First Deer with 6 mm arc

[richidaho]

Well went deer hunting yesterday; opening day in Idaho. Paged this baby with my 18” barreled 6 mm arc one shot one kill. 245 yard shot got a bit excited and shot him in the liver. Was using Hornady 103’s. Haven’t shot one like this for 20 years. It was my lucky day

 

[nagantguy]

Very nice Muley , my next build is going to be a 6mm arc. How far did he travel after the shot- what’s the field autopsy look like. And I totally understand getting excited on Election Day 2016 I arrowed the biggest buck I’ve ever taken and had t killed none near as nice since like 08-09. He was moving west to east and I hit a little far back, luckily from the angle I clipped the back of both lungs and he didn’t make it 40 yards but I didn’t see him go down and that was a LOOOOOONG half hour wait for sure!

 

[ut755ln]

Well went deer hunting yesterday; opening day in Idaho. Paged this baby with my 18” barreled 6 mm arc one shot one kill. 245 yard shot got a bit excited and shot hip in the liver. Was using Hornady 103’s. Haven’t shot one like this for 20 years. It was my lucky dayView attachment 7719193

Outstanding! Congratulations!

 

[richidaho]

He traveled 20 yards and kicked around for a minute or so. Bullet was found just under the skin on far side of Wound. Photo posted of bullet. I will take the Wt and see how much of a loss. The liver was mush with some damage to each lung and lots of blood in body cavity. I will update bullet Wt when I get home.

 

[nagantguy]

Thank you- very nice buck!

 

[Carlos Danger]

Nice job. Who'd have thought a "weapon of war" could be useful? Looking forward to deploying mine this rifle season.

 

[ShootnFool8]

Congrats! Very nice buck.

 

[PinesAndProjectiles]

Would you look at the rack on that! Decent!

 

[Ndbowhunter]

you gotta be rapt with that

 

[MPDS13]

I just want to know where you found the 103 hunting ammo, haha! Been looking for some for a while.

 

[sparky702]

congratulation on your harvest . thats a nice buck .

 

[richidaho]

Well the bullet Wt was 74 grains. So, thats a bit over 75% bullet retained. I think that’s good not sure . Any input would be nice. Thanks

 

[hypno02]

Well the bullet Wt was 74 grains. So, thats a bit over 75% bullet retained. I think that’s good not sure . Any input would be nice. ThanksView attachment 7719401

Nice work! 75% retention on that bullet at that range seems perfectly acceptable to me.

 

[SBRSarge]

I just want to know where you found the 103 hunting ammo, haha! Been looking for some for a while.

Ask and ye shall receive…

Search results

www.milehighshooting.com

 

[SBRSarge]

Nice job richidaho,

Makes me anxious for season to open here. I have two rifles to kill deer with. One is a 12” 350 Legend with some new ammo to try, and the second deer will be with my ARC.

 

[hlee]

I call shenanigans. Everyone knows you can't shoot a deer with anything less than a 30-06. 300 RUM is better...







Nice job. And, I'd say that ~75% weight retention is pretty good- though not quite what a copper monolithic will give you.

 

[Gtscotty]

Well the bullet Wt was 74 grains. So, thats a bit over 75% bullet retained. I think that’s good not sure . Any input would be nice. ThanksView attachment 7719401

Looks like pretty good performance to me on that pig! From your post it sounds like the wound track was pretty decent? Any idea what kind of velocity you're getting from the 103gr ELDxs?

 

[richidaho]

Looks like pretty good performance to me on that pig! From your post it sounds like the wound track was pretty decent? Any idea what kind of velocity you're getting from the 103gr ELDxs?

Well from the bullet drop using iStrelok I’m getting low 2600’s with 18” barrel and 1-7 twist. Have not put on corona graph dew to limited ammo. Using Hornady 103 gr out the box.

 

[CaptArab]

Well from the bullet drop using iStrelok I’m getting low 2600’s with 18” barrel and 1-7 twist. Have not put on corona graph dew to limited ammo. Using Hornady 103 gr out the box.

Please don't.
We've all seen far too many coronagraphs lately anyhow

 

[louu]

Amazing deer, congrats

 

[MPDS13]

Ask and ye shall receive…

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www.milehighshooting.com

Thanks a bunch. That a pretty good price too. Will be ordering a bunch of that.

 

[flyfisher117]

hey you're in my neck of the woods. I was hoping to snag a deer with my 6.5 Grendel this year but Covid had other plans...

 

[SBRSarge]

Thanks a bunch. That a pretty good price too. Will be ordering a bunch of that.

And it shoots really well, at least through my 18” Odin. Five shot 100 yd groups of .53 and .88 inches last trip to the range.

 

[Yondering]

Well the bullet Wt was 74 grains. So, thats a bit over 75% bullet retained. I think that’s good not sure . Any input would be nice. Thanks

Congratulations on a nice buck.

Don't worry about what the weight retention % is; it doesn't matter. Did it kill well, and was the wound cavity what you expected/wanted? That is what matters. All the hand wringing about % weight retention is mostly just something to sell magazine articles, and doesn't correlate to better killing.

 

[TACC]

Congrats, Great buck.

Thanks for all of the info also.

Any reason you have 1:7 instead of 1:7.5.

And did the 103's shoot better than the 108's

 

[Gun_Oil]

Well went deer hunting yesterday; opening day in Idaho. Paged this baby with my 18” barreled 6 mm arc one shot one kill. 245 yard shot got a bit excited and shot him in the liver. Was using Hornady 103’s. Haven’t shot one like this for 20 years. It was my lucky dayView attachment 7719193

Congrats! That is a sweet mature Buck! I’m also going to hunt in WA this year with the same ammo. Are you using the 6arc in an AR platform?

