6 arc or 22 arc

I am really liking the 6 arc so far this year. I may just be shootng better but I’m having a lot less run offs than I did with a .223. That said, if the .22 arc had been an option when I put this gun together I may have gone that direction. The 22 is going to shoot flatter and give you less to think about.
 
Depends on how its chambered and twist rate. Custom barrel I would choose the 6arc, plain Jane the 22arc would be the better option.

If your open to other calibers I'd look into the 243, 6x6.8, and 22x6.8. All these will outperform any of the Hornady options with much easier brass availability and a way stronger bolt in an AR. Only downside is no factory ammo for the 6.8 offerings.
 
Kino M said:
Depends on how its chambered and twist rate. Custom barrel I would choose the 6arc, plain Jane the 22arc would be the better option.
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Can you expand on that comment? I have never been interested in the 6 Arc. So I'm not super educated on the cartridge. I am interested in the 22 ARC and feel like with a custom barrel it would be pretty sweet in an AR-15 platform.

This is going off of my experience night hunting. Strictly calling. No bait piles etc.

Shooting over 300-350 yards at night is a long shot in my opinion. Also coyote hunting is pretty dynamic with how much they are moving. It takes them hardly anytime to cover 50 yards. Also it's hard to call wind when you can't see. So I want fast and flat. With a 22 ARC and 53's I would be pretty solid to hold dead on out to 300 yards.

Since the 6 Arc would be pushing a heavier bullet with a smaller case I think velocity would be close between the 6 ARC with 58 and 22 ARC with the 53. The factory 22 ARC with 62 ELD VT is saying 3300 FPS. The 6 ARC reloading data from Hornady with the 58 says 3300 FPS. I believe the factory 22 ARC 62 ELD VT was tested with a longer barrel than the 6 ARC 58 grain load.

The 53 has a 16% higher G1 so I would have less drop and drift.

Anyway that's where my mind was at with the comparison.
 
Absolutely, you have to understand that the 6 or 22arc has been done years ago, essentially a 22Grendel. The ARC case dimensions is a little shorter but based off the Grendel case. The Grendel/ARC bolt face has much less metal and has been KNOWN to break teeth in ARs, especially guys running them.

The 6x6.8 is based off the 6.8spc, simply necked down. It has a more robust bolt and can handle a lot more pressure. Apples to apples the 6.8spc will run about 100fps vs the Grendel varieties.

I personally have 2 different 6x6.8 and have done the load work on 3 others. Its about 90% of the ballistic performance of the 243 winchester.

I'm a very active night hunter and I fully understand the requirements entailed and in my experience the #1 pick for me is an AR10 in 243 and #2 is the 6x6.8spc. Thats for pure terminal performance because neither is fur friendly.
 
The 6 ACR is shortened, the 22 is a full length version of the Grendel.

I just got an email from X-Caliber, the 22 ARC is now available in AR and bolt action prefits.
 
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Kino M said:
Absolutely, you have to understand that the 6 or 22arc has been done years ago, essentially a 22Grendel. The ARC case dimensions is a little shorter but based off the Grendel case. The Grendel/ARC bolt face has much less metal and has been KNOWN to break teeth in ARs, especially guys running them.
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I was curious about your comments on 6 ARC vs 22 ARC? Basically your first sentence in your first post? Why is the 6 ARC better than the 22 if it’s a custom barrel?

I’m sure there are a ton of opinions on absolute best chambering for thermal hunting out of an AR. I didn’t want to get that far off the OP’s topic though.
 
dirtytough said:
I was curious about your comments on 6 ARC vs 22 ARC? Basically your first sentence in your first post? Why is the 6 ARC better than the 22 if it’s a custom barrel?
I’m sure there are a ton of opinions on absolute best chambering for thermal hunting out of an AR. I didn’t want to get that far off the OP’s topic though.
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I believe what Kino is saying is, with a custom barrel you can get whatever twist and throating you want, & not the standard long throat & fast twists that comes standard. More so if you're wanting to shooting lighter bullets faster, which may or may not shoot in a fast twist.

