Why it matters: The DS-25 is the cheapest production route into a short, light 6.5 Creedmoor gas gun, a size class that until now meant a $5,000-plus LMT or Geissele. The first detailed owner account of how it runs is the kind of information buyers in that class have almost none of.
A YouTube review of the Dark Storm Industries DS-25 Modern Fighting Rifle reports repeated failures to extract across the rifle's first several hundred rounds, with reliability improving after roughly 500 rounds, heavier lubrication, and the addition of a suppressor. The rifle is Dark Storm's 14.5-inch, sub-seven-pound 6.5 Creedmoor, introduced in January 2026 and listed at $2,995.
The video, titled "The MRGG For Women," comes from the channel Boondock Ballistician. The reviewer says the rifle was purchased at retail rather than supplied by the manufacturer, in the 1:8 twist configuration with the HuxWrx 762-QD flash hider. The title is a reference to the rifle's size: the reviewer, who describes himself as a smaller shooter, frames the DS-25 as the version of a mid-range gas gun he can actually carry, and says larger shooters he handed it to found it comfortable as well.
DS-25 reliability: failures to extract through the first range trips
The first range session was planned as a 200-round break-in before any accuracy or reliability assessment, the reviewer says. Instead he describes round-after-round malfunctions — failures to extract that left the following round unable to chamber — broken up by occasional runs of about ten. He says he had lubricated the rifle lightly beforehand, as the manual instructs.
Before the second trip he re-lubricated heavily, describing the rifle as "dripping." Reliability "improved significantly" on that outing, he says, but with more stoppages than he considered acceptable. He also reports that the rifle heats quickly and burns lubricant off as it does, requiring more frequent attention than his usual practice of running rifles dry. He characterizes the added lubricant as a band-aid rather than a fix.
Two loads were used across the testing: Black Hills M1200 Mod C and Hornady ELD Match. Both produced the same behavior, the reviewer says, with possibly slightly more trouble from the M1200 Mod C, but nothing he considered a meaningful split between them.
At roughly 500 rounds he describes a "night and day" change, with the rifle running acceptably without being soaked. He then added a suppressor — he says he had been shooting it without one specifically to check whether the design had been tuned around a can — and reports the ejection pattern tightened toward 3 o'clock with less shot-to-shot variability, recoil improved, and stoppages dropped to one or two in the first magazine followed by several hundred rounds without a problem.
The reviewer's own diagnosis, offered as opinion, is that the rifle is short on cycling energy. He points to the DS-25's AR-15-size bolt rather than a conventional AR-10 bolt, and says the charging handle sounds and feels light on release. His suggested remedies are a stiffer spring or a heavier bolt. Dark Storm advertises the same architecture as a feature, listing a "reduced-mass operating system" among the design choices that get the rifle under seven pounds.
Dark Storm DS-25 specs, price, and what the company advertises
Dark Storm announced the DS-25 MFR in January 2026. The company lists a 14.5-inch medium-taper 416R stainless barrel, 5R button-rifled and hand-lapped, electropolished and hard chrome lined, on a mid-length gas system with a pinned gas block. Twist is offered in 1:7 or 1:8, with the 1:7 promoted for stabilizing 140- to 150-grain loads out of the short barrel. Weight is listed at 6.9 pounds with a magazine, the trigger at a 3.5-pound two-stage, and the muzzle device as a HuxWrx 762-QD flash hider that can be pinned and welded. The rifle carries a fully transferable lifetime warranty and is currently listed at $2,995. Dark Storm's marketing claims sub-MOA performance and effective range past 1,000 yards.
6.5 Creedmoor accuracy from a 14.5-inch barrel
“The video's core report is simple: the rifle delivered the weight it promised, and took roughly 500 rounds to deliver the reliability.”
J.D. Whitfield, The ReticleThe reviewer reports a best group of about 1.1 MOA and an average closer to 1.2 MOA. He notes he does not consider himself a strong shot, but says he has shot both loads from 20-inch 6.5 Creedmoor barrels and produced sub-MOA groups, which he reads as the rifle contributing to the difference. He attributes part of it to the light steel barrel, and part to chamber specification, noting that the military rifles the DS-25 is being compared against are chambered around the projectile in the M1200 load rather than to SAAMI dimensions. He also reports slight stringing after a couple of magazines in ambient temperatures well above 100 degrees.
On handling, the review is positive throughout. The reviewer describes carrying the rifle one-handed over rocks and unstable ground without fatigue, reaching all controls comfortably, and getting into shooting positions quickly without support. He calls the ambidextrous controls and pseudo-monolithic rail useful, and the trigger unremarkable in either direction.
MRGG context: where the DS-25 sits against LMT and Geissele
The Mid-Range Gas Gun is a U.S. Special Operations Command program for 6.5 Creedmoor and 7.62x51mm gas guns. The sniper variant, MRGG-S, went to Geissele Automatics in 2023 and was type-classified as the Mk 1 Mod 0. The shorter MRGG-A went to Lewis Machine & Tool in 2025 as the Mk 24, with fielding expected in fiscal 2026 to replace the Mk 17 SCAR-H. The DS-25 is a commercial rifle in that size class, not a program entrant. The reviewer's price comparison puts the LMT near $5,000 and the Geissele near $6,000 against the DS-25's $2,995.
Other published coverage has reported a different first 500 rounds. A June 2026 review at Coldbore Miracle described a couple of early instances where the rifle lacked the momentum to chamber the next round, said the behavior did not recur after the first range trip, and suggested ammunition as a possible cause. That reviewer reported groups right around 1 MOA at 100 yards and called the rifle an effective suppressor host, with 130- and 140-grain loads running around 2,550 feet per second behind a SilencerCo Omega 36M.
The Boondock Ballistician review stops short of a recommendation. The reviewer says he cannot tell viewers to spend $2,995 on a rifle he has seen malfunction, but that he is keeping his and will run it, is willing to tolerate a stoppage per range trip, and plans to experiment with springs. His advice to anyone who buys one: keep it wet, expect a break-in period, and run a suppressor.
For context
- MRGG is SOCOM's Mid-Range Gas Gun program, split into a sniper variant awarded to Geissele in 2023 and an assault variant awarded to LMT in 2025.
- The DS-25 builds a 6.5 Creedmoor on an AR-15-size receiver set rather than a conventional AR-10 pattern, which is where most of its weight savings come from.
- M1200 Mod C is the commercial Black Hills version of SOCOM's M1200 6.5 Creedmoor load, using a 140-grain Berger open-tip match projectile.
- A break-in period of a few hundred rounds, with lubrication specified in the manual, is a common manufacturer instruction on new rifles.
