The Fierce Firearms F-15 Sidewinder is a serious AR-15 platform rifle made for serious precision shooting. If you demand more than just going to the range and going pew pew, this rifle is worth a look.
Fierce Firearms is known for seriously accurate rifles, guaranteeing ½ MOA accuracy, with – of course – appropriate ammunition selection and (also obviously, but they don’t say it) if the shooter does their job. A rifle doesn’t go out the door unless it groups three shots in less than ½” at 100 yards, and you get the target to prove it with purchase.
You pay for the privilege, of course, but the quality and precision for the price paid is outstanding. Heretofore, their specialty has been bolt-action rifles, especially for the long-range precision hunting crowd, but Fierce has now added an AR-platform rifle to their product lineup.
The Fierce F-15 Sidewinder is made in .223 Wylde (meaning it can chamber both .223 Remington and 5.56 NATO) or in .22 Nosler, whichever is your preference. You also have your choice of 16-inch match-grade barrel, either a hand-lapped stainless or a C3 Carbon Barrel.
The action includes a Velocity Precision trigger and ambidextrous controls. The pistol grip is carbon fiber, as is the M-LOK handguard. The receiver and handguard have a full-length aluminum Picatinny rail for mounting optics (or iron sights, if one were so inclined) and the receiver is streamlined to reduce potential snags.
The Fierce F-15 Sidewinder is a side-charger, so the charging handle is directly mounted to the bolt rather than being located at the back of the receiver. Fierce also omits the forward assist, which is kind of a breath of fresh air.
The carbon fiber components reduce the Sidewinder’s weight to 6.2 pounds in .22 Nosler or 5.9 pounds in .223 Wylde.
Again, you’ll pay for the privilege; MSRP is $2595 for the stainless barrel, and $2995 for the C3 model. However, you’re paying for quality. Fierce Firearms’ bolt-action rifles are of superb quality, and their F-15 Sidewinder AR looks to be well. Some people would rather invest in one quality rifle than go through five or six cheap ones. This one would certainly be a good one to invest in.
Now, that looks like an “assault” rifle.
“a serious AR-15 platform rifle made for serious precision shooting”
With a silly name: Fierce Firearms Sidewinder.
Too true, 🤣😂😅😂🤣🤣😂🤣
it will precisely take your money and piss it away, first when you’re duped into buying it and subsequently when you have to take a second mortgage to pay for the .22 Nosler ammo and constant barrel replacement. Whoop, another AR-15, how novel and how exciting.
Didn’t read the entire article, Did you?
I did…if you’re referring to the chambering I know .22 Nosler isn’t the sole model. It is still (yawn) another AR platform rifle with nothing really fantastic or novel. So they moved a few things, took away something, and added another overpriced mall ninja waifu pillow to America’s gun store.
I wish that people evaluating the precision of a firearm would start using larger numbers of shots in a group. Three rounds are necessary, but not sufficient.
I prefer 5 shot groups, rather than three. And I note this article does not indicate any kind of accuracy guarantees from this AR15. For far less than $3,000 you can buy the parts necessary to put your own precision AR together and have money left over to put good glass on it. It’s wholly unnecessary to sink $3,000 into a pre-built AR like this one. Buy a solid lower, and upper, get a good barrel … 20″ match. Put great trigger group in it. Use the right ammo and … voila … you will achieve sub-MOA all day long if you do your part.
I agree completely. But achieving .5 moa is another story and does require some secret voodoo sauce.
The question is whether you want to pay 2x to go from 1 moa to .5 moa.
5 years ago I put together a .308 AR with Mega receivers and a Lilja barrel with matched bolt. It will shoot .6 MOA all day long. I’m talking an AVERAGE group size. Not a cherry picked 3 shot group.
I should have never sold that rifle. ha.
The most important secret sauce is a mastery of the fundamentals. I have watched guys who sank thousands and thousands into an awesome rifle and were unable to zero it, much less shoot tight groups.
If I owned a “precision” rifle I don’t think I’d hang it from it’s “precision” barrel.
Even precision barrel is essentially a very stiff steel rod with a hole down the center. Hanging 6 pounds rifle is nothing compared to stresses of shooting it.
Looks like just the ticket for the boneyfide Army SEALS hanging around at the mall.
Or you could assemble something with a really high quality barrel, such as compass lake engineering, and get 1/2 MOA for 5 or more shots and spend maybe $1400.
An echo in the room? https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/shot-show-fierce-firearms-f-15-sidewinder/#comment-4433304
You totally nailed it.
I suppose if building your gun from top quality parts is your thing, you can easily save a big pile of $$$ by doing just that, and not buying one of these high dollar production guns. That’s fine, good fun too. I’d enjoy it a lot, and I’ve the mechanical skills to do it myself. Not that I’m going to.
Then there are the people with the money but not the interest, or maybe the time, or perhaps the assembly skill. They will buy this gun and be very happy with what they got.
I see no reason why either side of the coin is more or less valid than the other.
Of course they would be happy because ignorance is bliss and rarely has anyone gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the buying public, particularly people buying guns.
And mind you, when I talk about “building” I’m talking about: buying a good AR rifle, replacing the barrel with a match barrel, putting in a match-grade trigger and buying a great optic and using match ammo.
1/2″ MOA is not difficult to accomplish with the right hardware.
Why are there forward assist serrations on the side charging bolt? Maybe omitting that could help make this rifle a more realistic price.
Unless they make their own bolt carriers, it’s probably cheaper to buy standard ones with those unnecessary serrations than specify a short production run without them at their supplier.