Jumping on the 6mm ARC

AWS

AWS

Custom Accessory Maker & Retired PM Staff
Twenty years ago I catted the 204 case to 6mm and shot it for a number of years. Accurate and did a number on coyotes, some how I plugged the barrel with snow or mud on a hunt and expanded the front two inches. I cut a couple inches off and re crowned it but it never got the guilt edge accuracy back and it never did feed big HPs well so I abandoned it and used the action for a 20P, good move. Cleaning the bench the other day I realized I have a bunch of bullets that I'll never use in the 6x45 so the gears started to turn. I have a couple spare Howa Mini stocks, a coup extra Howa Mini 6.5G mags and Brownells has a summer sale on Howa Mini barreled action. So I have the stuff to put together a 6mm ARC. Midway had a Lee 6mm ARC FL sizing die on sale and I have a 6mm inline seater left from the 6mm-204. Spare set of Rem 700 bases, Rings and a Athlon 2-12x42mm sitting on a rifle that isn't going be used this season. Looking forward to working with this. I'm hoping this will work well with 75gr Speer HPs and Barnes VGs.
 
AWS said:
Twenty years ago I catted the 204 case to 6mm and shot it for a number of years. Accurate and did a number on coyotes, some how I plugged the barrel with snow or mud on a hunt and expanded the front two inches. I cut a couple inches off and re crowned it but it never got the guilt edge accuracy back and it never did feed big HPs well so I abandoned it and used the action for a 20P, good move. Cleaning the bench the other day I realized I have a bunch of bullets that I'll never use in the 6x45 so the gears started to turn. I have a couple spare Howa Mini stocks, a coup extra Howa Mini 6.5G mags and Brownells has a summer sale on Howa Mini barreled action. So I have the stuff to put together a 6mm ARC. Midway had a Lee 6mm ARC FL sizing die on sale and I have a 6mm inline seater left from the 6mm-204. Spare set of Rem 700 bases, Rings and a Athlon 2-12x42mm sitting on a rifle that isn't going be used this season. Looking forward to working with this. I'm hoping this will work well with 75gr Speer HPs and Barnes VGs.
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6mm arc gets a lot of hate of which I don’t understand. I figure it comes from folks who haven’t spent time behind it. I absolutely love it, extremely efficient and very forgiving, inherently accurate.
 
AWS said:
Twenty years ago I catted the 204 case to 6mm and shot it for a number of years. Accurate and did a number on coyotes, some how I plugged the barrel with snow or mud on a hunt and expanded the front two inches. I cut a couple inches off and re crowned it but it never got the guilt edge accuracy back and it never did feed big HPs well so I abandoned it and used the action for a 20P, good move. Cleaning the bench the other day I realized I have a bunch of bullets that I'll never use in the 6x45 so the gears started to turn. I have a couple spare Howa Mini stocks, a coup extra Howa Mini 6.5G mags and Brownells has a summer sale on Howa Mini barreled action. So I have the stuff to put together a 6mm ARC. Midway had a Lee 6mm ARC FL sizing die on sale and I have a 6mm inline seater left from the 6mm-204. Spare set of Rem 700 bases, Rings and a Athlon 2-12x42mm sitting on a rifle that isn't going be used this season. Looking forward to working with this. I'm hoping this will work well with 75gr Speer HPs and Barnes VGs.
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Pretty solid plan, except the inline seater, if it's a Wilson style, is too skinny for the Arc case.

I've had three ARC's, and peddled them all & built a 6x6.8 instead, & am in a happy place now.
 
I wouldn't even consider a 6arc in a bolt gun, there's a lot of better options.

IMO the only niche "void" is running heavy 6mm bullets in a small frame AR. The 6x6.8 is a much better option for the lightweights for varmints.

I'm currently battling getting my 6arc to shoot decent. It shoots about 1moa for 5 shot groups, it will shoot about 3 or 4 into 1/2" then a flyer or 2!
 
Kino M said:
I wouldn't even consider a 6arc in a bolt gun, there's a lot of better options.

IMO the only niche "void" is running heavy 6mm bullets in a small frame AR. The 6x6.8 is a much better option for the lightweights for varmints.

I'm currently battling getting my 6arc to shoot decent. It shoots about 1moa for 5 shot groups, it will shoot about 3 or 4 into 1/2" then a flyer or 2!
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Curious what barrel your using, that hasn’t been my experience and all I current use is factory loads
 
Under 300 yards in a mini action bolt is about as good as it gets for me. It pretty much duplicates my 6mm-204 without the mag length problem.
 
I say go for it. There will always be something that's bigger, better, faster. As long as it suits your needs and you are happy with it, who cares.
 
wolverines said:
CFE223 looks promising in those bullet weights
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It does as far as burn rate but I want a temp stable powder, that leaves out LVR, CFE, BLC2 ect. as they are all ball powders and even though they can shoot nice groups at 100yd they have huge velocity swings and that leads to all sorts of issues.
 
Kino M said:
I wouldn't even consider a 6arc in a bolt gun, there's a lot of better options.

IMO the only niche "void" is running heavy 6mm bullets in a small frame AR. The 6x6.8 is a much better option for the lightweights for varmints.

I'm currently battling getting my 6arc to shoot decent. It shoots about 1moa for 5 shot groups, it will shoot about 3 or 4 into 1/2" then a flyer or 2!
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I would, it shines in bolt guns and can be taken to within 250 fps of what the 6 creed will do with 105's, with 60% the powder, half the recoil and 4x the barrel life. But, only if you reload, as all the factory stuff is loaded to 52k for AR applications. The bolt guns loads that Hornady lists are all 62k and in the lighter weight bullets are almost inline with what a 22-250 will do. This data is from 24" barrels in both examples.

