22 ARC Opinions.

[Remington243]

I hear the 223 arc is the hot thing now. Anyone doing that?

 

[divingin]

22 Arc?

I have a friend who bought a 6 Arc barrel for his AR. He had to delay working with it for a few months, as he couldn't get brass for it. Once he did, I wasn't all that impressed.

But that's a single user (and not the brightest shooter I know); YMMV.

 

[AWS]

I think it is a grand idea. I really like that you can build on a really short action. Years ago I built a 22-204(still have it) it has slightly more capacity than a 223AI and slightly less than the 22 ARC and I like it a lot. I'll be ordering a 22 ARC in a Howa Mini when they.come out. I already have a 6.5G And 6mm ARC.

 

[RegionRat]

Once he did, I wasn't all that impressed.

A penny for your thoughts....
Was it bad function, speed, group. other?

 

[Bill K]

22 arc a 22 PPC on steroids. Slightly longer case and a 1/7 twist to handle the heavier bullets. Should be a nice shooting a easy cartridge to use. Plus it fits short actions.

 

[Cfshooter]

I hear the 223 arc is the hot thing now. Anyone doing that?

I have a 22arc gas gun and it is probably my favorite rifle at the moment.

 

[C.E.Smith043]

The biggest drawback to most of these new cartridges coming out is lack of brass. I still have trouble finding quality 6.8spc brass for my 25DTI

 

[Bowhunter-tw]

I built a 22 grendel (arc with shorter freebore for varmint bullets) on a bighorn origin. I like it a lot. Getting 3630 fps with 53gr vmax out of a 20” barrel. I wanted something faster than 223 but not so much capacity it would be hard to suppress in shorter barrels like 22-250 or 22 creed can be, not to mention barrel life with those. I was contemplating a 223ai, but this has just a little more capacity than that, basically fell right between 223 and 22-250. I think its perfect for my application, coyotes from 5-400yrds. If i expect anything further or high wind I jump up to the 243 or 6creed and an 87gr vmax.

 

[divingin]

A penny for your thoughts....
Was it bad function, speed, group. other?

Groups mostly. I don't really burn a lot of neurons tracking what this guy does. He's a little on the odd side (and a lot on the disorganized side when it comes to getting things working correctly.)

I don't really have any opinion one way or the other on the cartridge family other than a slight bias against all the new "greatest design" hype that comes out each time they're introduced. I also firm believer shooting whatever you want to. So no skin off my nose.

 

[Lefty2506]

Originally, I was excited about the concept of a 22 ARC, but the more I've thought about it, the less I like it. In a bolt gun, I still think it could make sense. As bowhunter mentioned, its right between a 223 and a 22-250. I see that as useful because you get a noticeable bump in speed over the 223 without as much heat buildup or barrel wear as you would get with the 22-250. Ballistically, its a 22 BRA and there's a lot to like about that.

In a gas gun, however, I don't like it. It has more case capacity than you can use in an AR15. For me, that presents a few issues. 1st, as a reloader, it will be difficult to identify the max charge for a specific bullet/powder combination that has not been published. With the crap load of different .224 bullet and powder combinations that are available, this is a recipe for a lot of bad (ie dangerous) advice to be circulated on forms like this. 2nd, if I have a bolt gun AND a gas gun chambered in 22 ARC, the possibility exists that I will develop a load for the bolt gun and in-advertently fire it in the gas gun. 3rd, the idea of having a cartridge with noticeably more capability than my rifle can safely utilize just seems inefficient to me. 4th and last, within the limits of an AR15, the increased capability of a 22ARC compared to a 223 Rem is barely even noticeable. I'm pretty sure I can get 3400 fps out of a 53gr vmax out of my 22" upper (223 Wylde), and I know I can get 2950 from a 75gr ELD out of my 20" upper (also 223 Wylde), so a 24" will probably get me slightly over 3000 fps. The only real advantage the 22 ARC has on this platform is that it will run 80-90gr projectiles at mag length. The problem there is that they are so slow that I'm not sure they will do appreciably better in the wind than what I'd get running a 75gr ELD at 2950 from my 20" service rifle upper. If I'm using it to compete, the 22 ARC basically moves me into an open/match classification where I'm competing for score against much more capable cartridges, and I can't imagine a hunting application where I'm wanting to push 22 cal bullets that are over 75gr. Looking only at the numbers, I would think that an appropriately chambered 223 AI would match the performance of the 22 ARC in all bullet weights at which point the ARC's only advantage is being able to handle the longer bullets at mag length. So basically, running a 22 ARC in a gas gun castrates it down to a 223 AI, and I can make 223 AI brass a LOT cheaper than I can buy any form of ARC or Grendel brass.

