in reply to create a HTTP::Response object from a raw buffer?

If you can't use a particular module that performs the task you have to do for any reason, then there is nothing to stop you inspecting the source of that module and seeing how they do it.

For your particular purpose--extracting the status code--you might take a look at the function  _trivial_http_get() in LWP::Simple. It looks like this does pretty much exactly what you want to do, though you may not want the redirection processing. Then again, maybe you do:)

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2) The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible
3) Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke.

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom