I hope Ruger is going to invest in this new round. Their AR-15 multi-purpose-rifle or even the American Predator bolt rifle would be very interesting projects.
Hornady 6mm ARC "New" cartridge
- Thread starter Kimber.204
- Start date
With it being adopted by the military we may see many manufacturers. Brownells has barrels and complete Aero Precision uppers.
I would love to see an entry level Ruger American 6ARC just so I could have access to an affordable action with a PPC bolt face. That would be great. That RAR action is built pretty darn well for the $. A little truing and polishing and it’s solid. 6PPC repeating varmint rifle anyone?!?
i was thinking safety mainly. If I was the head engineer at Hornady and wanted a unique cartridge based on existing wildcat architecture, I am making it where it wont even chamber and go into battery in any existing wildcats or production chambers for safety reasons. This 6ARC will chamber and fire (Unsafely) in prolly a dozen existing production Grendel style chambers that I can think of. Not even going into the type 1 and type 2 bolt conversation here...that makes this all much worse.
So, I would have seriously considered making the shoulder like .035 longer, than Grendel saami. More options for performance and way safer for the public. Not an issue really for military use, if thats their market focus.
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Dusty Stevens
Shiner
I agree totally but i think itll go forward and not fire much like a case that has been bumped too far
I guess I don't understand your safety concern. Anyone trying to use ARC ammo in their 6mm Grendel variants would likely get light primer strikes, or at best case-stretched fire-formed brass. A 6.5 Grendel, the closest SAAMI standardized factory cartridge, will not chamber due to the longer headspace. That was probably done intentionally by Hornady to avoid the too-big a bullet trying to go down the 6mm bore safety issue, and appears to be standard industry practice (bigger bullet can't go down the smaller bore: e.g. 270 vs 280). All combinations of .441 case-head ammuniton will either not chamber, or will chamber but not fit right and send a correct or smaller bullet down the bore. Seems as safe as any existing cartridge offerings to me.
0.020" might as well be a mile when we are talking about headspace dimensions. The ARC is not the Grendel/AR/LBC/FatRat/Grinch/etc. and it is standard operating procedure to only chamber ammunition designed for the name marked on the barrel. Many factory rounds can chamber in rifles that they are not meant for and it is up to the consumer to avoid trying it. This isn't a new issue and has existed forever. A 243 will chamber and fire in a 260 and I don't recall many people suggesting Remington was being reckless offering the 260. Same story for a 244mm Remington and the 257 Roberts, IIRC. These are all SAAMI standardized offerings too, not custom non-standard chambers offered by boutique gun makers.
I am just attempting to understand or reason their logic for the .030” shorter shoulder position.
Not saying they are being reckless, just questioning their logic. It aint safer IMO.
Besides pure uniqueness, perhaps maybe there is a benefit in full auto feeding - of long slender 6mm bullets from the mag with a short fat tapered case with a different shoulder. Good reliable magazines and sometimes feeding have been a challenge with the 6.5 Grendel since the beginning, however this is a little better now with new purpose designed metal magazines. The 6mmAR is not easy to get running well from magazines with more than 10 rounds, maybe the 6ARC is better with the shoulder change.
Not saying they are being reckless, just questioning their logic. It aint safer IMO.
Besides pure uniqueness, perhaps maybe there is a benefit in full auto feeding - of long slender 6mm bullets from the mag with a short fat tapered case with a different shoulder. Good reliable magazines and sometimes feeding have been a challenge with the 6.5 Grendel since the beginning, however this is a little better now with new purpose designed metal magazines. The 6mmAR is not easy to get running well from magazines with more than 10 rounds, maybe the 6ARC is better with the shoulder change.
I agree, a Ruger entry into this market would be very welcome. The 6MM is a very versatile caliber, much better at varmints than 6.5 but still very viable for medium game. As a combat chambering I believe it will excell.
I understand your safety concerns however the military procurement process dictates many of the specifications and Hornady must swim in that pond. The license and manufacturing fees for Hornady will be immense. The civilian adaptation will be added cream but IMO any concerns about wildcat misidentification would not even have been in the picture.
bowfisher
Silver $$ Contributor
I assume its a way of shooting a " long for caliber " bullet, with usable case capacity. Being marketed as a " long distance" round..who knows. It's not the first time they have shortened a case and ran longer bullets in it , under certain COAL restraints.
Personally, I don't hunt long distance with an AR, I'd rather have a longer case and shoot a lighter, less BC bullet faster, just my application in the areas I hunt, and critters targeted, others may have different opinions.
I also don't understand guys using AR cases in bolt guns when there are so many ways to get to desired destination much more efficiently, but it's a free country!
As far as the release, more is better! We need to grow the shooting sports, not curtail them.
The .030 shorter case was mentioned in the news release as done for longer bulletts.
Us gun enthusiasts are our own breed , we choose things based on our needs, past experience and many times nostalgia. On any given day I'm very happy with a 70 year old sporterized Yugoslavian Mauser because of the need and history then the next day my AR 15A2. I may be wrong but I believe future generations, maybe my great grandchildren's generation will see a day where daily field use of the AR in mass by hunters is common place.
People who are more practicle to their needs and less enthusiast will see the AR as we see bolt rifles. To me the 6.5 and 6mm AR chamberings plant the AR firmly into that arena, as does the 300 mag and other chamberings. Quite frankly with a set of ARs in 6MM and a 300 Mag and you can hunt North America.
I think the 6mm ARC is a great idea! I'm already invested in a 6mmAR so it's nothing new for me......Even though it's slightly different the ARC ballistics will probably match or be very close. I love my 6mm AR and won't be switching any time soon since the process to make brass is so simple........it wouldn't be worth the cost for me to go with the latest and greatest when I have an original.
That would make sense to me even regardless of military use. For a company introducing a factory chambering, trying to factor wildcat misindenfication into the equation seems problematic. Even if they somehow could know every wildcat it could confused with, a day after they introduced it somebody could come up with yet a different wildcat and it's back to square one again. SAAMI is SAAMI, wildcats are wildcats, they're different worlds.
We don't know which branch or outfit of the military is adopting this cartridge. It may be too small to affect the commercial market and may be a while before a significant military branch does as it did with the 6.5Creedmore.
NZ_Fclass
Silver $$ Contributor
I lost my thesaurus recently. I don't have the words to tell you how I feel about that.Yeah, I hate how Hornady has successfully marketed their tawdry products as archetypal to the proselytes of our sport. How dare they standardize our prized abstruse and esoteric wildcats for the ignorant novitiates! Don't they know these arcane cartridges are meant only for the uncanny and enigmatic silo of erudite benchresters? How dare they debauch our sport so!
I learned some new words today and wanted to try them out!
Momma always said that a good vocabulary is an important piece of expressing yourself.
Barrett's is already filling contracts for DoD, the usually do SOCOM sniper rifles. Tuesday 18 manufacturers has signed to build rifles, so we'll see.
Only the Special Forces communities (and JSOC) have the sourcing independence to take on anything new with any agility. Big Army is so dominated by politics and ineptitude that it's a herculean effort just to get it the staff to formally agree that the sky is blue.
The USMC is slightly more agile (and stubborn) in persisting with their own acquisitions.
I don't think DoD participation moves the needle (yet) for 6 ARC and in same ways can work against a cartridge that might otherwise be excellent.
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