Tyrant CNC P365 PDW Chassis: Personal Defense Weapon In The Palm Of Your Hand [REVIEW]

Guns that you can change and modify are some of the most fun to build out, shoot, or just own. While the AR-15 is the GOAT for home-building, the P365 isn’t too far behind these days. The gap is getting smaller with new releases like the Tyrant P365 PDW chassis.

SPECS & FEATURES

• 18-3/4″ Long (brace deployed)
• 11″ Long (brace stowed)
• 5″ Tall
• 2″ Wide
• Removable aluminum blast shield with bottom mounted picatinny
• Removable side folding spriing loaded brace
• Removable Magazine Holder with ambidextrous magazine release
• Rear mounted Picatinny
• Aluminum chassis with polymer Grip and Magazine Holder
• Aluminum brace with rear mounted button actuation 
• Carry up to 50 rounds on system
• MSRP: $600

WHAT & WHY

One of the best features about the SIG P365 is the fact that a chassis fire control group opens up a lot of fun options. New grips, new sizes, new everything. While Tyrant CNC wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of putting a P365 into a PDW-type chassis, the idea is awesome nonetheless.  

The P365 started life as a micro compact CCW pistol, but with the addition of the Tyrant chassis, it becomes basically a small footprint Personal Defense Weapon. 

Why? Because why not. Terms like “Personal Defense Weapon” or “Submachine gun” are not well-defined and often have a lot of crossover. Ignoring the select-fire nature of most of these firearms in a military context, they are generally small-caliber weapons that have a small footprint while providing a large enough platform to be shouldered and accept accessories such as lights, lasers, or optics. 

The P-90 is likely the most recognizable PDW, but even before the term was coined, the style of weapon existed. Anything from the M1 Carbine to Mauser C96 pistols with wooden stocks could easily qualify as PDWs.

Those old C96 pistols are basically great-great-grandfathers to the chassis-braced P365s we see today.

TYRANT CNC P365 BUILD

This exact P365 started life as my CCW pistol and, as such, has a couple of upgrades I really like. First is the Tyrant CNC IntelliFire trigger that includes a trigger safety. Not only does this inspire more confidence when carrying as a normal P365 pistol, it also makes perfect sense in the Tyrant chassis. Because this P365 doesn’t have a manual safety, I feel better having a trigger safety.

The slide is a ShaloTek P365 barrel with intigrated slide compensator and a SIG Romeo red dot on top. Otherwise, this is a standard P365 bought from SIG Sauer.

Tyrant CNC holster and a SureFire X300 complete the build. Not a lot of customization in this because it just doesn’t need it. If you want to get funky, the sky is the limit. P365s are very easy to change and customize and the Tyrant CNC chassis offers a lot of room to grow as well. The should is large enough to add a suppressor, different slides, a larger barrel, or any other of a host of options.

ON THE RANGE

Something that most PDWs share, historically, is the fact that many of them aren’t very comfortable to actually shoot. Wire stocks, lightweight guns, small form factors, these tend to just not be very enjoyable to get out and put rounds down with. To be fair, they aren’t designed to feel good. They’re designed to work.

Tyrant’s PDW chassis front half feels great. Light/grip/support hand ergonomics work out really well. While not a perfect C-clamp grip, my support hand is close enough that it feels comfortable and is still able to manipulate the light. Dropping the spare magazine stored out front is easy and smooth once you get used to the reload.

Primary grip also feels good. The grip extends high on the chassis with the stock connecting above the grip and out of the way of your hand. This gives you plenty of room to hold and control the PDW. Main magazine release is a normal push-button, exactly like a normal P365. Nothing new to train, nothing to get used to. It just works because it’s the same.

The back half of the PDW chassis is… well, a wire-stock PDW. Like the wire-stock M1 Carbine or AK-47, there is simply no way to make a wire-stock (or brace) feel good. Aluminium is strong, but it is not comfortable. While counterintuitive, mashing your face into the “brace” of the PDW chassis helps because it minimizes how much it slaps you in the cheek when firing. Note, I said minimizes. It is still going to slap you like a bad date, but it’s at least not as painful. Failure to snuggle that brace into your face will result in a very unpleasant face-tap with every shot.

