6mm ARC Thread

First 6.5; then 6. Soon, they'll be pushing 5.5 ;)
What sort of exotic voodoo is this 5.5mm you mention? Something just a hair bigger than 5.5 would be amazing but all the old people would never go for it. [rofl]

LOL imagine necking down a 6mm ARC to 5.56. You could shoot the long ass .223 projectiles at barrel burning speeds similar to 22 Creedmoor but from a standard size AR. 22 CM gets ~3300 fps with 80's. I think the case capacity for a '22 ARC' would be higher than for the 22 Nosler, as the 6 ARC case capacity is higher. An advantage of the 22 Nosler is that it uses a standard AR15 bolt, not the 6.5 Grendel bolt. Definitely the hot ticket for AR15 varmint shooting. I bet it would have great long distance performance, but bit of a barrel burner for PRS type games given the high round count for practice and matches. Thus the 6mm ARC- high BC and just enough velocity to buck the wind and be flat shooting at PRS distances but slow enough to minimize barrel wear and reduce recoil.

22 ARC - Hornady Manufacturing, Inc 😁
 
Here's a TFB article about the Barrett 6mm ARC REC7's sold to the DOD. Nothing particularly new in the article other than the actual facts around the DOD purchase, but some of the following discussion has some posts from knowledgable guys:

Barrett & OSS Partner on Department of Defense 6mm ARC Program

I finally loaded up some rounds with Berger 105 Hybrids. I'll see if they do as well as the Berger BT's in my AR. If they are similar in accuracy for my rig, I'll probably adopt the Hybrids due to the higher BC. The VLD's need to be in a bolt gun as they must be loaded at a longer COAL than the AR mags can accommodate.
 
Here's a TFB article about the Barrett 6mm ARC REC7's sold to the DOD. Nothing particularly new in the article other than the actual facts around the DOD purchase, but some of the following discussion has some posts from knowledgable guys:

Barrett & OSS Partner on Department of Defense 6mm ARC Program

I finally loaded up some rounds with Berger 105 Hybrids. I'll see if they do as well as the Berger BT's in my AR. If they are similar in accuracy for my rig, I'll probably adopt the Hybrids due to the higher BC. The VLD's need to be in a bolt gun as they must be loaded at a longer COAL than the AR mags can accommodate.

All the discussion I saw below that article was speculation and only a few of the speculators even knew what they were talking about from a theory point of view. And all the comments I saw were from 4 years ago. Many hopping on the bandwagon of saying the 6.8x51 would die.
 
All the discussion I saw below that article was speculation and only a few of the speculators even knew what they were talking about from a theory point of view. And all the comments I saw were from 4 years ago. Many hopping on the bandwagon of saying the 6.8x51 would die.
Yeah, I said that more or less. At least there were a couple informed posts vs. the usual drivel.
 
For all the 6 Gay Tiger (GT) fans vs. 6 ARC, guess which brass is now unobtanium? 6 ARC is definitely the way to go in a gas gun, but I was thinking 6GT would make a more sensible bolt gun build. I've been looking for a couple weeks and nobody has 6GT brass. I don't really get the continued shortages. Took me forever to find Berger 6mm 105 Hybrids.
 
Finally gave the Berger 6mm 105 Hybrids a go this evening. Low light after 5pm and a little breezy, so not perfect conditions but not terrible either. High 20's for temperature.

First 'cold bore' 5 shot group was .477 MOA. I shot a few more groups that became progressively tighter. Last group was .382 MOA.

I'm really liking this caliber and the AR I have set up. Cold bore sub-half MOA is high end bolt gun territory and sub-0.4 MOA is good enough to do anything you need. 6mm ARC is the real deal and you don't drink up a lot of powder to send them down range.
 

Appears to be an excellent varmint caliber for AR's. I read a Peterson's article claiming it to outperform .22-250. I looked at load data and Peterson's is full of BS- .22-250 is hotter across the board. That said, for the price of a barrel, bolt, and some 6.5 Grendel mags you can have something close to that with your AR.
 
Appears to be an excellent varmint caliber for AR's. I read a Peterson's article claiming it to outperform .22-250. I looked at load data and Peterson's is full of BS- .22-250 is hotter across the board. That said, for the price of a barrel, bolt, and some 6.5 Grendel mags you can have something close to that with your AR.

Definitely a handy little cartridge, but yeah doesn’t beat 22-250. Did they mean to print 22 Creedmoor outperforming 22-250, rather than ARC?
 
I went through the debate and ended up with 6.5 grendel.
But now 6 max has my eye.
Problem is that it is so new that nothing is really out for it yet.
1 ammo company and 1 barrel company so far. But not released yet.
Sons of liberty gun works.
 
I went through the debate and ended up with 6.5 grendel.
But now 6 max has my eye.
Problem is that it is so new that nothing is really out for it yet.
1 ammo company and 1 barrel company so far. But not released yet.
Sons of liberty gun works.
6 MAX seems like an interesting option if you want to stay with a standard AR15 bolt face, but you lose the ability to use the top end, heavier high BC bullets like Berger Hybrid 105's and 109's. The body of the case is long and the neck seems a bit short. You only go from the 34 grains water capacity to 35 grains water capacity from the 6 ARC to the 6 MAX, so the velocity gain isn't much. Shorter, fatter cases with long necks are better for accuracy. Take a look at the 6 BR, 6 GT, 6 XC etc. and compare those against the 6 ARC and 6 MAX cases. The 6 ARC is more akin to those cartridge cases.

A quote from Brian Cook at 6mmMAX.net -

Wondering about accuracy? On Aug 6th, 2022, I competed with the 6mm MAX in F-Class with my local club the Central Texas Silhouette Association or CTSA. Full disclosure on me? I’m an old F-Open High Master. My normal competition gun is a .243 30” Bartlein barrel running 105 hybrids at 3050 fps with a stout load of H4831SC. The 6mm MAX is not a competitive F-Open cartridge by any stretch of the imagination, but I wanted to see an actual real world test of accuracy in the hot south Texas switching winds at 500 yards. I used a 24” Bartlein barreled hunting rig. This is the same bolt rifle pictured on this web site. It has 2600 rounds of testing down range, and is till holding sub-MOA with a load of H4895 tested to SAAMI standards of 53,000 psi. The load was 26.6 grs of H4895, and 90 gr Lapua Scenar-L at 2.30 OAL. This load was straight from our loading chart on this web site. After the 3rd relay my score was 568-6X. Nothing to write home about by F-Class standards, but in the world of hunting and rifle accuracy these rounds would have HARVESTED GAME.

So if I were building an AR16 strictly for hunting varmints, 6 MAX might be the better option. The initial feedback on Sniper's Hide is that the 6 MAX is a varmint round. For long distance accuracy I'm better off with the 6 ARC. Cold bore groups below .5 MOA are no joke from any rifle, but especially from an AR. If you are running 6.5 Grendel, you already have the right bolt for 6 ARC.
 
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