By: Warren Gray
Copyright © 2024
“A 6.5mm Creedmoor Sidekick was available for our testing. Fitted with a Leupold
Delta Point red-dot sight, we fired the Sidekick from a…tripod rest with the brace
folded. Even with the non-magnified optic, it was possible to ring an 8-inch
steel plate out to 200 yards.”
— Jeremiah Knupp, American Rifleman magazine, June 12, 2021.
On March 6, 2023, Gunpowder Magazine published my article entitled, “Ultra-Compact Hunter: The Savage 110 PCS Pistol,” about a very special weapon that was unveiled in December 2021, with a 10.5-inch, carbon-steel barrel and 10-round magazine, chambered in .223 Remington, 6.5mm Creedmoor, .300 Blackout, .308 Winchester, or .350 Legend. I wrote that, “For most of us, the more-practical use of the Savage 110 PCS is as an ultra-compact, hunting weapon that effectively bridges the gap between short-range, portable pistols and long-range, big-game rifles…(with) surprising power, portability, and long-range accuracy.”
I have since discovered that a very similar, but higher-quality, pistol was produced even earlier (April) in 2021 by Bergara, of Spain (with a U.S. branch in Georgia), as the Bergara Sidekick, part of their Small-Batch Series of limited-production runs “to bring finely tuned, hand-crafted firearms to niche markets. Limited to a batch size of 200, the inaugural launch of the Small Batch Series kicks off with the Sidekick,” according to the company.
Like the Savage 110 PCS, the much-more-expensive Sidekick has a 10.5-inch, fluted, free-floating, threaded barrel, but in 416 stainless steel instead of carbon, and a 10-round, AICS-style detachable, box magazine, with an overall weight of 5.8 pounds, versus 5.62 pounds for the 110 PCS. Savage’s famous AccuTrigger has a crisp, clean pull, adjustable from 2.5 to six pounds (the average setting is 3.4 pounds), while the Sidekick comes with a TriggerTech Primary trigger ($165+), fully adjustable from 1.5 to four pounds, with Frictionless Release Technology, to eliminate trigger creep and heavy pull weights.
Bergara Sidekick’s TriggerTech Primary trigger. Photo by Bergara
The Sidekick may be chambered in .308 Winchester, 6.5mm Creedmoor, or .223 Wylde (this is actually a hybrid, chamber design, not a cartridge, allowing the weapon to safely fire either .223 Reminton or 5.56x45mm NATO rounds). The Sidekick’s short barrel is finished in Cerakote Graphite Black, and Bergara states that, “It is suppressor-ready, compact, packable, and deadly accurate.”
Bergara Sidekick barrel. Photo by Bergara
The weapon has a lightweight aluminum chassis from Black Collar Arms of Austin, Texas, with an integrated Arca Swiss/M-LOK rail at the bottom for adding multiple accessories. It’s finished in Multicam Black Cerakote. The company states that, “The Sidekick’s premier action is fluted, stainless…(with) fully-nitrided bolt, with Graphite Black-Cerakoted action.” It also features an SB Tactical folding brace, which reduces overall length by nine inches when folded to the left, a rubberized, ERGO (of Moriarity, New Mexico) tactical pistol grip ($40), and the Sidekick comes with a fitted, Eberlestock S27 Little Trick carrying bag.
Bergara Sidekick’s MultiCam, aluminum chassis. Photo by Bergara
The Bergara website states: “Built to be light, compact, and versatile…It’s the perfect companion for the range, hunting, vehicle, or stowed away in your pack for long walks in the woods.” It also works well in states or regions where it’s legal to hunt deer with a pistol during muzzleloader season.
Jeremiah Knupp wrote for American Rifleman magazine on June 12, 2021, that, “A 6.5mm Creedmoor Sidekick was available for our testing. Fitted with a Leupold Delta Point red-dot sight, we fired the Sidekick from a…tripod rest with the brace folded. Even with the non-magnified optic, it was possible to ring an 8-inch, steel plate out to 200 yards.
“Bergara is close-lipped as to what Round 2 of their Small Batch Series will be,” he continued, “but…based on the response to the Sidekick, they plan to produce at least 500 next time around.”
