Reviews AR-10 Vs. AR-15: Battle Of The 2-Gun DMRs [BUILD] David Lane October 6, 2025 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. Somewhere on Earth, around the year 400,000 B.C., two Archaic Homo sapiens got into an argument about what was better for killing stuff — heavier spears moving slower or lighter spears moving faster. Granted, language wouldn’t evolve for another couple of hundred thousand years, so these prehistoric arguments were only slightly more intelligent than a YouTube comments section. This argument would continue and evolve over the course of history from the size of rocks in slings to the size of arrow heads to the size of bullets. I have no doubt that for as long as people have been chucking objects, we’ve debated how much size matters. For my contribution to this eternal debate, I offer this: an AR-15 in 5.56 NATO Vs. an AR-10 in 6.5 Creedmoor. BATTLEFIELD VS. COMPETITION Let’s not pretend this is a tactical thesis since that’s not my field. My goals stem from being a competitive shooter, primarily 2-gun in many flavors, with my top pick being InRangeTV Brutality matches. For most 2-gun matches across most rule sets, like PCSL, Brutality, Proving Grounds, Tactical Games, etc., an AR-15 is almost always the right choice. But sometimes a match offers a course of fire where the heavy rifles can actually keep up. InRangeTV High Desert Brutality is one such match. Two rifles with almost the same build specs but chambered in very different calibers. Both are on the clock in the same courses of fire, shot at the same ranges and even on the same day. Before we dive in, a special thanks to AmmunitionToGo.com for providing the 5.56 NATO 62-grain Magtech used in this project and to Barnes for the 6.5 Creedmoor 140-grain Precision OTM! Both performed outstanding at distance and up close. RIFLE SPECS: Both rifles are built to almost the same specs, as much as possible. Both have 20-inch barrels, suppressors of almost the same size, the same stock, similar optics, etc. The goal was to make this as close to apples-to-apples as reasonably possible. AR-10 Heavy Rifle Division: Aero Precision M5 receiver/handguard/charging handle Faxon Firearms 20″ Gunner 6.5 Creedmoor barrel Wilson Combat BCG B&T X-762 Ti suppressor KynShot hydraulic buffer Walker Defense NILE rail covers Vortex Optics Razor Gen 3, 1-10x Vortex Impact 4,000 B5 Systems Collapsible Precision Stock MDT Ckyepod Double-Pull Lightweight 5.11 VTAC sling AR-15 Light Armored Division: Lead & Steel upper receiver and handguard Rosco 20″ barrel Rifle Speed gas block Dead Air Silencers Lazarus 6 KynShot hydraulic buffer Vortex Razor Gen 2, 1-6x Lead & Steel Pandora red dot Bobro Engineering 30mm LPVO and ACRO mount Walker Defense Research Dark Matter BCG Walker Defense Research NILE rail covers B5 Systems Collapsible Precision Stock MDT Ckyepod Double-Pull Lightweight 5.11 VTAC sling HEROES OF THE BUILD Just about everything in these builds worked basically exactly as I hoped it might. Both rifles were smooth shooting, flat shooting and easy to handle. But there were a few parts that stole the show. Top of the list is the Vortex Gen 3 1-10x LPVO, it’s simply a badass optic. I’ve never been a huge LPVO fan, but the Gen 3 might convert me. KynShot buffers make a tangible difference that I really recommend. Both builds had significantly less sight picture disruption with the KynShot buffers, and that really bumps up how fast you can engage targets on the clock. B&T X-762 Vs. DeadAir Lazerus 6, the B&T was a better suppressor. Not only is the reduced backpressure much more effective with the B&T design, but the Titanium suppressor is several ounces lighter and handles heat a lot better. While the Laz 6 would start to have enough mirage to make a clean sight picture difficult near the end of a stage, the B&T X-762 bucked heat enough that it wasn’t ever an issue. Laz 6 was still a rock-solid suppressor, and I really like how it sounds, but for this, the B&T edged it out. Both 20-inch barrels were outstanding and grouped about 1 MOA with good ammo. Zero complaints with either Faxon or Rosco, and I’d recommend either of them for just about any shooter. Only the 5.56 AR-15 had a RifleSpeed gas block. It’s an amazing gas block and hands down the best adjustable gas block I’ve ever used. The AR-10 was going to use one, as well, but I ordered the wrong size from RifleSpeed. RifleSpeed was going to exchange it, but no replacement was ever sent. These were media units; no money was lost in the exchange. MDT Ckyepod Lightweight Double Pull continues to be a positively workhorse of a bipod. The size and the weight really came in handy for stable positions, even when stability was hard to come by. The Ckyepod isn’t cheap, but it’s build shockingly durable even for the lightweight model. With 95-degree heat and staying well hydrated, there was a lot of sweat to make things slippy. Thankfully, the Walker Defense Research NILE rail covers provided a ton of grip and made sure the rifles didn’t slide in my hands. The Dark Matter BCG from WDR also proved to be a wonderful BCG in AR-15 build. The ultra-slick finish handled the dust and crud without worry. INRANGETV HIGH DESERT BRUTALITY Primarily a community-building event, InRangeTV Brutality matches are also a great place to really test yourself and your gear. Parma Rod & Gun in Parma, Idaho is a fantastic range with tons of room for a great match. From riding and shooting from a dune buggy to getting hits on targets out to 615 yards, High Desert Brutality had a little bit of everything. It even had the added drama of water bombers after a spark off a steel target set the range on fire and burned 225 acres of the surrounding brush. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the match continued the following day. Without doubt, one of the best matches I’ve ever shot, High Desert Brutality was the perfect proving ground to test a precision AR-10 and AR-15 head-to-head. Major thanks to the entire InRangeTV Brutality crew for a great match. AR-10 Vs AR-15 WINNER? For this match, a full-power rifle has an advantage. Not only are the longer-range targets a lot easier to hit with a battle cartridge, but the extra energy on target helps with spinners as well. While both the Vortex Razor LPVOs are solid scopes, the Gen 3 1-10x in FFP is a huge step up over the Gen 2 for long-range shooting. A little more mag, a more helpful reticle, and FFP were all gains and made the Gen 3 a better scope. Both scopes 1x was more than adequate. The addition of the red dot on top of the 1-6x was never really an advantage in this kind of shooting. If there were more near/far transitions or if I had shot the night match with nods, the 12 o’clock red dot might have become more useful. Similarly, the Vortex Impact 4000 laser range finder wasn’t really helpful for this match since the distances were easy to range before the clock started. It’s a useful tool in other applications, but for this match, it didn’t make anything easier and definitely made maneuvering with the AR-10 harder. Tactical door kickers and their basement-dwelling cheerleaders will argue the benefits of different DMR systems until the end of time. But for High Desert Brutality, I really recommend shooting in the heavy rifle division if you can. It’s a lot of fun and very rewarding. Why you can trust RECOIL Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyer’s guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles. 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