My initial thought was people were (are) hotrodding the 6.5...
Folks can “hotrod” any round, and more folks have been asking the 308win for better performance for generations before the 6.5 creed arrived, so I wouldn’t believe this is a driving factor to recommend a design change - but pouring a little logic on the fire…
If you expect folks to “hotrod” a cartridge, wouldn’t it make more sense to offer the advice “don’t do stupid things like ‘hotrodding’ ammo for your AR-10,” instead of telling them to buy a HP bolt to enable it? This feels a bit like justifying advice to wear a helmet while walking down the road because the wearer willing runs their head into every mailbox they pass… seems like better advice to give advice to simply NOT headbutt the mailboxes.
Those of us familiar with these rifles have seen the same bad internet lore getting passed around like Moses brought it down the mountain, and most of it doesn’t make sense… guys like to talk about HP bolts being “necessary” for certain rounds, or talk about 6.5 Grendel breaking bolts left and right, or Type I bolts breaking and Type II being a stronger design (that one gets me every time - since it has MORE metal cut away), and we even get guys talking about not shooting 7.62x51mm ammo in 308win rifles because the mil spec ammo standard is higher pressure (backwards and null for this comparison, 223/5.56 paradigm not transferable)…
The only semi-logical defense in this discussion is the idea that some 6.5 creed brass is available with small rifle primer pockets, so a smaller diameter firing pin might make sense… but AR-10’s aren’t benchrest rifles running ridiculous pressures, and guys have shot small rifle primer ammo for generations without smaller pins both in bolt guns AND AR-10’s, myself as an example, as I used Lapua Palma brass for all of my 308 family cartridges like 260, 7-08, and 243win, and respective AI’s, and couldn’t even create problems for myself… but hey, if a guy wants to buy an HP bolt as a bandaid for not knowing what they are doing and building overgassed AR-10’s, and blowing primers (and stretching cases) because they unlock too early, then they blame it on the “higher pressure” of the 6.5 creed cartridge instead of fixing their actual problem, more power to them…
The JP Enhanced and HP bolts are awesome, and I’m not casting any shade on the quality or function of the project, but rather pointing to the bad advice which gets regurgitated by the unwitting and inexperienced online which wrongfully suggests unnecessary “solutions” as “necessary.” The HP bolts are less likely to pierce primers, but if this problem were as inundating as some folks suggest, no rifle would have had anything but .062” firing pins for generations already…