 

[Raptor]

I built one in a bolt gun. The reason I went with it was for barrel life. All the 6s I have shot, shot well but the barrel life really sucked!! They "Claim" you should be able to get and easy 4000rds out of the ARC. SO I built one. I used the "Origin" action and a Benchmark prefit barrel. I through it into an old McMillian stock I had and took it out for testing. It shot everything pretty damn well. Nealy all the loads were .5 and some under for 5 shot groups. I settled on the 77MKs because I had a bunch of them and the groups were all under .5 for 5 shot groups. I am just guessing but I believe that I was getting over 3150 out of them with a 22" barrel. It may have been more too. This is a sample of some of the groups it shot doing load testing. I have a few 300yrd groups it anyone is interested in those. It actually shoots .5 MOA out to 600yds. All my 300 to 600yd groups are off the hood of my PU...

 

[William Vogel]

I just built a gas gun using the 62eldvt and it’s running 3390 and I’m getting 1moa 10 shot groups at 700 yards. The come up is 12moa. The fact that I can shoot an ar15 at 700 yards is impressive to me.

 

[dirtclod]

I built a 22 grendel (arc with shorter freebore for varmint bullets) on a bighorn origin. I like it a lot. Getting 3630 fps with 53gr vmax out of a 20” barrel. I wanted something faster than 223 but not so much capacity it would be hard to suppress in shorter barrels like 22-250 or 22 creed can be, not to mention barrel life with those. I was contemplating a 223ai, but this has just a little more capacity than that, basically fell right between 223 and 22-250. I think its perfect for my application, coyotes from 5-400yrds. If i expect anything further or high wind I jump up to the 243 or 6creed and an 87gr vmax.

I am wanting to build a 22 ARC bolt gun. What is the freebore, and twist rate of your barrel?
Thanks!

 

[Bowhunter-tw]

I am wanting to build a 22 ARC bolt gun. What is the freebore, and twist rate of your barrel?
Thanks!

Twist rate is 1:7.5 I am not sure if the exact freebore. I had crown ridge do the barrel and he said he had a 22 grendel and a 22 arc reamer. He said the 22 Grendel would handle up to 75gr bullets so I requested that one as opposed to arc. I can tell you it shoots 53’s great. Going to try the 62eld-vt next

 

[dirtclod]

Twist rate is 1:7.5 I am not sure if the exact freebore. I had crown ridge do the barrel and he said he had a 22 grendel and a 22 arc reamer. He said the 22 Grendel would handle up to 75gr bullets so I requested that one as opposed to arc. I can tell you it shoots 53’s great. Going to try the 62eld-vt next

Let me know how the 62's work.
Thanks

 

[Lefty2506]

I just built a gas gun using the 62eldvt and it’s running 3390 and I’m getting 1moa 10 shot groups at 700 yards. The come up is 12moa. The fact that I can shoot an ar15 at 700 yards is impressive to me.

FWIW, I know just how you feel. I have a 24" 6.5G upper from Sanders Armory that regularly prints under 1/2 moa out to 500 yds with 105gr MKZ (BC = .480) over a stiff charge of N530. Its coming out at around 2800 fps. I took a prairie dog with it at 700 yds and it absolutely made my day.

 

[DGP4]

Seems to me the Ruskies were the first to neck down the 7.62X39 for a .22 bullet quite a while ago. It was called the 220 Russian and was first developed in 1961. Shot a 54-grain soft point bullet for deer hunting. The only difference is that the 22 ARC shoots a longer boat tail target bullet. Hornady really didn't invent anything new, other than the fancy name.

 

[Walt Krafft]

I shot basically the same thing xtc 15 years ago in an AR. Shot good. Function was finicky with different bullets and loads for 200, 300, and 600.

 

[RabbitSlayer]

The bolt face is the only bummer. If you can't just slap a barrel on the action you have, its going to be a niche thing. You can have your .223 bolt opened up, but then you can't go back.

 

[Lefty2506]

Seems to me the Ruskies were the first to neck down the 7.62X39 for a .22 bullet quite a while ago. It was called the 220 Russian and was first developed in 1961. Shot a 54-grain soft point bullet for deer hunting. The only difference is that the 22 ARC shoots a longer boat tail target bullet. Hornady really didn't invent anything new, other than the fancy name.

With regard to cartridges, the ONLY thinks I've ever known Hornady to invent are the 17 rimfires and the Creedmoor case. All of the 22 and 6mm stuff they've come out with based on the Grendel and 6.8 SPC cases were already very popular wildcats.