Same applies to the 22 ARC for the most part. I think the 22 ARC has a lot going for it for "factory" shooters or non reloaders that want performance. I think the 62 grain bullet/load splits the difference quite well between small & fast, and big & slow.
 
alf said:
I believe what Kino is saying is, with a custom barrel you can get whatever twist and throating you want, & not the standard long throat & fast twists that comes standard. More so if you're wanting to shooting lighter bullets faster, which may or may not shoot in a fast twist.
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I understand that. But with a bullet like the 53 Vmax, the 22 version having a bigger case, I’m not seeing where the 6 is better than the 22. He is pretty experienced so I was hoping he would explain it. Like the yellow books, ______ for dummy’s.
 
In the big picture, we're really splitting hairs on AR cartridges. A lot depends on which one blows your skirt up the highest.

According to Wiki, the 6.5 Grendel case has a 35 grain capacity.

The 6.8 SPC case is between 34.8 & 36.9, depending I suppose on whose case is measured.

Neck either down to 22 cal, & it's still a horse a piece on performance.

Too bad Nosler didn't make their 22 Nosler based on the 6 Hagar brass, which has a 37-38 grain capacity, rather than their rebated version.

A 22 Hagar throated for lighter bullets would be a treat at almost 22-250 velocities in an AR
 
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dirtytough said:
I was curious about your comments on 6 ARC vs 22 ARC? Basically your first sentence in your first post? Why is the 6 ARC better than the 22 if it’s a custom barrel?

I’m sure there are a ton of opinions on absolute best chambering for thermal hunting out of an AR. I didn’t want to get that far off the OP’s topic though.
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Because the SAAMI spec chambering and twist rate is tailored to long, heavy, high BC bullets. If your trying to achieve fast and flat the long throat and fast twist works against you fir lightweight bullets for varmint hunting. Lots of guys have tried to get 6ARCs to shoot the light bullets but i'm yet to see one that's super accurate. You need a shorter freebore and about a 10tw to optimize the 55-58 class bullets and the 6ARC has a long throat and a 7 or 71/2tw.

I don't know if the 22ARC follows suit but if it's tailored for the long heavier bullets your better off with the 224V as it's tailored that way but has the 6.8SPC bolt that is much stronger.

If you do a custom barrel you just as well go the 6.8SPC option unless you don't reload and in that scenario the 243 trumps them all.
 
The trouble I see in the 6arc is that you can get a barrel with a slower twist that will be better with the lighter bullets. However your still stuck with the long lead that will not play well with the shorter bullets (which most times are your lighter bullets ).
If the throat/lead is to short a good smith can lengthen it , but ain’t no way to shorten it.

The 22 arc shows more promise to me as a varmint round . Close to 22-250 performance in an ar15 platform.
Just to many If’s ands and buts to suit me right now.
 
DeereGreen said:
The 22 arc shows more promise to me as a varmint round . Close to 22-250 performance in an ar15 platform.
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Curious as to what you're basing this off of? A quick glance at Hodgdon Load Data for a 62gr bullet (lightest option listed for both rounds) would contradict this. Without using a calculator to get exact numbers, I'd say the 22-250 is at least 400fps faster on listed max loads.
 
I said close to . Just my thoughts based on what I’ve read.
Not a lot if any real life experience with it out there yet that I’ve seen.
Which is the reasoning for the last sentence in my previous post.
 
If you want a 6mm and reload and can find dies or use bushing dies go with the 6x6.8. If you want to shoot 22 cal or don't reload the 22 Nosler is the way to go. We've stacked up a bunch of coyotes with 55 ballistic tips out of the 22 Nosler. I would suggest a WOA barrel. Ours are 12 twist 22" and like several bullets but a friend's 8 twists shot the same cfe 223/55 bt load we primarily hunted with great as well. All the bs about brass life is just that. I've shot and reloaded a bunch of it since it came out before we went to 243 for a while. Brass life is fine especially if you don't way over gas the gun.
We had a customer 6 Hagar reamer built and had 3 barrels chambered and got that refined to what I would call the ultimate AR platform coyote cartridge just in time for our communist government's illegal passing of our unconstitutional supposed assault weapon ban. Too bad the brass source has dried up. Our's will accurately push 70s 3400 and 87s 3050 in a 24" 10 twist. They also drive tacks with 60 Sierras hps and 65 vmax. Flat out accurate wicked coyote round that no round is gonna match as far as the AR platform goes. These new cartridges are just high bc over yonder steal banging non hunting hype imo. I'm a tuner and I non stop gotta tweak and mess with things but there was no need to move away from the 22 Nosler. Back when we hunted 3 or 4 night per week we used to clean house with them. We killed some way out there too. Hella round for sure.
 
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