6mm ARC thoughts

[JBahr]

Curious what people are thinking about the new Hornady 6mm ARC?

I've been toying with the idea of a pronghorn/deer rifle in an AR platform and this seems like a fun round that fits the bill. I'm introducing a few newbies to hunting this year and think this would be easy on the shoulder. Would also be fun to reload for and plink at some long distances.

Anyone have hands on experience?

 

[Fonkie]

Perfect round for a LR & varmint setup in an AR. Good to see Hornady bring it to market

 

[Tahoe1305]

So I was checking it out last night a bit after seeing some of the Hornady advertisements.

I’m personally not convinced it’s that much of a performance increase over my Grendel.

With my 20” Grendel I just barely better their energy figures with 123 gr bullets (roughly same BC) and the ARC has it beat by a tad bit with drop and wind (with a 24” barrel as advertised getting about 100fps more than my Grendel with 105 class bullets). I personally don’t know many running 24” barrels on ARs but obviously some do.

These numbers are their advertised as well and I feel they fall a bit short typically here (PRC as an example in my mind). I speculate if I threw a 24” barrel on my Grendel and gained another 100fps the Grendel would beat it across the board and I can shoot up to about 129gr bullets out of the Grendel to gain more energy if I choose.

If I was building from scratch I’d give it a harder look but doesn’t appear to be worth upgrading in my case from the Grendel.

 

[Varminterror]

I’ve been shooting a 243 LBC for a couple of years, which is a 6 ARC on steroids - 6.5 Grendel necked down but not pushed back. With a tolerance for flattened primers, I can get a 105 hybrid up to 2900fps from a 24” barrel, which is a viable answer to a lot of questions.

The downside, of course, to the 243LBC is the fact it is a non-standardized wildcat. I have to load every round it ever fires, which is fine most of the time, but it would sure be nice to have options for factory ammo. So I’m going to order two 6 ARC barrels, one for me and one for my son.

I’d also love to have a lightweight, mini length action with a 16” carbon fiber barrel chambered in 6 ARC. I’d likely never use anything else for deer or coyote hunting ever again. Too bad the Howa and CZ actions are so damned heavy.

 

[wind gypsy]

I’m kind of surprised they didn’t just start at 6 with the Grendel or make 6ppc a common option. This makes way more sense for anyone shooting longer than a few hundred yards because you can actually get a little velocity with high BC bullets where the Grendel is just too small to push 130+ grain pills.

That said, a good 20” 556 AR w/ 77 tmk does everything I need from an AR out to around 500 yards and I’d just as soon shoot a bolt gun with more consistent speeds further than that.

 

[FLS]

If the velocity is accurate it will best my top velocity out of a 24” 6.5 Grendel by 150 FPS. Best I could get out of 123 Amax or my 123 SMK handloads was 2605. The published BC on the Amax was generous as well. Several of us were shooting them in some tactical matches and the BC we came up with was closer to .460. I quit shooting the Grendel about the time the 123 ELDM ammo came out. ImMatch formats changed and now I shoot a 77s out of a 223. I do think 6mm is the sweet spot for the Grendels case capacity.

 

[6cmShooter]

I feel like it has potential as long as people realize that it's not some super fast 1k plus cartridge like the 6cm and other rounds like that. What will make it stand out I see is if it has a long barrel life and you can push the 103s and 105s at a pretty good speed out of an ar or bolt action platform

 

[ajwcotton]

The factory 108 eldm was doing 2720-2750 from the 22 inch bartlein's I chambered. Its a cool little round for sure. I chambered one in 22 Monday load development with 88 eldm and 90 gr a tips this week.

 

[JBahr]

I picked up an Aero Precision complete upper with a 20" barrel from Brownells. It's backordered of course...

Curious to see how it feed/shoots the ELD-M factory stuff. I'll start there and reverse engineer that load and build up in pressure with reloads. If I can't get something I like I'll switch to a bolt action upper where I can build more pressure without worrying.

 

[JacobND]

I’m very curious how this will perform on mule deer and perhaps black bear within 300 yards. I’m guessing it will work and I if that’s the case I will pick up a couple of Howa mini actions for the kids.

 

[wind gypsy]

I’m very curious how this will perform on mule deer and perhaps black bear within 300 yards. I’m guessing it will work and I if that’s the case I will pick up a couple of Howa mini actions for the kids.

Terminal performance will be the same as a 243 would be at 150 yards further down range. I think you make a great point, this will be PERFECT for kids and anyone looking to minimize recoil for deer and smaller.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

Be interesting to see if it maintains its heritage as a stupid accurate cartridge.

that’s the allure.

I was only hitting 2850ish with h4350, 108’s and 21” 243win. I should say at the wide node. It was a hammer on game.

 

[sportsmans challenge]

Only reason I may be interested is due to the brass, I already shoot a 22 grendel for coyotes with my night set up and really like the round. 6mm over 6.5mm to neck down and maybe they may beef up the brass a touch

 

[texjitter]

Well it works for hogs at least...hope to harvest a deer with it this season also.

 

[sportsmans challenge]

I was seeing where this brass wouldn't work for what I wanted, but watched a video the other night where a guy was loading the 90 grain sieraa tgk in the arc, seemed like that would be a good all around combo

 

[JBahr]

Well, a little update to an old thread. Got the 6mm ARC Aero Precision upper and paired it with a Daniel Defense lower, Trigger Tech trigger and Votex 4-16 x44 Scope and went to work. Sucker shoots great with factory ammo and reloads now. Took my first antelope yesterday with it and was very pleased with the 108 ELDM at 320 yards. Heart shot, dropped where he stood.

All that being said, I'm leaning to offloading this gun and moving to a bolt action. I just prefer it to a gas gun for ultimate reloading precision. Gas guns have so many variables affecting precision and my OCD will not allow it.

 

[ChrisAU]

I'm currently almost done with an AR build in 6mm ARC that will be my night time hog/coyote rifle. Thought I was done, and first shot this past Saturday pushed the gas block forward on the rifle. Got a dimple jig coming this week to remedy that.

 

[LRJammer]

I built a 6 ARC several months ago. Used a 20" Compass Lake Engineering barrel. Once I got a load developed that it likes, it is really a blast to shoot for such a light caliber. I have had it out on a steel range banging plates out to 1200 yards with it. My daughter will most likely use it for deer this fall. All in all, I am very impressed with the downrange capability it offers in a standard AR-15 platform.

 

[PantherCity]

Bringing this back up…

Howa is going the start chambering their mini action in 6 ARC this spring. I handled a Howa Mini carbon stalker in 6.5 Grendel today and if it was the 6mm ARC I would have taken it home. At 4lbs 10oz it felt like a Red Ryder in my hands.

What kind of speed could you expect if you chopped it down to 16.5” and loaded it hot in a bolt gun?


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[hereinaz]

I run a custom 6 BRA in a 20” barrel in a Howa Mini. I get 2850 right now with 95 grain VLD fire forming. The BRA has more case capacity than the ARC.

I like the 6 ARC better than 6.5 Grendel, but it is still anemic for me. Especially at that barrel length.

But, it will kill stuff dead. Great little carbine. I love my little Howa.