6mm arc or a 6.5 grendel

How far you shooting,if just a few hundred a 223 will be cheaper. Far out 6 arc

Once you’ve mastered the .223 Rem and reached the point that it’s capabilities are the limiting factor to your ability to accurately shoot beyond its capabilities, you’ll know everything you need to know to not only answer this question, but also to actually reap the benefits of a more powerful cartridge. You will also have learned all of that at a ammo cost savings that will pay for the new upper receiver.

I'm in the same boat. Not a hunter but intrigued by the 6mm ARC.

If you’re reaching father than reasonable for the 223rem, then the ARC is more capable, but either make sense.

The 6ARC has other advantages other than "a little faster" it does that with higher BC bullets, so the speed gap increases as it gets further downrange. It also does better in the wind.

Since it does that with lighter bullets, it also has less recoil. Not that the 6.5G is a bruiser, but every little bit helps.

Personally I'd go with the 6mm ARC over the 6.5 Grendel. Not long ago you could get steel 6.5G ammo for $.20/round which was a game-changer. You could plink and mess around with the cheap steel and buy high quality brass ammo for serious shooting. But since the ban on Russian ammo the price has gone up to $1/round now, pretty much eliminating the primary reason for it existing. The 6.5G barely has the case capacity to adequately drive the heavier bullets and the lighter ones have mediocre BC. It's still a great round in a lot of ways but if you're starting from scratch it doesn't make as much sense as it did a couple years ago.

FWIW, supposedly both rounds have magazine problems with higher capacity mags not feeding them reliably. I don't know anyone that owns either in an auto so I'm going on just internet rumors which could be true or could be BS. But if I could get reliable 25-30 round 6mm ARC mags it would be a really appealing option for an AR that could do everything from plinking to long range stuff and work from CQB range out to DMR range.

I would go with 6 arc higher BC bullets,Does better in the wind .

I’ve had a Grendel for years, as well as a 6mm Grendel variant. For paper I’d chose the 6mm Arc.

rayatphonix said:

I’ve had a Grendel for years, as well as a 6mm Grendel variant. For paper I’d chose the 6mm Arc.

Click to expand...

This statement echoes my own, which I suppose is a significant illustration of my endorsement of the 6 ARC over the 6.5 Grendel - I began shooting the Grendel not long after Wild Bill had released his early group buys, and have thoroughly enjoyed the cartridge for these ~17-18yrs, despite the name game and Alexander’s poor supply chain management, and jumping through hoops with Type I and Type II and LBC’s from other vendors... But having that experience with the round, and doing what I do with it, I wanted more. So about 7yrs ago, I started exploring 6mm variants, and eventually ~4yrs ago built my 243LBC (6 Grendel, 6 ARC on steroids). So I spent extra energy to buy parts and dies and form brass for the performance I wanted from the 6.5 Grendel case... but today, the advent of the ARC makes it easier, as ammo, brass, dies, and barrels are all readily available, with no case forming work.

My variant is the 6 mm 40 AR Turbo. I expect it’s got a little more speed than the Arc, but readily available ammo, brass and dies would certainly trump the speed advantage

deputy bruce said:

I shoot paper only. I can't decide if I need an 6mm arc maybe you can help me to decide. Is the little bit of speed worth it between the 6mm or the 6.5

Click to expand...

It all depends on how far you are shooting and the accuracy you want to achieve, within 700 yards I’ll stick with 223/556

Im really intrigued by the 6 ARC. My only concern is of it's longevity. The Grendel has been out for a long time now. Hopefully the 6 ARC doesnt go the way of the 224 Valkyrie but I got a few buddies that got burned on the 224.

Personally, I'm a little disappointed at the slow start that the 6mm ARC is having. From the same company who marketed the hell out of the 6.5 Creedmoor, I'm surprised that they're not pushing the ARC harder. Still very limited factory rifles being produced in this caliber and few aftermarket barrels as well. But I realize that aftermarket barrels are pretty limited in a lot of other calibers right now too.

For me, I would not be pulling the trigger on anything ARC related until I see how this plays out a little longer. Right now, I don't feel comfortable investing the caliber yet.

Olympus said:

Personally, I'm a little disappointed at the slow start that the 6mm ARC is having. From the same company who marketed the hell out of the 6.5 Creedmoor, I'm surprised that they're not pushing the ARC harder. Still very limited factory rifles being produced in this caliber and few aftermarket barrels as well. But I realize that aftermarket barrels are pretty limited in a lot of other calibers right now too.