Frank Melloni wrote for NRA Family on March 17, 2022, that the Savage 110 PCS, which is very similar to the Bergara Sidekick, had “a 10-shot average coming in at 2,187 fps…That is still more than 1,000 ft.-lbs. of energy at 500 yards, with a group that will be about half the size of an average buck’s vitals…not bad for a pistol!
“It is a bolt-action pistol that is capable of 500-yard accuracy, and can be (fitted) with…a high-quality suppressor…five-shot groups measured close to 1 MOA…it is certainly accurate enough for urban-sniper applications, with its compact size aiding in rapid deployment…(out) to 500 yards, and clanged those steel plates,” even hitting silhouette targets as far away as 700 yards.
In addition, a very interesting video, filmed by Guns America Digest in January 2022, shows a suppressed Savage 110 PCS pistol in .300 BLK mounted upon a tripod at a Nevada shooting range. With 220-grain, subsonic ammunition, the pistol was so quiet that the loudest noise anyone heard was the manual cycling of the metallic bolt between shots.
As I previously stated in my Savage 110 PCS article, and this would certainly apply to the Bergara Sidekick, as well, “This raises possible, tactical applications of a compact, portable, (very quiet) weapon, firing extremely accurate, rifle ammunition…an ideal firearm for very quietly removing enemy sentries just before a daring, military raid, as was shown in the 1968 John Wayne, war movie, ‘The Green Berets.’ And, it’s already chambered in the U.S. Special Operations Command’s latest sniper rifle cartridge, the 6.5mm Creedmoor.”
Those of us who saw “The Green Berets” film will recall that John Wayne’s character, Colonel Kirby, led a Top-Secret mission that parachuted into North Vietnam to capture a North Vietnamese general alive at a former French colonial mansion. The sentries were silently eliminated by Montagnard tribesmen on Kirby’s team, using small, native crossbows, and the enemy general was successfully captured and extracted.
The possible military applications of the Bergara Sidekick are numerous, and it would be absolutely perfect in a special operations role as an ultra-compact, suppressed, full-power sniper weapon, especially for removing enemy sentries at ranges from very close, out to as far as 500 yards or more! It was produced in a very small batch of only 200 (to possibly 700) firearms, but highly specialized military units such as Delta Force and SEAL Team Six often carry very small inventories of extra-special weapons for unusual missions.
In the past, for example, visitors to the Delta Force facility at Fort Liberty have seen two very rare and unique, British World War Two weapons among the available stock of guns to be used by Delta operators. The DeLisle Commando carbine was an integrally suppressed, bolt-action weapon in .45 ACP, with an extremely effective suppressor, producing only 85.5 decibels of noise when fired, compared to 117 to 140 decibels for most suppressed firearms today. There’s an old saying that “They don’t make them like they used to,” and many such WW2 firearms innovations are no longer produced today.
Likewise, there was a British Welrod Mk. I integrally suppressed, bolt-action pistol in 9mm, one of the quietest pistols ever made (the .32 ACP version was the quietest in the world, at a mere 73 decibels), so it’s not usual for these elite units to possess and utilize very special, hard-to-find weapons on a one-of-a-kind basis. The Welrod’s report was almost imperceptible at 15 feet in a quiet environment, so these were truly perfect weapons for quiet, sentry elimination.
The Bergara Sidekick is extremely compact and handy, with a folding brace, weather-resistant with its blackened, stainless-steel barrel, already comes with MultiCam camouflage standard on the chassis, is deadly accurate, and readily accepts high-quality suppressors. It’s available in standard military calibers, including USSOCOM’s new, favorite sniper cartridge the 6.5mm Creedmoor. How does it get any better than that?
In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn that Delta Force and SEAL Team Six may already have a few of these amazing Sidekicks in stock. The real “kicker” in the Sidekick, however, is its extra-steep MSRP of $2,899. But then again, Delta is already using expensive H&K weapons, and SIG MCX carbines in the $4,000 starting range, so this may be a good deal, after all.
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Warren Gray is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism, and is an NRA member. He served in Europe and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author, historian, and hunter.