The Lee dies are a good option. I started out using RCBS small base dies and they really over work the brass. Johnny's reloading bench did a episode on the RCBS dies leaving a ring at the bottom of the case that looks like a magnum belt. I found this happening my brass as well. I'd suggest either lee or Hornady dies to someone getting into loading 6 ARC.
 

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Kino M said:
22" and haven’t even tried factory loads yet, I've only tried handloads. I've tried Hornady 108ELDMs and Berger 95gr Hybrids, LeverRevolution and Varget powders.

Going to try H4895 next.
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What brand of barrel, trying to understand your fliers. Ive built 3- 6arcs now all AR,s and hadn’t experienced these issues. Sorry just super curious I’ve used prof carbon wrapped. Only issue I believe gas port should be slightly larger like what they did on 22arc gas port.
 
MPFD said:
I would, it shines in bolt guns and can be taken to within 250 fps of what the 6 creed will do with 105's, with 60% the powder, half the recoil and 4x the barrel life. But, only if you reload, as all the factory stuff is loaded to 52k for AR applications. The bolt guns loads that Hornady lists are all 62k and in the lighter weight bullets are almost inline with what a 22-250 will do. This data is from 24" barrels in both examples.

The Lee dies are a good option. I started out using RCBS small base dies and they really over work the brass. Johnny's reloading bench did a episode on the RCBS dies leaving a ring at the bottom of the case that looks like a magnum belt. I found this happening my brass as well. I'd suggest either lee or Hornady dies to someone getting into loading 6 ARC.
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Barrel life on 6creeds is 12-1500 rounds for top accuracy, 4x that would be 4800-6000 rounds, zero chance in Hades that an ARC will do that. If so the PRS guys would be all over it.

If you want something for a bolt gun in 6mm with the heavies, super accurate and light on recoil the 6BR and BR variations is a far superior option to the 6arc. More quality brass, more accurate (proven by benchrest records) and a regular 308 bolt face instead of the AK bolt diameter. Like I said, much better options for guys with bolt guns than the 6arc.

The BR and variations will easily push a 105 Hybrid 2800fps plus and get around 2500-3000 rounds of great barrel life. Factory ammo is available but it's not cheap. If you intend on reloading it's a wash.
 
Oldcoyotetrapper said:
What brand of barrel, trying to understand your fliers. Ive built 3- 6arcs now all AR,s and hadn’t experienced these issues. Sorry just super curious I’ve used prof carbon wrapped. Only issue I believe gas port should be slightly larger like what they did on 22arc gas port.
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22" X-Caliber full bull, .936 at the gas block, drilled oversized and plus 2" gas system, superlative arms AGB, 5r rifling, 1/7tw.
 
I consider barrels consumables and, it will cost more in ammo to burn out most barrels than the barrel cost itself.

The way I approach things: Buy once cry once and will said items, things, etc. satisfies me, scratches the itch, and can I afford it........becomes priceless.
 
To me the 6arc is made for gas guns. There are much better options for bolt guns. Try a 6x47lapua that little case is extremely inherently accurate runs a srp. And it will run with a 6creed and 243 with a little less powder. My hunting partner shoot a 6arc gas gun and with factory 80gr eld vt hornady ammo it’s running right at 2800fps. You’d get about 600fps faster out of a 6 creed 243 or 6x47l in a bolt action.
 
Aws has been around the block long enough to know what he's doing. I think he was just letting us know what he's building, I don't think he was looking for advice.

Good luck with your build, look forward to seeing how it shoots.
 
Kino M said:
Barrel life on 6creeds is 12-1500 rounds for top accuracy, 4x that would be 4800-6000 rounds, zero chance in Hades that an ARC will do that. If so the PRS guys would be all over it.

If you want something for a bolt gun in 6mm with the heavies, super accurate and light on recoil the 6BR and BR variations is a far superior option to the 6arc. More quality brass, more accurate (proven by benchrest records) and a regular 308 bolt face instead of the AK bolt diameter. Like I said, much better options for guys with bolt guns than the 6arc.

The BR and variations will easily push a 105 Hybrid 2800fps plus and get around 2500-3000 rounds of great barrel life. Factory ammo is available but it's not cheap. If you intend on reloading it's a wash.
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^^That's exactly what an ARC will do. It's beyond me why boomers are so dead set against any new cartridge... The brass for a 6BR cost double what ARC brass costs. Seems like a pretty big waste of money when it allows you less than 3 grains more water volume. Load data shows the BR using powder charges within a grain of what are being listed in the Hornady ARC bolt load data for equal weight bullets. The .308 bolt face is a downfall when it comes to semi auto's, AR10's weight 30% more and suck to carry. Tell me again where the ARC touched you and made you sad?
Left is 6BR with a 26" barrel.
Right is 6ARC with a 24" Barrel.
 

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Straight from SIERRA: The 6mm BR’s closest competitor is the 6mm PPC. Similar in case shape and capacity, the performance levels of the two are quite similar. Why has the PPC come to dominate the benchrest game so completely while the 6mm BR has been slow to catch on?

What bolt face does the PPC use again...?



Is there even a single bullet weight where the 6BR bests the 6ARC in velocity between those two sets of load data? No...
 
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The 6mm ARC is a good fit for me, the 6mm ARC, 6mmBR and my 6mm-204 have almost the same capacity and velocities with the same bullets. I have almost 20yrs with the 6mm-204 and it will cost almost the same to buy a new Mini Howa in 6mm ARC as get a new 6mm-204 barrel. I really like the Mini Howa, I have one in 6.5 Grendel plus I get to work with a new cartridge.

The 6mm-204 I rechambered a 6x47 Rem(old benchrest round) with my 22-204 reamer and 6mm pilot. Hard to find 6x47 Rem barrels today.
 
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