 

[Supervel]

Ask and ye shall receive…

Search results

www.milehighshooting.com

Ask and ye shall receive…

Search results

www.milehighshooting.com

Bravo on a great hunt. A note to all the ARC shooters who are re-forming Grendel Brass. I used an RCBS' resizer die to form 6mmARC brass from stress relieved [annealled] Hornady Grendel brass. .Each and every piece of brass shoulders were wrinkled terribly. Hoping that fire forming would help I loaded some with medium pressure loads and fired. Almost all cracked at the creases the RCBS dies created. I found a set of Hornady Dies and formed more precious 6.5 Grendel brass to 6mmARC with the Hornady resizer. EACH piece of brass was formed very nicely with no wrinkles.After trimming to length,checking shoulder datums etc we loaded 10 rds.All fired and functioned perfectly. I did call RCBS for advice when the first batch were ruined,they treated this 55 yr reloading veteran like an idiot.Then they suggested I order a set of Custom 3 step forming dies. He even said" you just can't use a sizing die of another caliber like that ". I am sure I got a Dud on that call as many others were helpful but the Duds always stand out.

 

[richidaho]

Congrats, Great buck.

Thanks for all of the info also.

Any reason you have 1:7 instead of 1:7.5.

And did the 103's shoot better than the 108's

Sorry 1-7.5 had to look up. Both rounds shot well. I have a 1-8 also in 6 mm arc 16” barrel. It doesn’t like the 108’s. Both gun shot well with 105 bugger reloads with hornady brass. I had a bit of a issue with star light 6.5 brass. I over trimmed 25 and loaded them; bad QC on my part. Light primer strikes-and boom. Had to pull bullets and toss brass.

 

[Ledzep]

Bravo on a great hunt. A note to all the ARC shooters who are re-forming Grendel Brass. I used an RCBS' resizer die to form 6mmARC brass from stress relieved [annealled] Hornady Grendel brass. .Each and every piece of brass shoulders were wrinkled terribly. Hoping that fire forming would help I loaded some with medium pressure loads and fired. Almost all cracked at the creases the RCBS dies created. I found a set of Hornady Dies and formed more precious 6.5 Grendel brass to 6mmARC with the Hornady resizer. EACH piece of brass was formed very nicely with no wrinkles.After trimming to length,checking shoulder datums etc we loaded 10 rds.All fired and functioned perfectly. I did call RCBS for advice when the first batch were ruined,they treated this 55 yr reloading veteran like an idiot.Then they suggested I order a set of Custom 3 step forming dies. He even said" you just can't use a sizing die of another caliber like that ". I am sure I got a Dud on that call as many others were helpful but the Duds always stand out.

I've picked up about 10 or 15 Grendel cases off the range while picking up my ARC brass. They're similar enough that I don't notice it and I bulk process all of it anyway. When those grendel cases get run through my Hornady die it feels like I just ruined something compared to the rest of the ARC cases, but every one of them has bumped the shoulder back just fine and made a long-neck ARC case.

 

[richidaho]

Congrats! That is a sweet mature Buck! I’m also going to hunt in WA this year with the same ammo. Are you using the 6arc in an AR platform?

AR it’s the upper gun.

 

[Yondering]

Sorry 1-7.5 had to look up. Both rounds shot well. I have a 1-8 also in 6 mm arc 16” barrel. It doesn’t like the 108’s. Both gun shot well with 105 bugger reloads with hornady brass. I had a bit of a issue with star light 6.5 brass. I over trimmed 25 and loaded them; bad QC on my part. Light primer strikes-and boom. Had to pull bullets and toss brass.

Sorry 1-7.5 had to look up. Both rounds shot well. I have a 1-8 also in 6 mm arc 16” barrel. It doesn’t like the 108’s. Both gun shot well with 105 bugger reloads with hornady brass. I had a bit of a issue with star light 6.5 brass. I over trimmed 25 and loaded them; bad QC on my part. Light primer strikes-and boom. Had to pull bullets and toss brass.

Hmmm. Sounds like you’ve got more going on than just over trimming brass. If that caused light primer strikes, then it’s a pretty solid indication that you’re bumping shoulders way too much and creating excess headspace. This has nothing to do with a headspace gauge; it’s about your sizing die adjustment.

 

[bfoosh006]

Nice work! 75% retention on that bullet at that range seems perfectly acceptable to me.

And.. It clearly worked.

 

[cooper01]

Very nice deer sir.

 

[richidaho]

Hmmm. Sounds like you’ve got more going on than just over trimming brass. If that caused light primer strikes, then it’s a pretty solid indication that you’re bumping shoulders way too much and creating excess headspace. This has nothing to do with a headspace gauge; it’s about your sizing die adjustment.

Well worked on my QC and never had the problem again.

 

[Yondering]

Well worked on my QC and never had the problem again.

That’s just further evidence. Case necks should never be the thing controlling headspace in a bottle neck case like this; in your case it sounds like it is. The shoulder should be controlling the headspace; case necks can be .100” short and it’ll still work fine if the shoulder isn’t way too short.

You’ve got something weird going on there.

 

[Bangswitch_6x47]

Well went deer hunting yesterday; opening day in Idaho. Paged this baby with my 18” barreled 6 mm arc one shot one kill. 245 yard shot got a bit excited and shot him in the liver. Was using Hornady 103’s. Haven’t shot one like this for 20 years. It was my lucky dayView attachment 7719193

Nice! I built a 6 arc with an 18" barrel for yotes, and deer. Mine shoots the 95smk's and the 103eldx's great out to 750yrds, and I can't wait to draw blood with it.
I'm glad to hear how it performs on deer.
Congrats on the muley.