6mm ARC Post Launch Discussion 

@C-Bomb Not necessarily. I plan to use 6mm ARC for varmint and predator hunting. Mostly coyotes but if I encounter a mountain lion I want to drop it at long range.

6arc can do PRS I mean competitive shooting too. Gas guns

Well said. Match applications 6mm is better. Unimpeded path into paper, no problem. Military applications 6.5mm is much better. That 6.5 hits a twig or branch, it will keep on trucking.

@@norman_sage2528 negative.

What barrel length are you running? I'm looking to build an AR and can't decide between 16" and 18".

In general for over 1000 yards for a target cartridge the 6 ARC will win 95% of the time. With the 6 ARC you can hit (very) extended ranges whereas other cartridges like the Grendel can only go that far by using specialty designed solid copper bullets that currently run $1.25 per projectile (not loaded ammo) for the cheap stuff (that may or may not feed in a magazine). 1,400 to 1,600 are reasonable expectations for the 6ARC (with bullets that cost just over .30 cents each), and of course depending on configuration and exact bullet choice. Say for example if you use Sierra's 110 grain bullet and you only get 2600 fps out of it, the transition from super to subsonic happens between 1,400 and 1,500 yards. If you can eek out 2,700 fps with that bullet you have a potential 1600 yard gun. For me I am not hunting or doing anything like that. My primary purpose is exactly for long distances and to have an affordable way to scratch that itch. A cost effective way to shoot more ELR is my primary objective. I can get into that game for basically the cost of an upper (and of course the optic). I get a lot more bang for a lot less buck.

to add to what Tyler is saying, Grendel, nor arc, aren't viable to hunt that far out. Neither is 308, lots of cartridges. long barrel hunting limit is likely around 500-600 yards. Carbine limit is around 400. But for most people that's way more than you need.

Holy Smokes. I didn’t know it could get out to those ranges. Do you have any idea how far one could shoot with a 16” barrel rifle?

@@Glove513 With the right bullet selection you can get to about 1,400 yards. With factory ammo probably 1,300. That's out of a 16" barrel.

Tyler That is crazy. Thanks for the response. Makes me wonder how far a 12” could realistically reach. Or, for that matter, an 8.1” in an AK-74U.

I think you will be waiting a long while.

I just confirmed that, the captioning says mass. You guys need to fix that. I clearly hear “Match shooter”

SuperSneakySniper I'm waiting on Criterion as well... 18" hybrid or SS.

Just gotta hope wolf thinks its profitable to make it in steel case. they are setup for 6.5grendel so it won't be a big jump, if they think it will be popular

Learn to reload. The math is compelling.

Don't hold your breath.

@@petersouthernboy6327 I don't have the time for that.

@@fredeb67 if I was, I'd be dead by now.

im hoping for the same lol maybe with like a 80-90gn bullet

they have a video on this specifically. IMHO, the 6mm is just better. It can carry more weight easier, and still hit the ranges required. And the valk wasn't really viable for hunting, the Grendel is a great hunter, but is a bit slow. The 6 splits the difference and has most of the benefits of both for most game and for target shooting. It trails the Grendel on larger medium game.

Big box stores and gun stores? No idea, probably if the demand is there. We just got a case in at our shop for testing with barrels.

It certainly looks like a big improvement over the .223/5.56 round.

Hornady has a very basic ballistic calculator on their website but if you're not an experienced enough shooter to generate your own exterior ballistics data then you're just a beginner so chill the fuck out and learn. They can't generate generic ballistic carts anyway atmospherics are going to be different and wildly vary the data but you'd know that if you had some experience.

Here is a video where we talk about barrel length: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0COzGgLCirA.html We also have this chart: press.hornady.com/assets/pcthumbs/photos/1410997173-6mm-ARC---Velocity-vs-Barrel-Length-infographic.jpg

Why not a 6 BR, 6 Dasher or 6GT? They are all better 6mm's out of a bolt action. Unless you just want to run a micro/mini action. My 6GT pushes 105s at 2960 from a 26" barrel.

This cartridge is specifically made to fit into an ar-15 size magazine, if you want it for both an ar-15 and a bolt action I can see that but using it strictly for a bolt action when there are better choices when you don't have the constraints of the short mag length of an ar-15 just doesn't make sense.

Oh I am building a gas gun as we speed on the 6arc with a 22 “ bbl

Forgot all about that 8.6mm concept! Thanks for the reminder. Would be great to see it.

@@michaelsurratt673 it was supposed to come out this year's shotshow. SAAMI approval and testing plus covid seems to be putting it all on delay. Personally I wonder if they're having trouble standardizing a chamber. They're long loading .338 bullets so you can use the longest heaviest high BC subs, trouble is, if you long load the 185s and 200s thar already exists, the ogive is so far out that it won't hit the lands in the same place as a long high BC sub. That means either the subs have to jump or the supers can't fit. And that's because the appeal of the round is that high BC 338 bullets are common, plentiful and effective... but if the ogive has dramatically different shapes from length to length (Federal bullets vs Lapua bullets) and since this is supposed to be accurate with subs at long ranges (600 BC 300 gr bullets hold onto energy REALLY well at long ranges) but that potential for great accuracy is dusted if the chamber us meant for a blunder 338 Federal bullet shape. All this speculative ramble is to say that it's possible that 2 things are holding all this up: perfecting an accurate chamber that works for subs and supers, and Hornady might be working on a simple cheap versatile polymer tip 185 or 200 grain LONG BC 338 bullet... think a 120 gr 6.5mm lapua scenar profile but scaled up. But that means the reload value of the cartridge might go down if you can't use 338 Fed bullets loaded long. Just thinking out loud.

