6mm ARC VS 6PPC

[Killing Time]

I have a 40x, Hart barrel, McMillan stock, 6ppc that will stack them all day long using Bart 68 gr bullets, at 3000 fps , with a .262 neck. It is a great rifle. There are no benchrest matches that are close to me, and I just wanted a PPC to see how good they shoot, and it did not disapoint.

I traded for a 2 week old Ruger Gen 2 Predator in 6ARC. I did a trigger job on it that is under #2. With a 4x12 Vortex scope on it, not a 24x Leupold like the 6ppc, it runs the same bullet at 3400fps and 5 shot groups are in the low .3's, and a 85 Sierra Game King at 3050fps are 5 shots in the low .4's, chronoed. I am using Starline brass, with a load I threw together using H335 because I had #9 of it. The rifle has a brake on it, which kills the recoil pulse. For a rifle I have $400 in, I am tickled pink with it, don't have to turn necks, case stretch is non-existent so far. For deer and varmints, it will do the job, it is my go to truck/atv gun for varmints here in KY. I am putting a better scope on it soon, I just had the one extra that I put on it. I imagine it will shoot better with a 6x20 X44 Vortex Viper on it that I have extra right now. I am not trying to shoot matches with it, but it is doing a dang good job on yotes, and crows, and is a great gun for beginning deer hunters with no recoil, especially kids. I think the 6ARC is a more versatile round than 6ppc, as they both stand, and if both were built to the same specs, I sure we would see a little more velocity out of the 6ARC, and about the same accuracy, give or take. I was late to the game on both the 6PPC and the 6ARC because I really didnt need one as my .243 or 6XC's did all that I needed them to do. But I ended up liking them both because they are both, very accurate cartridges, for different jobs, as I see it. I love accurate rifles as we all do. If I were a young feller with a wife and family just getting started, I can see how a 6ARC would be a neat rifle to scratch several itches with, at a low price point. You could varmint hunt, deer hunt or ring steel way out there with not a lot of powder, cheaper primers, brass and bullets, or you could shoot a group with inexpeniver rifle/scope set up, that we used to dream about doing with a bench guns back in the 1970s and 1980s. Just my take on the rounds, no sense in getting heated up over the ins and outs .

Like you, I recently bought a Ruger Gen II predator 6 arc, just to have a less expensive rifle to play around with and to hopefully find a good deer rifle for my 9 year old daughter. I am blown away at the accuracy and consistency for a factory rifle. I am trying pretty much the same bullets that I use in my 6BR and 6XC and it has been very impressive. I am using Starline brass as well, with Varget and loaded some 103 ELD-X’s for my daughter to hunt with and she loves this rifle. She has already claimed it as hers

 

[Raptor]

I love the 6 ARC!! Many years ago, I had a 6PPC and loved it too. At the time it was the most accurate rifle that I owned. I eventually wore it out and sold the set up because it was a single shot. I first built the 6ARC in an AR and was so impressed with how it shot that I built a bolt gun too. Now it is the most accurate rifle I have ever had. I honestly think that the ARC is too small of a case of the the105s and bigger bullets. I don't feel you can really push them fast enough to take advantage of the higher BCs. My rifles both really shined with the 80 to 90gr bullets. I shoot the 87s in my AR and the 90s in my bolt gun. Out of a 22" in my bolt gun, I am getting 3125fps with a 90 Berger shooting it into bug holes at 100yds. I have only had it out once past 600yds. The first one is a 5 shot group is at 1050yds and the 3 shot is at 850yds...

 

[KMW 1954]

How opinions and perspectives have changed in the last two years. Seems the ARC is slowly being accepted!

In my usage case it makes no difference to me as to Who or What it was developed for. For me it fits a niche. The only thing the ARC and PPC have in common are the Mother case. Otherwise, two different use parameters. Why would I need a 1 ton diesel truck to pull a 14' aluminum fishing boat? Just as I would not try to bull my 18' fiberglass Bass boat with a Chevy Chevette!

I started shooting rifles just a few years ago after I was introduced to bench target shooting. I started with a lowly Savage Model 10 in 223 shooting at distances of 100yds to 300yds. It was inexpensive and taught me much of the basics of shooting, loading and competing.

I then after a couple years decided it was time to move up to a more competitive rifle and was being told; the only way to go is with a 6mmBR. I didn't need a lot of convincing as many in our league were using them. Only that was also right near the end of the pandemic and nothing was available. Not barrels, tooling, dies, brass, or bullets.

So before I started, I came across the 6ARC and started to study and compare it to the 6BR load wise. I also talked with many of the guys shooting the 6BR, BRA, Dashers and found that no one was loading them to max pressures! They were all shooting reduced target loads. With that in mind I started seriously looking into an ARC build and talking with other shooters, both at the range and in our group.

I kept hearing from everyone, "there are much better cartridges to use other than the ARC!" all seemed to be of the BR family or the Creedmoor family, some even suggesting the 308! I would then ask, "why do I need to burn 40+gr of powder to punch holes in paper out to only 300yds?" "I'm not looking to hunt and kill things".

