Aero Precision 6mm ARC Complete Upper from Brownells - any good?

[Burninpowder]

https://palmettostatearmory.com/hornady-match-108-gr-eld-6mm-arc-ammunition-20-rounds-81608.html
They are out of stock at the moment but never know when it will pop back up

 

[8x68s]

ah-h, thanks

 

[Lennie]

sorry, PSA??

Palmetto State Armory

 

[Lazyfaire]

I'm sure that if a special branch of DoD ordered it for usage, it has been vetted beyond belief. They are probably getting all the ammo, too!! LOL

I have a Barrett REC7 (300 BO) that I converted to a 6mm ARC. The numbers that Hornady was throwing around were for a 24" barrel, etc etc. The rifles they were selling to the DoD are 18" Proof Research carbon fiber barrels. So you will have to create your own charts for speed & distance, can't rely on theirs (unless you have the 24").

 

[wolfwistle]

I've been wanting to do this. But I'm late to the 6.5 Grendel party. I haven't really figured that one out yet. All of my buddies have been telling me what a wonderful thing 6 mm Arc is. I'm just going to let everyone else go ahead of me. I'm tired of fighting for ammo that I can't find and can't afford. Good luck

 

[quneur]

6mm ARC was developed by Hornady so I suspect they will want the shelves stocked with it before other calibers after popular calibers. It is just a necked down 6.5 grendel to 6mm. Both are based upon the 220 Russian case.

 

[Lazyfaire]

It was designed and built for the military. A cartridge that was lighter in weight (so a soldier might carry more cartridges at one time). It does not go transonic until about 1100 yards and hits harder than a 7.62 at a distance. They put a Proof Research barrel on it to make it lighter to carry. Mine weighs in about 7.2 lbs with an empty mag.

 

[ORhutner]

thanks for checking! I'd be all over that if it's available even if the prices are a bit high.

@8x68s they were down to 6 boxes of it on the shelf last night when I got to Sportsmans and it was down to two boxes by the time I left. I suspect they are likely out by now but probably worth a call. I believe Sportsman's puts ammo out throughout the day and week so it doesn't all disappear the day it is delivered and to try and make it fair for everyone.

If you were looking for 6mm Creedmoor, it looked like they had about 100 or more boxes of it on the shelf yesterday in multiple flavors from Hornady and Sig Sauer.

 

[8x68s]

LOL, same for 6 creed at Salem's Sportsman's. Literally the only loaded ammo on the shelf. Maybe I'll take a run down Sunday for a look. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Nic0]

It's available online at LAX and Freedom Munitions pretty regularly - it's just not cheap like everything these days. It's pretty much on par with the going rate for 6.5 Creedmoor.

If you paying those prices on Freedom munitions your getting hosed for sure. If you check midway, Brownells and local spots it pops up. I just built a 6ARC and have slowly collected ammo all for all less than $30 a box. That was the highest I paid and that factored in shipping with an online purchase.

Finally have optics on and possible time to shoot. I'll report back my findings

 

[DirectDrive]

sorry, PSA??

Well it's not Public Service Announcement
so that narrows it down to ....

Palmetto State Armory

 

[ronmart]

So here's what it looked like when it came in...

Quality of the Aero Precision stuff seems good, but I'm not a big fan of the barrel color. The charging handle was total crap as well.

 

[ronmart]

My first day at the range with it today seemed disappointing at first because I wasn't happy with the spread of the rounds, but on closer examination it wasn't as bad as I first feared.

Here were the first shots fired at 50 yards zero:


After I got the shot in the center (right side of the red box) that was pretty close to dead center and then the next one that was on the opposite side (my fault), I called it good enough to go to 100 yards.

At 100 yards I got this:


After I got the close enough to center bullseye shot in the center I dropped down to the bottom right corner. First shot was off and I think that was me, so I adjusted and put 5 shots pretty close to each other. This is where the limits of my eyes and my Nikon 1-6x Blackforce 100 scope are probably the biggest problem. That said, my five shot group was solid:



Then I went out to 200 and warmed up on a 9" steel plate. All 5 of 5 shots were hits and one went low to begin with when the barrel was cold.



Without adjusting I shot a three shot group in the middle which measured out as one of the best groups of the day:



The fifth shot up top was done later when I needed to warm the barrel while shooting on paper. It landed where I aimed and was a solo shot.

When I went on paper at 200 this is what I got:



This is 6x and my eyes which is causing most of the problems here. The first two shots were in the top left and then I got one in the red center bullseye. When i saw that I decided to go for a three shot group and just shot without checking after each shot. That gave me the center group:



I shot the center flyer after making a scope adjustment trying to get dead center. Turned the wrong way!

I then went to the bottom right corner which my center reticle dot covers that entire quadrant of the paper so I'm shooting blind. First one went low right so I took a shot at the steel then came back to paper, second went red center, and third went high. My takeaway is is that this heavy barrel isn't that great when cool but once it heats up a bit then its pretty consistent.