For the first 7 or 8 years of the life of the Grendel it was a proprietary round where Alexander Arms held all the rights to it. Anyone wanting to make anything had to go to AA to see if they could work out a deal. On the other hand the ARC is coming straight out of the gate with SAAMI specs and a host of industry support primarily because they approached it with a 'standardization' mindset.

Check out IraqVeteran8888's channel. They goofed around with a 6.5 Grendel and then 224 Valkyrie then discouraged moved on to the 6mm AR wildcat and they determined that 6mm is the "happy spot" for the AR platform. I concur. The 6mm bullet size lets the AR size platform achieve everything it is capable of.

Texas Plinking just released his video with a CMMG 20” 6mm ARC. He said both the 20” and 16” versions would have rifle length gas systems.

I agree with all that and then some. On the other hand, I have a need for a deer cartridge that can use a small rifle primer cuz I can find those.

CZ has a smaller than short action and Howa does the Mini Action. Looks like you would be swapping barrels with current gun for now, and barrels are cheap in the grand scheme of things.

That will be more of a financial question for the ammo manufacturers rather than a technical one. If a ton of people want to shoot screaming fast loads at gophers then manufacturers will make ammo for that purpose. To me the sweet spot for the ARC is that the longer higher BC bullets extend the range of the cartridge far beyond what a regular AR is capable of.

I think you can probably expect 58gr, 75gr and/or 87gr Vmax loads in the future.

Johnnys reloading bench did and awesome video with different grain weights and powders I believe he started at with a 68 gr vmax.

go/no go gauges would come from the folks that make reamers. I'm betting there will be cartridge gauges out in good time.

I doubt it since Russia has cheaper labor costs and less regulation that adds to the manufacturing costs. Hornady already has some lower cost ammo but it's still far higher than Wolf. I think that's as cheap as it will get though I also think it's better quality ammo too.

That kind of projectile, if it existed in 6mm, would be extremely long and not compatible with any magazine.

I would have to answer for them and say no. When you ever can you want to be able to use a small rifle primer. When using a small primer you have more brass support in the highest pressure area if the cartridge. Plus for reloading you keep primer pocket uniformity for longer. Srp is want you want a large would serve zero advantages

Matthew Baker ok thanks for the info!!

The cartridge was developed for a DOD contract

7.5

8

For a 30 rd 5.56 size mag around 24 should fit, hope someone manufactures better 20+ rd mags for the 6mm/6.5 in the future

I'm sure the 10x increase of demand for all ammo products didn't help their 6mm arc output

press.hornady.com/assets/pcthumbs/photos/1410997173-6mm-ARC---Velocity-vs-Barrel-Length-infographic.jpg

@@hornady outstanding! Thank you!

@@hornady this link does not work

Depends on the bullet selection but in general I would say between 800 and 1000 yards depending on a host of factors and if you truly did a 'fair' comparison. IE Using the optimal bullet weights and barrel lengths for each.

@@tyler6147 800 yards? What? 6mmARC and 6.5 Grendel come out the muzzle at near identical energy levels. However with it's higher BC 6mmARC begins trialing away from 6.5 Grendel immediately.

@@gsxr1189 I haven't ran every available combination, but in general for practical application the farther you go the more stark the difference will be. At around 500 yards the hold over/dial up is about the same...but that is when it starts to separate. Again though, as they say in the video 'it depends on what your application is'. And as I always say when people start caliber arguments, "I wouldn't want to get shot with either one".

It would be massively different actually. A 103 and 108 grain in 6.5 would require a fatter (obviously) and shorter bullet and that would result in a much reduced BC. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. The only way to get to the weights you are talking about would be to buy and shoot extremely expensive solid copper CNC machined bullets and even then achieving the goal would be really hard if not impossible to get a high BC with the parameters you mentioned.

6.5 Grendel can match either the velocity or almost match the BC of 6mmARC but it cannot do both simultaneously and that's what needs to happen in order to match the performance.

Short fat bullets have lousy BC’s tests why.

no, an article from the DOD said they have already concluded the test and said they were concerned about bolt strength.

They are not a gun manufacturer though, they are doing well at what they already do, right now there are a lot of ar-platform gun manufacturers so competition is very high that is why prices are very reasonable overall.

They tested a 6mmAR/243LBC/6mm Predator before they shortened the case .029" So the ARC is apx 50fps slower than the 6mmAR.

7.5

SAAMI spec is 7.5"

ZX Rider 52,000 in factory ammo and “load data”

Yep 52,000 which is NATO 5.56 spec

small deer, speed goats.