Fierce Wingman SBR: 12.5-Inch 22 Creedmoor at 5.3 Pounds

The Fierce Wingman SBR is a factory short-barreled bolt-action rifle built on a 12.5 inch hand-lapped C3 carbon barrel and a two-lug 6AL-4V titanium action cut to the Remington 700 footprint. Fierce spec-sheets it at 5.3 pounds bare, and announced it on August 10, 2026 in .22 Creedmoor, .25 Creedmoor, and 6.5 Creedmoor at $2,995.

Fierce built the rifle on its CT Mini Rogue platform, and the point of the thing is carry weight and stowed length rather than bench performance. CEO John Mogle described it as the rifle that is always with you: in the truck, in the blind, in your pack.

Weight alone is not the differentiator, and it is worth being clear about that. The carbon hunting-rifle field already gets here. Christensen lists the Ridgeline FFT at a 5.4 lb starting weight, with barrels from 16.25 to 24 inches. What none of those rifles can do is go shorter, because 16 inches is the floor for a rifle that is not an NFA item. The Wingman is buying the four inches below that line, and the stowed length that comes with them, at a weight the light end of the market has already reached.

Cutting the barrel to 12.5 inches is what makes the weight and the length work, and it is also what pulls the rifle under the National Firearms Act. That trade would have cost $200 and a multi-month wait two years ago. It now costs neither, which is the reason this product exists in 2026 and not in 2023.

Fierce puts the velocity penalty at roughly 150 to 250 fps against a 22 inch barrel, and its own .22 Creedmoor testing with DirtNap 62 grain Hornady ELD-VT returned 2,780 to 2,810 fps from the Wingman. The Creedmoor case family is efficient in short tubes, which is why all three chamberings are Creedmoors and none of them is a magnum.

The three options split cleanly by quarry. .22 Creedmoor at a 1:8 twist is the varmint and predator round, flat and nearly recoilless, and light enough on the shoulder that a shooter can spot their own impacts. .25 Creedmoor at 1:7.5 runs high-BC quarter-bore bullets like the 110 grain Nosler AccuBond and is the one Fierce points at predators through deer. 6.5 Creedmoor at 1:8 is there because it is the round on every shelf in the country; our 6.5 Creedmoor rifle guide covers how the cartridge behaves across bolt and gas-gun hosts.

The barrel is threaded 5/8-24 and ships with a NIX brake installed. Back the brake off and a .30-caliber can with a 5/8-24 direct-thread mount goes on in its place, no adapter needed. Thread pitch is only half the question: confirm with the suppressor maker that the can is rated for your chambering and for a 12.5 inch barrel before you shoot it. Fierce pairs the Wingman with its own Dirti8 .30-caliber suppressor and is explicit that the Dirti8 OBX over-the-barrel extension will not fit the 12.5 inch barrel, so that combination has to run as a direct thread.

On a 5.3 pound rifle, can weight decides the handling, and the spread inside the .30-caliber class is wide enough to matter. Before mounts, the BANISH Backcountry is 7.8 oz and the CGS Hyperion is 15.1 oz. Nearly half a pound of that difference hangs off the end of a 12.5 inch barrel, which is the worst place on the rifle to put it. Our hunting suppressor guide ranks the lightweight .30-caliber options by weight and sound reduction.

The weight savings come from three places: a titanium receiver instead of steel, a carbon-wrapped barrel with a stainless liner instead of a full steel contour, and a hand-laid carbon stock in place of a machined aluminum chassis. The receiver is DLC coated and keeps the Remington 700 footprint, so the rifle inherits the deepest aftermarket in bolt-action shooting for bases, rings, and stocks.

The bolt runs a 70 degree throw with fluting on the body, handle, and shroud, which keeps the knuckles clear of a low-mounted ocular on a short action. Fire control is a TriggerTech Primary Pro set at 2.5 pounds from the factory and adjustable between 1.5 and 4 pounds. Feeding is AICS-pattern detachable box, so the magazines are the same ones a Ruger Precision, a Bergara HMR, or a Christensen MPR already uses.

Fit is the part that gets undersold on light rifles. The stock ships at a 12.75 inch length of pull with 0.25 inch spacers to reach 13.25 inches, and the cheek riser is a five-position push-button unit over a negative comb, so a youth shooter and a full-frame adult can share the same rifle without tools. Underneath, there is a Picatinny section for a bipod and an Arca Swiss rail for a tripod, plus QD flush cups in the stock. Budget for a scope base on top of the $2,995: Fierce's configurator makes rings and base a separate selection rather than shipping one on the receiver. The rifle carries a sub-MOA accuracy guarantee. Drop the platform into the rifle builder to stack an optic, mount, and can against it.

The Wingman ships as a factory short-barreled rifle, which means it transfers on an ATF Form 4 through a dealer holding an SOT. The transfer tax has been $0 since January 1, 2026 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Fingerprints, the NICS background check, and NFA registration all still apply, and none of that changed.

The wait is the part that has moved most. ATF's June 2026 averages, published July 14, put individual eForm 4 transfers at 6 days and trust eForm 4 transfers at 26 days. Buying a factory SBR on a Form 4 is now materially faster than filing your own Form 1 to make one, which averaged 59 days over the same period. If you are new to the process, our Form 4 walkthrough covers the same paperwork path a suppressor takes.

If the registration is the part you do not want, the alternative is a short-but-legal carbine. CZ's 600+ Carbine gets to 5.5 lb on an 18.5 inch threaded barrel in .223, 7.62x39, and .300 Blackout with no stamp at all. It gives up the Wingman's stowed length and its Creedmoor reach, but it ships the day you buy it.

Six jurisdictions ban civilian SBR ownership outright: California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia. Illinois allows them only under a federal Curio & Relic license, and Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland permit NFA ownership while sweeping short overall-length configurations into their assault-weapon and copycat statutes. Check your state before putting money down; a bolt gun is not exempt from those rules just because it is not a semi-auto.

At $2,995 the Wingman SBR sits in premium carbon-rifle territory, and what it buys is not weight. Carbon mountain rifles already start in the mid-five-pound range. What the rest of that bracket cannot sell is a 12.5 inch barrel, because a non-NFA rifle stops at 16 inches. The Wingman gets under that line on a rifle that light, still feeding AICS magazines and still taking a 5/8-24 can. The strongest case is for a predator or varmint shooter who wants a suppressed rifle that lives behind a truck seat, and for anyone who has been waiting for the free stamp to make a short barrel worth the paperwork.

The honest limits are capacity and reach. Fierce lists the rifle at 3+1, and a 12.5 inch barrel is giving up 150 to 250 fps against a full-length rifle in every chambering offered, which shortens the effective range in exchange for the handling. Anyone shooting mostly from a bench or a match barricade should buy the longer barrel. To see how the weight and price line up against the rest of the bolt-action field, put it side by side in the platform comparison tool.