New From Diamondback: DB15 Pistol

1. What is the point, exactly, of having one of these, as opposed to having a bullpup rifle or a 20-inch barrel shotgun?

   • It’s an SBR that’s legally not an SBR. It’s not the most comfortable thing to shoulder, but in an emergency, you could. Or in about 10 minutes swap out the tube for a stock when SHTF.

     • I guess I’m dense. I still don’t get it, and never have. But anyone who wants one should certainly be able to. If they can buy a gun, I mean.

       • Some states don’t allow sbr’s, like Michigan.

     • I don’t even fully get the SHTF SBR argument, really. A shorty 12 ga. with a sawed off stock will take down most anything at indoor distances, and can be decked out with a folder stock. It will be more compact than that AR with its buffer tube.

       A 5.56 was designed to fire from a 20 inch barrel. Once you go shorter, you’re getting serious compromises in muzzle velocity and stopping power, on top of what is already kind of a dinky round to begin with.

       • Not quite Matt, it all depends on the load. While M855 is designed around a 20″ barrel, most modern defensive loads are not. I prefer a 75gr OTM that’s commercially available from Privi Partizan. It works great out of a 10.3″ barrel for my Mk18 clone and gives me the ability to reach out to a few hundred yards effectively. While it’s tactical overkill for most HD scenarios, a SHTF scenario could rapidly evolve to make your shotgun with its slow followup shots and extremely limited effective range a severe tactical liability.

         In a survival scenario I can hump a few hundred rounds of 5.56×45 rather easily and it gives me both a tactical and survival flexibility that 12ga does not. This, of course, leaves aside more exotic ammo like .300 AAC which are inherently designed for an SBR platform.

         • 75-grain 5.56 loads are widely available. When ammo is in stock….

       • Most 12 GA shotguns don’t hold 30 rounds. I know that many are not usually needed. But it is better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. I have both for home defense.

         • Agreed. While the Florida made Serbu Super Shortie just looks cool as hell, I think it only holds 2+1. That should still do the job but puts it in the category just ahead of a Derringer. Still, you don’t get something for nothing.

       • Matt……30 rds verus 7+1 is a no brainer. Fire one with a Sig brace and you’ll understand. I also have a Benelli M2 tactical, and would rather use my DB15P for home defense with the amount of lead I can carry easily. Mine is zeroed at 15 meters for that purpose, and is a hoot when I go range plinkin’. The Benelli is a grizzly bear, and the DB15P is a wolverine………neither one would you want to be staring down as they size you up.

       • If 5.56 Nato was designed for a 20″ barrel, why does the military use a 14″ barrel. I understand that they designed the 5.56 NATO… and the issue 14″ barrels…. Seems to me that 1+1=2 in this case.

     • I have a KelTec PLR-16 which has no buffer tube. It has a 9″ barrel and with a 3x red dot can pull 8 out of 10 shots inside a dollar bill at 200 yds. All other 5.56 pistols in this genre that I am aware of have buffer tubes, just waiting for someone to come up with bolt on shoulder rig for use during the zombie invasion. The Keltec’s version, at just over half the price of Diamondback’s, is more compact. It has been reliable and certainly accurate, but doesn’t have the fit or finish of its truncated AR variant brethren.

       But before anyone goes out to buy these puppies, remember one thing; because you’re firing rifle rounds out of a pistol with half the barrel length, these things are L-O-U-D, very loud. You would never want to use this for a home defense weapon in the middle of the night. Without hearing protection in a closed space, I’m thinking some level of permanent hearing loss.

       KelTec states a muzzle velocity of 2,600 fps. That 600 fps loss of velocity from the standard AR translates to a whole bunch of excess gas pressure having been relieved of having to propel a bullet. Be warned.

       I think a robust discussion on suggested reloading configurations would be in order here.

   • I agree, but I will admit this makes more sense, to me, than the pistol caliber carbine.

     Small weapons that shoot rifle cartridges make more sense than full size rifles that shoot pistol cartridges.

     And, I don’t buy the cheaper ammo argument for pistol caliber carbines, if you’re going to cheap out on ammo, go .22LR.

   • They are compact, and actually quite easy to shoot. Add rolling optics, with a scope on one set of rails, and an EOTech on another, and you have a weapon that switches from close to mid range with a twist of the wrist.
     Or you can add a 45 deg offset and do it that way. I’d mount a laser underneath as well.
     If you are in rescue mode, it is the idea piece for the driver, assuming you use a vehicle other then an MRAP.
     I have been debating one in 300ACC, but that means an additional set of ammo to stock.

     • Go with 5.56×45 you get performance out of 75gr loads and even m855 is still much better than most pistol loads.