This isn’t unique to the Tyrant PDW. Wire-stocks/braces are just what they are. 

Square range plinking, this isn’t a very enjoyable experience. You can get used to it, but it’s not something you’ll want to do all day. My limit is about 2 mags before I decide to make different choices. 

But PDWs aren’t built for the square range. They’re built for defense. Taking the Tyrant PDW to an IDPA match, it’s a lot easier to ignore the downsides of a PDW. When you focus on shooting a stage where the targets and the movement are what your brain actually cares about, the minor annoyance of bodily pain fades into the background. It’s truly surprising how much you simply won’t feel it because you’re focused on something more important.

Everything comes with trade-offs. Sacrificing a little comfort to gain the compact size and easy-to-store nature of the Tyrant PDW is a good trade.

TYRANT CNC CHASSIS VS. FLUX DEFENSE CHASSIS

Right now, these are the two brands making chassis for the P365, and since both are sitting on my workbench, it’s a good time to point-for-point compare them.

Technically, my Flux is from SIG Sauer in the form of the P365-FLUX, but since it’s just a pre-built gun from SIG using the Flux lightweight chassis, it’s the same as if it were DIY’d.

Bottomline, for CCW the Flux is better. For everything else, the Tyrant CNC chassis is better.

Flux is clearly built to be carried concealed in your pants, whereas Tyrant really isn’t. You might be able to OWB carry the Tyrant, but it’s really not a chassis that is built for stuffing down your pants. The Flux is. Due to this difference in philosophy, Tyrant has some features and ergonomics that just work better as a PDW, where Flux has to make more compromises to make sure it can still fit in your pants.

Flux has a brace that deploys very easily, almost too easily. Tyrant’s brace is harder to deploy from the draw, but it does so aggressively and well. When you hit the Tyrant button, the brace is GOING to deploy; conversely, the Flux might deploy. If the Flux brushes your arm or you don’t draw correctly, it won’t fully lock out. Tyrant PDW will. Tyrant’s is also a lot easier to fold and stow because the lock is simpler with a larger button.

Both Tyrant CNC and Flux offer holsters for their systems, and both holsters are about par with each other. Both offer multiple mounting options, so it’s not hard to make them work with whatever ecosystem you prefer. 

The most noticeable differences are that the Tyrant PDW is just a little bigger in most dimensions. This is great for having a more controllable and easier to shoot PDW, but slightly limits your concealability options. Where the Flux is surprisingly comfortable to AIWB carry, you won’t enjoy trying to do that with the Tyrant PDW. That said, the Tyrant PDW is still small enough to be carried OWB or be stored in most mid-sized or larger CCW bags or backpacks.

PRACTICAL USE

Driving for shooting competitions, classes, and events tends to put a lot of miles on the road. Most of my trips are at least 100 miles one way, and it’s not uncommon to go 4 or 5 times that far. For these trips, a CCW in a bag filled with useful EDC things is my method of protection of choice. Easy to carry when it’s time to leave the car, easy to keep in the front seat where it is accessible, and serves as much for walking around, taking pictures at a roadside attraction as it does a bailout bag in case things go very wrong.

The 5.11 LVC12 combined with the Tyrant CNC Chassis P365 has made a few trips now, and both have worked out great. The Tyrant Chassis fits in the CCW pocket of the LVC12 perfectly, using two 17-round magazines. 25-round long stick magazine sits in the main compartment along with normal things such as a light, IFAK, camera and phone batteries, snacks, Monster, and more.

A Tyrant PDW isn’t as lightweight as a normal CCW pistol, but for this use, the weight isn’t important, and the extra capability and capacity are nice to have.

LOOSE ROUNDS

PDWs have always had pros and cons and tradeoffs. That’s the nature of the beast. Is this a gun I want to spend all day plinking with? Absolutely not. But I also don’t want a Ruger 10/22 as my defensive weapon against an active shooter or civil unrest. And I don’t want to try stuffing my 20” SPR in my going-to-the-coffee-shop-for-lunch backpack. 

The Tyrant PDW is a PDW, and it does PDW things really well. The P365 was already a great pistol, but a chassis like the Tyrant PDW enhances and capitalizes on its capabilities in a wonderful way.