Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 6mm arc loads

Oh chit! Thanks for the heads up.

I shot a 6 ARC yesterday. The guy at the range said it would not shoot for him, but he admitted to not having much experience behind a gas gun. He was kind enough to ask me to shoot it for him. Shooting factory Hornady 103 ELDX precision hunter loads. It printed 5 into 1" at 100 yards. I didn't see anything wrong with the rifle. It was a home brew, consisting of an Aero upper and lower, Luthar butt stock, Geiselle G2s trigger, T-Box 20" stainless barrel. Yeah, I have never heard of them either. I wouldn't say it was damn accurate, but I wouldn't kick it out of bed either. I'm sure it will make one hell of a good antelope slayer. The guy says he's taking it next week on a hunt. With the factory ammo, I'm thinking it's more than capable to do the job.. I sold him a bunch of 6mm bullets that were too long for my 6x45. We got into a discussion about what he did to make 6 ARC brass from new starline 6.5 grendal brass. He said he sized it in 3 stages, annealing between each stage. He used a standard off the shelf RCBS fl die. I'm sure there are much easier ways to do it, but that's what he said he did...

I shot a couple of pieces of factory, measured CBTO of the fired brass, and just did one pass in a hornady 6 arc fl die to a few thousandths shorter than fired factory brass, and trimmed to SAAMI. No annealing.

Haven't shot any of my resized grendel brass yet but it will cycle through my ar.

Duh, brain fart. Cartridge base to shoulder not cartridge base to ogive.

Damn $500 dollar barrel.

https://www.tbox-barrels.com/

https://quarterminutearms.com/ols/products/6mm-arc

Yeah, you'd think at that price it would have shot much better..

Am I the only one thinking 5 shots into an inch from an autoloader is good enough to hunt with?

Nope

Its plenty good enough. I'd be checking it further out as well. If it holds moa at 400-500 yards, that is a good thing too..

Hunting deer purposes, 95 BT or 103 ELD-X or 105 BTHP or 107 SMK?

95 BT and 105 BTHP for me.

I've been chasing some gassing and ejection issues but finally have that ironed out with mine, and tested some CFE 223 loads this evening with 105 BTHP. 28.7 grains gave me a 1.13 inch group. 29.0 grains gave me a 1.16 inch group. Did not get a velocity reading.

On to Lever evolution next.

Will try a different primer too. CCI BR4s are giving me light primer strikes with a CMC 2.5 pound trigger. I will try Federal Match primers next.

You should change that out for a 2-Stage. You'd easily get a 1 1/2lb final pull and sure fire ignition.

I may, if I still get light strikes with Federals. What is a good 2 stage trigger? I don't know anything about them.

As rifle count goes,I'm into double digits with 22PPC AFI and 6PPC AFI rifles,compiling Turnbolts and Krunchentickers. Hint.

I shoot 400's expressly,in all of 'em,along with a GOODLY sized herd of 223's,223AI's,22BR's and 6BR's. Hint.

I've piles of CMC Krunchenticker triggers and simply LOVE 'em,whether Small or Large Frames. Single Stage all. Hint.

I've never seen a 105 Hornie HPBT with a "soft" BC,no matter the Lot and I've shot LOTS of Lots(understatement). No can-o-lure for me though and I shoot scopes that track and that projectile expresssly,in dozens of High Zoot rifles. Hint.

Brass is a single pass,whether Lapooey or Starline(fhuqk the rest). False shoulders matter. Hint.

The Hornie 105 HPBT cheerfully travels feedramps and weathers such storms exceptionally. No matter 6PPC AFI or 243Win Large Frame. Hint.

Pardon Reality.

Hint........................

That LaRue MBT is a good 2 stage for me. Pretty fair priced and pretty rugged as well. At least so far.

Never tried CMC or a single stage on the AR but maybe I’ll cave one of these days.

Any opinions on it's performance inside deer-sized animals?

28.9 grains of Lever gave me a nice round .77 inch group. 29.1 grains sprayed like a shotgun.

29.3 and 29.5 gave me great 4 round groups but shot 5 flew on each. Both fliers felt good but were probably me. More investigation of Lever is needed.

Great report. I’ll be working on mine soon.

Coldboremiracle's suggestion of BLC2 is one to investigate too. 28.0 and 28.2 grains both gave me nice round 1 inch groups. No idea on the velocity but my primers (plain jane Federal small rifle) looked fine. Temp here is about 90 with high humidity.

One other note, I'm using a Midway 6mm arc stainless steel mag (appears to maybe be an ASC mag, has an ASC follower and AR Stoner branded floor plate) and a C Products Duramag stainless steel 6.5 Grendel mag.

Both seem to function just fine. The C Products grendel mag may actually have a hair more room internally than the Midway 6 arc mag.