       • That is what I shoot now. Hard to get at times. Lucky for me, I have a source.

     • I am having the same debate regarding 300ACC. I may be loosing that debate…

       • Tim, “loosing” means setting loose. You are LOSING the debate, whatever that means.

         Contrary to popular opinion, “losing” and “loosing” are not the same word.

   • Higher capacity and longer range than your shotgun and cheaper and easier to acquire than your bullpup, not to mention the controls are in all the standard places so you’re not learning a new platform. No tax, no wait time, no hassle with the ATF and the NFA, yeah, they’re pretty pointless….

2. That’s a picture of the wrong gun.
   The grip on that one is a Stark industries grip, not a magpul.

   • True that.

3. No price or in .300blk. Dont care.

   • Wait about 30 minutes, then hit F5 on the home page. You’ll be delightfully surprised.

     • I like it.

4. “Diamondback Firearms, producers of quality personal defense firearms”

   LOL!

   Howabout you make your pistols reliable before you go making a pistol AR?

5. I’m pretty sure you cant have a pistol 7 inches long, but have a 23″ barrel…

   • LOL, twisted read, it says that the 7.5 has a 23.25 length, and the 10.5 has a 25.75 length.

6. Diamondback makes some of the worst quality ARs on the market

   • Have you actually had one? Have you actually shot one? I have one and it is just fine, goes bang every time no matter what ammo I put in it. Upper and lower fit together nicely with no looseness or rattling. Reasonably accurate, but that is likely my fault, I am not a pro sniper after all. I find if funny that psa can sell you an ar for 500 bucks and people buy them like they are candy but they say a diamond back is junk. Dont let their crappy pocket pistols make you think all their stuff is junk.

     • I had a BD380, which was incredibly accurate for the size of the barrel. I’m talking 8″ diameter steel targets at 30 yds ….. handheld. The problem was in the FTL, FTE, and stovepipes. Far too many for me. The replacement wasn’t any better. I traded it in for a Bersa.

     • Tremendous number of negative reports.

       Point 1: Just because the one that you own works does not mean the manufacturer has good QC.

       Point 2. Most firearm owners don’t use their guns enough to make a fair test. I take my advice from people who run guns hard and dirty.

       • Maybe 1 in 20 actually have a problem, that is people who actually own them, not guys who know someone who knows someone who has problems. The problems so far have been minimal, unlike the blown up uppers and BCG’s thet have happened on some of the higher end machines out there. I supposeyou dont like hipoints because they are ugly and taurus are junk because a buddy of a buddies buddy had a bad one.

       • It sickens me to think that you will tell people that Diamondback makes a good AR while you know/believe that 1 in 20 of their rifles is bad.

         This is why one should only take advice from only well-known experts rather than from keyboard operators.

     • I own a DB-15 in FDE. It came from the factory with the handguard not even torqued down, leaving it free to rotate, a flash hider that had been massively overtorqued and not properly indexed, a gas port drilled in the wrong location, leaving the gas block tilted to nearly the 12:30 position and resulting in a gas tube that had been slightly bent in order to enter the upper. It’s currently sitting in the back of the safe, waiting to be converted to 5.45. I won’t deny that the individual components sure are nice, but they had very poor quality control of the assembly process when mine was produced.

       • I rest my case. 1 in 20 is an abysmal failure rate.

7. It’s a handsome bugger, but not exactly my cuppa.

8. I have seen one of these at a LGS. It was marked at $799.99.

   • BARELY cheaper than an AR-15.

     • How much cheaper would you expect it to be. Take a tiny bit off for less steel for the barrel and a cheap plastic butt stock. Otherwise it is the same as a standard ar-15.

       • Except for the trivial fact that it’s not one.

     • It is an AR15, sans stock…lol

9. My wife and I just got one to play with at our country side place. We took it out of the box, placed a sight mark reflex red dot on it and sighted it at the range at 25 yards (which has the same point of impact as 100 with that particular red dot) and stopped messing with it once we got three consistent 5 shot center groups of 2″. Then we took it out and got to play with it in the afternoon. We fired another 240 shots and it worked great. It was apparent that it did not hit steel targets as hard as longer barrel rifles, but none the less, it hit them pretty hard. We used only cheap wolf steel case ammo. Worked great and while cleaning it, I noticed two interesting things 1) It was not very dirty at all 2) there were minimal marks on the finish of the bolt carrier and other touching parts. All in all… only 300 rounds through it so far, but it is a lot of fun. I don’t know how effective it would be for all these crisis scenarios that most people talk about (SHTF, tactical uses,etc), but I don’t work for the armed forces as a sniper nor for a SWAT team, so I don’t really care. It was fun, reliable and as accurate as we were within 30 to 50 feet.

