U.S. Military Adopts Hornady's New Cartridge: 6mm ARC ????

[.455_Hunter]

It seems like the US military is starting to turn into Japan or Italy in WWII with an excessive number of service cartridges.

The pendulum swings back and forth, with a few low points along the way...

1890- .45-70-500 rifle, .45-55-405 carbine, .45 revolver (Schofield length case).

1918- .30-06 M1906, .45 ACP

1950- .30-06 M2, .30 M1 Carbine, .45 ACP, .38 Special

2000- 7.62x51mm, 5.56 M855, 5.56 M193, 9mm NATO (and some .45 ACP in SOCOM or .300 Win Mag for snipers)

How many are in use now?

[Not_A_Llama]

Don’t get lost in the sales hyperbole. This is special application stuff for special groups.

[.455_Hunter]

Don’t get lost in the sales hyperbole. This is special application stuff for special groups.

Yeah, but even the logistics for special groups starts to become a problem when enough variations are introduced without little to no interchangeability.

[Gman]

Haven't had to fight a full-scale war for a while. Military minds begin to wander to find ways to expand their budgets.

[Madusa]

Don?t you think a sniper cartridge should have max lethal range? I guess what I?m saying is that you want a cartridge that will be lethal from the muzzle as far as it is supersonic. I know some of you believe transonic can be breached without disruption, that may be true at the cost of billistic coefficient. The other issue is energy. When the M9 won the military contract in the 80?s the minimum energy they would approve was 400lbs. So I believe if the government wants a new sniper round it needs to have 400 lbs just before it goes transonic. That sticks you with 120g + bullets. The Russians may have figured this out in WW2.

[Linkless]

It's kind of like the .300 Blackout. All the hype and talk during the release but it's been available for years in a different form. I'll probably buy one.

[SA Friday]

It's kind of like the .300 Blackout. All the hype and talk during the release but it's been available for years in a different form. I'll probably buy one.

I suspect this is exactly like 300 Blk. the military was playing around and found a cartridge that they wanted to put into commission, but it's not legitimized. Cant cut a contract on a cartridge that isn't being pumped out by a manufacturer. So, SOCOM finds someone who will legitimize it to make it accessible. 6AR is probably still under patent and Hornady didn't want to buy it. So, the redesign the shoulders, submit it to SAAMI, boom. New cartridge to fulfill the contract. There are a few in the Govt in the "what's new and do we want it" gun-nut crowds working for the military. SO... they start dicing around with Hornady looking for a 'better' cartridge and they shoot and test an array of different ammo. They shoot 6 AR and figure out it's an amazing cartridge that will work in the AR-15/M-4/M-16 platform and they got excited. I've been enamored with 6 AR/Grendel for a couple years now, but getting a barrel isn't just pulling one off the shelf. This is going to legitimize the 6mm in the AR-15. It might very well kill 6.5 Grendel.

[Irving]

So hold off on building a 6.5 Grendel?

[SA Friday]

So hold off on building a 6.5 Grendel?

Depends on the use and time frame. Hunting hogs this summer? no, build the Grendel. Shooting PRC matches and making a gas gun for the division but currently shooting a bolt gun? Sure, hold off.

[Irving]

Copy, thanks.