Bolt 6mm ARC

[richidaho]

Anyone building/have built a bolt 6mm ARC? I have two ARC's in AR platforms and quite enjoy the rifles. Was thinking about building a bolt gun. Looking at the case for the ARC and how closely it resembles the 6BR and other 6mm long-range cartridges would think it could compete with the best.

I was thinking of a Tikka action (looking for input) with a Barrlen or Lilja barrel 18-26" (looking for input). Put this in the HNT26 hunting chassis (looking for input) and off you go to the races hopefully with a scope under 10lbs. Would the tikka bolt need to be refaced? What tikka bolt would you start with 308 or 223?

 

[Mike Casselton]

Howard mini in 6.5 Grendel.
Swap the barrel to a 6 ARC.
Install your favorite stock/chassis and you have a great mountain rifle.

 

[vmpglenn]

Howard mini in 6.5 Grendel.
Swap the barrel to a 6 ARC.
Install your favorite stock/chassis and you have a great mountain rifle.

This is the correct answer. Crown Ridge Barrel Works makes a great replacement barrel that comes with a barrel nut for easy head spacing.

 

[b6graham]

zermatt origin is the easy button with a proof prefit

 

[richidaho]

Shit, I'm kind of wavering the Zermatt Origin looks to be the way to go. But, the cost after speccing it out is pushing 3-3.5K. Why don't I go buy a Springfield waypoint in one of the creedmores for 2.4K? Or go by the Savage 110 Tactical 6mm ARC for around $850 as much as I will use it.

 

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Howard mini in 6.5 Grendel.
Swap the barrel to a 6 ARC.
Install your favorite stock/chassis and you have a great mountain rifle.

This is what I’m looking to do. Got the barreled action on Brownells special awhile ago. Just got a MDT LSS-XL2 chassis on sale. They don’t make the HTN26 in the mini, yet. I’ve bugged them a few times- seems to me like a no-brainer. Add in a Proof Carbon barrel, you’ll need a sling to keep it from floating away…

 

[BadAccountant]

Howard mini in 6.5 Grendel.
Swap the barrel to a 6 ARC.
Install your favorite stock/chassis and you have a great mountain rifle.

They'll release a 6 ARC mini action eventually.

 

[Mike Casselton]

They'll release a 6 ARC mini action eventually.

Not soon enough. ☹☹

If CZ hadn't dumped the 527 I would hold out for one of them.

 

[Ledzep]

Not soon enough. ☹☹

If CZ hadn't dumped the 527 I would hold out for one of them.

Unfortunately the new 600 model is going to be really hard to do caliber conversions, too. They don't seem to keen on the ARC. Glad I got my 527 built when I did.

As far as bolt action 6mm ARC's go, a Tikka is going to be hard to pull off because of the bolt face diameter. The ARC is .445", a 'standard' bolt face is .473", so you may have extraction/ejection issues if you just try to run a standard bolt. To open up a .223 bolt face is possible, but then you have to fiddle with the extractor to make everything jive.

I have my 6mm ARC bolt guns built on a Cz527, and my PRS/NRL competition rifle is on an American Rifle Co. Nucleus (on sale until Wednesday for $750, by the way). The Howa mini is another viable option, as is the TL-3/Origin. Most any action you can get a Grendel/7.62x39/PPC (.445") bolt face will work. If you build something that feeds from AICS mags, go with MDT BR or ARC magazines.

 

[richidaho]

I thought the bolt face was 0.440? That is what the Russian.220 ran. I’m not Arguing I’m just looking for clarity.

 

[Ledzep]

Same/same. You'll see the "standard" bolt face anywhere from .469-.473, too. .440, .441, .445. It's the difference of the thickness of a sheet of paper. The SAAMI spec says .441" for the ARC, but action makers will make the bolt face .445" (probably even a little bigger) for clearance.

ETA: 7.62x39 CIP drawing has the rim dia. @ .446".

 

[richidaho]

I'm looking on gunbroker there is a CZ 527 in 7.62x39 that would be the same bolt face. (right)

 

[Ledzep]

Yup, that's what mine started as.

 

[Triple D]

@Ledzep

Did ARC offer a 6arc bolt as a custom order, or did you have another shop open up the bolt. Or, best case, is their .224Valkyrie bolt large enough to accept the 6arc case.

 

[trdjohn]

I started off w/ AR in 6 ARC, like it, wondered what it would be like in bolt action, so I ordered McGowan 6 ARC 26" barrel to screw on to Savage bolt action I had laying around, bought the bolt head and mdt BR mag. It was nice, but was 50/50 at best feeding even w/ upgraded extractor. That factory110 savage ARC only has 18" barrel and will probably feed like crap.
Finally sold a piece of real estate a few weeks ago and had a few extra bucks from that, so I bought a Origin to use w/ the barrel and went whole hog w/ ACC chassis and TT special. All the parts came finally, got it out this past weekend for 2 boxes, night and day difference from the Savage feeding and controlled feed of Origin. And it was less than $2400. In a few handloads I tried, I could push 108s to 2880-90 fps without pressure, even into 2940 area - but those were really warm.

 

[Ledzep]

@Ledzep

Did ARC offer a 6arc bolt as a custom order, or did you have another shop open up the bolt. Or, best case, is their .224Valkyrie bolt large enough to accept the 6arc case.

It's a standard option now. I modified a Valkyrie head for mine back when I did it.

Nucleus Gen2 Bolt Action

www.americanrifle.com

 

[MDT_Josh]

Just as a note, we have released out AICS pattern magazines in 6mm ARC for all of you guys looking to run bolt guns in this caliber and not having to tinker endlessly with BR mags or spacer kits in standard mags MDT 6mm ARC Magazines

- Josh