10. I just picked up a Diamondback AR-15 Pistol today and purchased the forearm grip, between my wife and we ran aprox 1,200 rounds and had no malfunctions at all, and no it was not dripping with any lubricant. A small back ground on me I have been an Infantrymen for over 8 years, and have numerous AR style rifles in my home. This is a decent AR.

    • I’m on backorder for one of these DB15 Pistols with one of my suppliers, but I’m contemplating canceling the order and building one from readily available parts kits. How good of quality do you really view the parts used? I’d be able to save about $150 on going the alternate route, but the quality comparison is up in the air. Neither these Diamondbacks or any of the 3 complete pistol uppers I’m looking at have any real reputation… although I do have to say Diamondback has gotten a BAD name for some of their other models… ANY AND ALL THOUGHTS WOULD BE GREAT!

      • Chris, see my post below, I was considering the alternative you are and decided to test the DB15P, glad I did, now I have a workable solution with a mfg lifetime warranty, and a really nice little, short, easy to carry weapon.

11. Just F.Y.I. if you put a vertical fore grip on an AR pistol it changes the ATF classification of the weapon from a pistol to a AOW (any other weapon), and requires a special ATF permit. otherwise if your caught with it you face up to ten years in prison. Also if you put a butstock on it then you need a SBR (short barreled rifle) stamp.

    • Hey Mike….what about a mag well grip? Will that change the definition of the pistol by the BAFTE? I see this pistol as an alternative to my Benelli M2. Hmmmm…anyone interested in a tricked out M2???

      • Mag well and grips similar to magpuls AFG grips are legal to use

        • Thanks Chris…….

12. I recesrch slicksguns? Buds,KT firearms and amways saw $840 wITH sig sb15 brace which is stupid..traded I my DPMS 16″ thst was 9 years old with few furniture pieces and a$70 sight mark 1500 to ex marine who fell in love.. I bought it new for $899 at 2007 fl gun show and sild it for 850 10 years laster with 70 used sight! I instantly ran over to pick up a carbon 15 but they were out.. Circled the 2500 table gunshow afew times until I bargained a$720 db15 black with 3 mags!! So happy until 2 weeks later it was on slickguns for $705 + 30 ffl.. So after tax I only wasted about $35 but woth seeing quality, 3 mags and selling my DPMS! Priceless (got DPMS for free) fired 500 riunds sounds like a BAR..

13. Fde, black Olive? It was $50 more fjr sick tan Fde one but got back- trs25, 3x mag, flastnifgt, single sling picatanny holder.. Hk sights backup, magpul furniture, lancer snoke mags, 5 lbs, concealed carry permit — just need a disnond back trench coat lol

14. I recesrch slicksguns? Buds,KT firearms and amways saw $840 wITH sig sb15 brace which is stupid..traded I my DPMS 16″ thst was 9 years old with few furniture pieces and a$70 sight mark 1500 to ex marine who fell in love.. I bought it new for $899 at 2007 fl gun show and sild it for 850 10 years laster with 70 used sight! I instantly ran over to pick up a carbon 15 but they were out.. Circled the 2500 table gunshow afew times until I bargained a$720 db15 black with 3 mags!! So happy until 2 weeks later it was on slickguns for $705 + 30 ffl.. So after tax I only wasted about $35 but woth seeing quality, 3 and

15. Hey guys, till you walk in the shoes as one that owns and uses the DB15P, you should, really, limit your comments to opinions only. If you don’t have one and haven’t shot one that you know well, ie: characteristcs, endurance, performance with many types of ammo, you are strictly gossiping.
    I own one and have run several hundred rounds of various mfg and bullet types thru the weapon, granted, I have the 10.5″ bbl, so I wont address the 7.5″bbl.
    The one I have has performed flawlessly, no fte, no ftf, no ftl, no stovepipes, no overheating, no loss of accuracy after 100 continuous round firings. All in all this is a sweet little hand gun, if interested, I suggest you get the Sig SB15 arm brace, makes an excellent device if you want to shoulder the weapon. Extremely easy to break down and clean, altho, really it wasn’t all that dirty after the sessions. Tula, Hornady, Lake City, Nosler, Lupua, Priva, most in either 55 or 62 grain weight, and all worked very well, so no complaint there from me.
    Accuracy is astonishing, zero at 25yards, then zero again at 220 yards, using 77gr SMK commercial rounds.
    hard to beat, little fella put 20/20 into two 6″ dia splatter targets at 200 yards.
    So I would say it is a keeper, especially with the higher grain rounds, altho stabilization of the 77 is marginal out of a 10″ bbl with 1/9 twist, likely stay with the 68gr if you are concerned.

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