosler Custom Competition 26725 140 2.775 47.4   Win 760 44.0 2739 2333 1.0 Berger Long Range Target 26409 140 2.800 46.8   Re 17 43.5 2816 2466 0.8 Berger Long Range Target 26409 140 2.800 46.8   Win 760 43.5 2718 2297 1.1 Hornady Match 120 Grain A-Max factory ammo rated 2910 fps 24″ barrel chronographed 2795 fps with 20″ M&P barrel 1.2″ group size

Shooting personality… the S&W M&P 10’s not mine

The Smith and Wesson M&P 10 6.5 Creedmoor is a nice firearm. The fit and finish is good, it feels balanced and its accuracy makes for a fun range day. If we weren’t still awaiting snow field melt longer ranges would have been attempted, but the demonstrated 100 yard performance holds promise of excellent performance at 500 yards and beyond.

Many rounds went through the M&P 10 without a thought about recoil. The rifle is very soft shooting and muzzle rise is minimal. Functionally, the control operation is intuitive, magazine changes were hesitation free and function was absolutely reliable.

The Smith and Wesson M&P 10 is 6.5 Creedmoor is not a tinkerer’s firearm and logically so. At $2,000+ MSRP, most people want a well finished firearm that does not have to be overhauled to make accurate for long range shooting and will accept a full range of shooting accessories. I believe the M&P 10 6.5 Creedmoor fits that description.