For me, I would not be pulling the trigger on anything ARC related until I see how this plays out a little longer. Right now, I don't feel comfortable investing the caliber yet.

Click to expand...

The 6 arc is doing much better then the 6.5cm did, and it's doing it in the worst possible time.

C-grunt said:

Im really intrigued by the 6 ARC. My only concern is of it's longevity. The Grendel has been out for a long time now. Hopefully the 6 ARC doesnt go the way of the 224 Valkyrie but I got a few buddies that got burned on the 224.

Click to expand...

In what way? I'm curious. At Ammoseek there's considerably more .224 Valkyrie available there is 6.5 G, a shocking amount in fact. Is there some fashion in which .224 Valkyrie isn't supported?

Phaedrus/69 said:

In what way? I'm curious. At Ammoseek there's considerably more .224 Valkyrie available there is 6.5 G, a shocking amount in fact. Is there some fashion in which .224 Valkyrie isn't supported?

Click to expand...

There's a few good reasons there is so much 224V available.

If you think the 224 Valkyrie got dropped like a sack of hot poop, look at the 22 Nosler.

For me and the confines of the AR-15 in regards to the cartridge case I think the 6mm variant makes more sense that the 6.5 counterpart. I have a 6.5G and haven't shot it in years, its so dang accurate that I can't part with it.

I have both and like both if Howa or CZ builds me a 6mm ARC in a bolt gun I’ll own it so for me it’s both! But if I had to have just one I’d do the 6mm arc

troy fairweather said:

The 6 arc is doing much better then the 6.5cm did, and it's doing it in the worst possible time.

Click to expand...

I guess I've not seen that. I haven't seen the marketing push from Hornady. I haven't seen much in the way of advertisement in the gun rags or the YouTube influencers. As a dealer, I'm not see any push from distributors or reps. I'm just not seeing much at all for this cartridge.

Phaedrus/69 said:

In what way? I'm curious. At Ammoseek there's considerably more .224 Valkyrie available there is 6.5 G, a shocking amount in fact. Is there some fashion in which .224 Valkyrie isn't supported?

Click to expand...

Pretty much the only big companies loading for it are Federal and Hornady has a few loads. I just am not seeing it expanding in it's lineup. Most places locally either stopped carrying it or only have a very small selection.

rayatphonix said:

My variant is the 6 mm 40 AR Turbo. I expect it’s got a little more speed than the Arc, but readily available ammo, brass and dies would certainly trump the speed advantage

Click to expand...

A lot more speed. I was in strong favor of the Turbo40 with a slight twinge towards the FatRat before I bought my first 243LBC barrel. I have messed around with a few sole source cartridges and just wasn’t in the mood, and 243LBC was/is open source.

I was really hoping the ARC was going to be blown out like the T40, but with that shorter case length to fit the longer bullets into AR mags.

Olympus said:

From the same company who marketed the hell out of the 6.5 Creedmoor, I'm surprised that they're not pushing the ARC harder.

Click to expand...

I’ll give Hornady a pass for not pushing harder on a cartridge they launched out of public demand following leaks during the first days of a multi-year global pandemic. But I’ll also mention - I only take on about one build per month these days, sometimes two, but since the drop just a tad over a year ago, I’ve had calls to build 5 of them, which has been 100% of the non-5.56/223 builds I’ve had requested.

Comparatively though, I only had ONE serious request for 224 Valkyrie build in its first year, none for 22 Nosler (naturally), and only two .350 Legends, which were a little bit skewed, because I sold mine to a friend after he liked it, and then his dad ordered one for himself and his grandson. So SOMEBODY must be pushing it more effectively and customers must be believing the hype much more than “normal.” 6 ARC definitely makes more sense for my common market than most of the others, so it’s probably skewed in that way as well, but I’ve been really surprised by how many calls I’ve gotten about it versus some others.

Phaedrus/69 said:

In what way? I'm curious. At Ammoseek there's considerably more .224 Valkyrie available there is 6.5 G, a shocking amount in fact. Is there some fashion in which .224 Valkyrie isn't supported?

Click to expand...

When Federal Rushed it to the market before getting the twist right and had to recall/stop making their Premium Gold Medal Match because the hunting loads were more accurate that killed it for me