My brother was pretty impressed and excited about this, but overall I was disappointed. Yes, I got some good groups but to get a nice clean target I'd need a separate target to warm the barrel then shoot on the good paper quickly to get the groups. I also think this is a far cry from the mini Creedmoor I was hoping that 6mm ARC would be.

I'm now down to only 5 rounds of 6mm ARC left. At $2.35 per round for the Hornady ELD Match 108gr that I was able to use for this experiment, that's $82.25 worth of ammo for results that


My MagnetoSpeed V3 battery started to die (and eventually totally died) so I didn't get as many measurements as I would have liked, but I was able to confirm that I get the promised velocity but it wasn't like Berger ammo where I usually have SD's as low as 4.4:

Series	4​	Shots:	7​
Min	2557​	Max	2592​
Avg	2577​	S-D	11.3​
ES	35​
Series	Shot	Speed
4​	1​	2592​	ft/s
4​	2​	2572​	ft/s
4​	3​	2580​	ft/s
4​	4​	2557​	ft/s
4​	5​	2579​	ft/s
4​	6​	2587​	ft/s
4​	7​	2574​	ft/s

My conclusion is that this upper I bought is ok. Not wow or amazing, but not crappy either. The price is a bit high for the performance in my opinion, but I wouldn't call it a total rip off either.

My thoughts on 6mm ARC is that for practical application it's quite good, but for precision it's going to need a better barrel or a bolt gun to really see what that round can do.

 

[ronmart]

I threw on a Athlon Optics Argos BTR GEN2 6-24X50 FFP scope and zeroed it just to see if I could get some tighter groups with better magnification and the result was no.

I'm excited about 6mm ARC and want to have a great solution for that round one day, but this isn't the upper for me. Perhaps its the barrel or perhaps its the AR platform, but after burning through 2 boxes (40 rounds) of Hornady 6mm ARC that cost me $2.35 per round I'm just not convinced I can get better results than I can with my DDM4 V7 using match grade 5.56 or .223. When I want to go beyond 400, I'm going to be reaching for my 6.5 Creedmoor rifle so I think that's still the better strategy for me - for now.

 

[Greenbug]

I put together a 6mm ARC on a Bighorn Origin action with a Proof Research stainless steel pre-fit 26" barrel. It is resting in an MPA Competition chassis with a Trigger Tech Diamond trigger. Fiddling around at the range last week verifying dope I discovered I could hit consistently the 1600 yard IPSC target. Needless to say I am quite impressed with the little six.

 

[ronmart]

I put together a 6mm ARC on a Bighorn Origin action with a Proof Research stainless steel pre-fit 26" barrel. It is resting in an MPA Competition chassis with a Trigger Tech Diamond trigger. Fiddling around at the range last week verifying dope I discovered I could hit consistently the 1600 yard IPSC target. Needless to say I am quite impressed with the little six.

I think that's really where this round is going to do its best - in a high quality match barrel in a single-action rifle. I'm not convinced its the right round for an AR-15 unless it's got a high quality barrel like your Proof Research and a proper trigger like you invested in.

I can see why the military would want it so they can reach targets farther out, but the military bar for accuracy isn't quite as harsh as mine. I'm just not impressed with the accuracy via an AR with the setup I had, but I'm not opposed to potentially trying again in a year.

Aero Precision did a great job but they should have chosen a better barrel maker. For the price, I'm just not impressed and if I want groups like I'm seeing then I've already proven I can get that easily with IMI Razor Core at distances out to 400 yards (the farthest I've gone with my DDM4 V7).

If I'm shooting farther than that I'm breaking out my 6.5 Creedmoor or I'd want a proper bolt action like you built for the 6mm ARC. That said, I've only gone out to 1000 yards so I'm still working my way out to a mile.

If Daniel Defense made the Delta 5 Pro or Tikka made the T3x TACT A1 in 6mm ARC then I'd be all over that like a fat kid on candy.

I have no doubt the round has a lot more potential than this setup which is why I'm returning it.

 

[ORhutner]

@8x68s I meant to update you over the weekend but got sidetracked. Sportsman's in Albany has had 6mm ARC on the shelf the last two weekends I have been there. Not a great quantity but They had a dozen boxes last weekend and said they have gotten shipments the last two weeks of it.

 

[mhayd93]

Any other updates on this platform, ammo availability, accuracy, etc.? I have an extra AR-lower with no upper, and the 6mm ARC keeps calling to me (along with 458 SOCOM)!

 

[Burninpowder]

Ammo I had seen some on PSA but was not fast enough on my order. Sportsmans had some but was sold out by the time I made it there so I have seen a a few times just bad timing for me. I have been playing with some hand loads at the moment I have had decent groups using 105gr Berger bullet and 8208xbr powder still have a lot more testing to do.

 

[ORhutner]

I have been able to pick up 6mm Arc ammo the last 6 times I was in Sportsmans Warehouse. They didn't have a lot on the shelf, usually between 6 and 12 boxes but it was there. I stop in to browse once a week when my schedule permits and every week the ammo shelf is getting more and more ammo stocked on it and it is staying on the shelf longer.