UKC

Looking to fill a big gap in my rack. Pun intended. 
looking for people’s thoughts on DMM Dragon 6 compared to Wild Country Friend 5. 
 

pros & cons. Which is best. Mainly for grit. 

I'm not sure that many people will have both so I expect you'll be happy with opinions from those that only have one.

I have a dragon 6 - it's great no complaints, I like the double sling.  I don't use it that much (grit) but when it's needed it's often essential. 

Would be useful to know what you already have if you're filling a gap between sizes. I presume by friend 5 you mean the old technical friends? If so I guess the obvious disadvantage is they don't make them any more.

If you meant new friend 4, I've used both and they're pretty much identical, apart from the thumb loop. I know some people prefer thumb loops for big cams since they can wobble around a lot when placing them. Personally I'm not that fussed - I guess it depends what you're used to, and the head of the dragon isn't really that wobbly anyway (strange sentence to be typing at 9 in the morning).

Tigger makes a good point about reslinging, though WC say they're in the process of getting a reslinging service set up. You can worry too much about Friends vs Dragons - at the end of the day they're pretty much the same, both great bits of kit, and Joe Brown didn't have them.

We have Dragon 6,7 & 8 I can't comment on the Wild Country. Dragons though, made in the UK, brilliant quality and easy to get re-slung at DMM for a fair price.

I have up to size 4 in Friends. Looking for that next size.  I’ve not bought cams for many years so  I was not aware WC stopped making friends 

My bugbear with wild country is that unlike DMM they don’t seem to offer a refurbishment service.

I’ve got some old but still perfectly good WC cams that I wanted reslinging and they won’t do it so i’ve had to do myself with accessory cord. I’m sure its fine but i would’ve preferred a professional job.
 

They still make friends, they've just changed the numbering system, and they don't make the big ones (5/red, 6/green) any more

They've been saying that for a good 12 months at least!

I have a Dragon #6, used mostly on grit. It's a great rack addition for the times when you're presented with a wide crack and nothing else will go, and mine is racked and used relatively frequently.

Outside of the grit and granite, it rarely leaves the ground mind. Which I suppose is hardly surprising.

If you have older Friends, the size 4 sits somewhere between the current Friend 3 and 4. I have a full rack of Camalots and carry my single-axle Friend 4 on occasion as a size '3.5'.

Your 3 main options for the size I think you are looking for are now:

DMM Dragon 6, Wild Country Friend 4, Black Diamond Camalot 4

Wild Country brought their size numbers in line with BD when they moved to double-axle units that are basically clones of Camalots. 

The Black Diamond Camalot 4 (same size as Dragon 6) has a couple of advantages over others in my opinion:

Thumb loop - pretty necessary on big cams for me (DMM Dragon does not have, WC does)

Non-extendable sling - extendable slings do my head in (both WC and DMM have them)

Retaining clips - BD is the only unit with them, as far as I know. Neat little invention which holds the lobes retracted until you deploy the cam. This cuts down the size of the unit on your harness

Reslinging - BD resling at cost of postage for EU customers currently, DMM currently offer a good reslinging service, WC eventually succumbed to mounting pressure to announce this service but it is not something they currently offer (and considering they are being selective about what they resling and have not released any more information on when, where or how their operation will be running since it was announced about a year ago, I wouldn't hold my breath).  

I have WC friends (although not size 6). If I bought again from scratch I'd go Dragon.  Made in Wales (not China), refurb service, I think they feel a tiny bit better but it's much of a muchness, + I feel slightly guilty having Friends whenever I drive past the DMM factory. Maybe all of this is just me...

I have the Black Diamond Camalot C4 size 5 (purple) and it fits perfectly to fill the size above DMM or WC size 4. As someone said above the retaining clips are a clever feature and they help stop the bulk of a big cam on your rack. Link here  https://rockrun.com/products/black-diamond-camalot-c4

I'm pretty sure the Camalot needed is size 5 purple? I have it and it fits spot on to go beyond WC or DMM 4. Unless BD have changed their numbering of Camalots recently in which case I will happily stand corrected. 

i was looking at the same options a few weeks ago. I have a very old BD camalot.  It’s had a lot of use over the 20 years. 
But due to the weight I stopped taking it out.  Just bought a BD ultralight camalot. Yes only a single sling but it’s so light I take out. Really useful bit of kit. Expensive. 

The OP has the old size 4 Friend (which is considerably smaller than the new size 4), so I assumed he meant the old size 5 (https://weighmyrack.com/Cam/Wild-Country-Tech-Friend-5). The DMM Dragon 6 (https://weighmyrack.com/Cam/DMM-Dragon-6-0) is the same range as the new WC Friend 4 and Camalot 4. 

Tech friend 5 is significantly bigger than a Dragon 6.

WC 5: 84-136mm

DMM 6: 68-114mm

The action on the WC 5 is stiff as hell - you get more pumped placing it than climbing.

WC New Friend 4: 66.8mm - 112.1mm.

The New Friend is apparently 7g heavier and with a marginally smaller range than the DMM offering. But, the differences seem marginal. It's also 2kn weaker - though still 10kn. More importantly, it has a thumb loop, nice fat lobes and avoids the slightly awkward method of sling extension that the DMM Dragon has.

DMM 7 & 8 and BD 5 & 6 are the next size up. They're very expensive (£80+), so you're probably best choosing based on whatever you get a better deal on.

Probably either. I bought DMM cams, the No. 6 too, as they WILL replace damaged slings. They did for some of my older cams and at a fair price. Wild Country, to my knowledge, still don't which makes an expensive piece of kit useless. Unless you fix it yourself despite their reservations. 

I went Black Diamond Camalot C4 - 5 Also got trigger keeps so smaller on harness.