Yes, I did build a 6ARC, from a Savage 110 with a Shilen Select Match, 4 groove, 28" Heavy Bull. Mounted in a Boyd's At-One with an Athlon Argos 10-40X56 glass on top. Shooting Berger 105gr Hybrid over 28.8gr of LVR with Remington primers and Starline brass. This is my second season shooting this and after 6 weeks I am in the top 3 of 15 shooters. Today, bullets are plentiful, powder and primers are also, even though prices are still high. Best of all Hornady, Starline, Peterson, Alpha and Nosler are all producing 6ARC brass. So regardless of everyone else's thoughts, this works for me.

 

[Killing Time]

I think the 6 ARC is a great cartridge, and I really enjoy shooting mine. I bought a factory version, but it still shoots great and extremely accurate, especially for the cost. I think both the 22 & 6 ARC got a bad rap from the beginning because they were advertised and marketed for the AR platform. But they’re a wicked little round in the bolt gun platform as well, and a lot of fun to shoot. Plus, it is also the cheapest cartridge I load compared to the other 6mm cartridges in my personal arsenal. My daughter loves shooting it also, and has pretty much taken ownership of it. And I am completely ok with that!

 

[KMW 1954]

Before I built my ARC I spent time talking with our league manager who at the time was shooting a 6BRA. We even talked about the 6PPC and was told by him that it too was a fantastic cartridge, out to 200yds. That at 300yads it would also start to fall behind, much like what I was seeing with the 223. Reason for his moving to the BRA.

When I went to get started I purchased an old used Savage Model 11 barreled action in 243 with the whole intention of barreling it into a 6mmBR. Instead I found a brand new, unfired, Model 12 Varmint barrel take-off, locally. Between the receiver and barrel I had exactly $250.00 into this. I shot that gun for 2 seasons in the league, and I still have it today.

My whole line of thinking was that I wanted something bigger and faster than the 223 yet I didn't want to go to the 22-250 barrel burner. Ans definitely didn't feel the need to go to a 6mm or 6.5mm CM just to punch holes at the distances we are shooting.

Looking back, the old Model 10 223 served me well. The Model 11 with the Model 12 barrel was certainly a step up and the now Model 110 in the 6ARC was twice the step up that the Model 11 was. I could very easily change now to that 6mmBR but I keep asking myself, with what I am doing, what would I gain?

 

[ebb]

Bobcat please explain about the Eli Whitney concept from 1794. I am very interested.

 

[chromatica]

I am also impressed with the 6ARC cartridge. I first used it in an AR build two years ago. Then I decided to re-barrel one of my match rifles in 6ARC. I am improving my F-class scores at 600 yards with that rifle. I don’t get quite the velocity that others are achieving with the larger 6mm variants, but recoil with the 6ARC is minimal. The same dies allow me to reload for both gas and bolt guns.

I have found that the 105s are a little too heavy for my gas gun. I have dropped down to the 87 grain V-max in my AR. Starline brass is serving me well along with IMR3031.

 

[moorepower1]

Ask yourself...who decided an ARC should be throated for long bullets and why.

Answer...Hornady and Marketing.
The cartridge shines brightest with light bullets but high bc is the cool kid right now

The DOD to be accurate. It was designed and in use for that first.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

The DOD to be accurate. It was designed and in use for that first.

If you say so. How far back do you go with them? Are you familiar with a cartridge called a 30 Action Shooting that Hornady and the USAMU tested and shot in competition in about 2009ish? They also claimed to have designed it, fwiw. It was exactly a 30 Major/Grendel. (30 Major because it made Major Power Factor in USPSA 3 gun and Alexander trademarked the name "Grendel")Hornady has had some involvement with DOD since way before the 6 ARC and it's just a shortened 6 Grendel that Robert Whitley marketed as a 6AR well before the ARC also. Bottom line, it's a chicken or the egg debate. You can certainly claim the ARC was a new design, for or by the DOD, but it's not new, my friend. More likely, it was a workaround of the 6 AR that Whitley, an attorney himself, claimed protection of. Whitley went away and now the 22 ARC is EXACTLY a 22 Grendel/22AR, with no changes to the case at all. Now one can claim that shortening a Grendel .030 or so makes a new cartridge but the stated intent for a Grendel was the same as the ARC. So what we have is a "new" cartridge with the same stated intent, same parent case and only a minor change to the 6mm version and none to the 22 version, in addition to the history I just stated. It simply wasn't new at all. That doesn't take anything away from the cartridge though.

Just one more little thing...
Back then, people were pushing a 6.5 Grendel with 123gr bullets pretty hard to make MPF in USPSA. The 30 Major(Grendel) pushed a 125 at the same speeds but with less pressure, hence less bolt thrust than it's smaller bore 6.5 brethren). Less bolt thrust meant less/no bolt failures in an ar15 with a Grendel bolt face.