New 6mm Advanced Rifle Cartridge

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Varminterror said:
I’m looking forward to a day when a true mini-length action is an industry standard. Remington may not still be around by then, but I’d love to see more than just the CZ and Howa in that space.

For Midwesterners, a half pound lighter rifle which gets its work fully done in a 20” tube to deliver a 100-115grn bullet at 2700-2900fps would be quite productive in deer and coyote fields.
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"Midwesterners" have no need for that, we've been fine since the 1960's with our "inferior" 22" 243 Winchesters, 270's, 6mm Remingtons, and even the lowly little 223.

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Internet says the case is based on a 6.5 Grendel. As I have several hundred 6.5G cases, I wonder how hard it would be to make 6 ARC cases from them. Lube and size?
 
Yeah, I'll probably get an AR barrel first, but a mini action bolt gun would also be pretty neat.

A poster on another forum said that they got an email response from Legacy stating that Hornady had provided them with 6mm ARC samples a few months ago, and that they were considering producing rifles. I don't know if I could avoid a 6mm ARC mini action, the Hornady lead engineer in one of the videos said you should be able to pick up an extra 100 fps with handloads over factory ammo in bolt guns by loading to higher than the 52ksi Grendel MAP, not sure what the Minis would put up with though.
 
MarshallDodge said:
Internet says the case is based on a 6.5 Grendel. As I have several hundred 6.5G cases, I wonder how hard it would be to make 6 ARC cases from them. Lube and size?
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The prints are on the SAAMI website, but IIRC, in addition to being necked down, the shoulder is pushed back 30 thou. I don't know whether you would have to neck turn.

I think @Varminterror has been shooting 6mm Grendels for a while and could probably give you an idea of how much work it is to convert cases.
 
MarshallDodge said:
Internet says the case is based on a 6.5 Grendel. As I have several hundred 6.5G cases, I wonder how hard it would be to make 6 ARC cases from them. Lube and size?
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Thanks for the ping, @Gtscotty.

Making 6mm ARC cases from 6.5 Grendel would be possible and I think will be pretty common, and certainly easier than producing 300blk from 5.56/223. BUT considering Hornady’s history of supporting their products, I won’t personally bother to do so - I’ll just shoot Hornady brass. If I were Benchrest shooting, maybe I’d resize Lapua brass.

The 6 ARC is 30thou shorter than the 6.5 Grendel, but with the same shoulder diameter. It’s not enough to require a chop saw, but might be worse for some folks hand cranking or finger turning their trimmers. SO... resizing Grendel brass to ARC means:

• The case is necked down from 6.5 to 6
• The shoulder is pushed back, bringing shoulder into the neck and body into the shoulder
• The case taper is increased, which adds some resizing resistance

So what I would personally expect as the process to make 6mm ARC from 6.5 Grendel if I chose to do so:

1) Anneal
2) Lube
3) Resize without expander ball (ideally bushing die, when available)
4) Mandrel expand
5) Trim to length (cutting quite a bit)
6) Neck turn
7) Load & Fire
8) Anneal

It’s not much work, but more work than just a simple neck-down.

We might find some brass to be sufficiently consistent to avoid neck turning, but I think compressing the shoulder and bringing so much into the neck will likely require it. We shall see soon enough.

Comparatively, the 6mmAR and 243LBC do not move the shoulder back, so we are only annealing, necking down, expanding, trimming (clean up, not length change), and loading.

Seeing the commitment for the new factory ammo specs, 2750fps with the 108’s is going to be smoking from factory ammo leaving a 24” AR!
 
Varminterror said:
It’s kind of sad to think - the 6PPC has been around for over 40 years, but we’re just now realizing what all can really be done with 6mm cartridges pushing ~100grn bullets at 2700fps over a mere 30grns of powder. But I’m glad we’re here.
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Ya hope it gets popular, hornady seems like there trying to make this the new 6.5 creedmoor. Hope people try it the 6mms are a great all round caliber. I'm trying to scratch together some money to build one.

varminterror how are the ballistic advantage barrels. Again I have to choose short and light or long and heavy lol.
 
Varminterror said:
@troy fairweather - given the right price, the Ballistic Advantage barrels are on my “would buy” list. I’d buy Shilen, Proof, and Krieger ahead of them, and I DO buy Black Hole Weaponry barrels ahead of them for cost quite often, but every BA barrel I have seen has been good to go.
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I just figured there a little cheaper then a shilen or others. Brownells has the BA barrel and the faxon, there cheaper yet, but shorter. I hope bca comes out with a 6arc barrel but there barrel prices have gone up quite a bit in price.
 
Varminterror said:
@troy fairweather - given the right price, the Ballistic Advantage barrels are on my “would buy” list. I’d buy Shilen, Proof, and Krieger ahead of them, and I DO buy Black Hole Weaponry barrels ahead of them for cost quite often, but every BA barrel I have seen has been good to go.
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I'm a bit surprised to hear that, seems like I've read a lot of reports of "just ok" accuracy with the BA barrels, and not to many "it's a real hammer" reports. Wilson Combat is supposed to start shipping barrels before the end of June, I like the Grendel barrel I got from them I'd be tempted to try another. Not sure whether to go 18" or 20".... I don't want to slow the ARC down too much, but it will always be wearing a suppressor.
 
Gtscotty said:
I'm a bit surprised to hear that, seems like I've read a lot of reports of "just ok" accuracy with the BA barrels, and not to many "it's a real hammer" reports.
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The $200 AR barrel is kind of a wasteland for me, but I have put together a bunch of uppers for folks bringing barrels in that price range. When I’m blasting, any cheap chromie will keep me happy. When I’m wanting to “hammer,” I spend up a bit and I know what I’m gonna get.

I’ve had some finicky Faxon barrels which just turns me off. The BA’s I’ve handled have shot well enough - and no flukes. Both shoot far better than the average chrome lined, $50-75 barrel, but I’ve had to send back Faxons for two guys, and have struggled to find loads for a few others. Just not my bag.

I could be totally mislead about BA’s, but I know when I want a barrel which “really hammers,” it’s pretty cheap insurance to simply spend a little more. Shilen, Krieger, Proof, Craddock/Bartlein, even JP... Admittedly, I shoot and have sold a boatload of Black Hole Weaponry barrels also - all of them have been hammers, and I usually get them around $200 or less. So my trusted “wasteland” barrel is BHW for my “kinda want something nice but don’t wanna pay too much” rifles - which is most of my AR’s.
 
Gtscotty said:
Yeah, I'll probably get an AR barrel first, but a mini action bolt gun would also be pretty neat.
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Since you have a 6.5 Grendel you won't need a new bolt. I have a .450 Bushmaster upper so a barrel swap would work for me too ... right? Am I missing anything?

What is the inside diameter of the Grendal bolt face in an AR? Do Grendel rounds feed well from typical AR15 magazines?
 
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