I agree on the SAW. It should be 308 or even something with a little more oomph for when they need it.

Fun FYI update on real world performance: I’m squadded with a couple Hornady engineers at a National Rifle League national level match this weekend, both shooting 6mm ARC in custom bolt action rifles. One is running a non-canister powder which is used in their factory ammo and one is using Leverevolution - they’re getting 110 A-tips up to 2900fps! I’m shooting a 6 Creed at the top end of the NRL/PRS speed limit with 105 Hybrids, and we’ve been within 2 tenths wind hold clear out to 1175yrds. I had a chance after the stages today to test drive both rifles, a Bighorn and a Mausingfield (opened bolt face), and the recoil compared to my Creed is notable - even a rifle 3 pounds lighter than mine had considerably less jump when shooting free recoil on the barricade - about half as much reticle travel. Very similar performance to 6mm BR/BRA, but with far less expensive brass. They mentioned 7 firings on the brass they were shooting today, but they said they’re not sure how far it will go - they’re getting it cheap enough they simply replace it after 15x fired.

I had been planning a 6mm creed for my son, and a 6.5 Grendel upper for his AR, to allow him to shoot factory ammo. But with the 6mm ARC on the market now, I’ve ordered a 6mm ARC barrel for his AR instead of the Grendel, and after today, I’m thinking very hard about building a 6 ARC bolt gun instead of the Creed. I also ordered two 6 ARC barrels to replace my 243LBC Barrel this winter when it’s burned out.

Both guys were running factory MDT 12 round AI pattern mags with BR blocks. Feeding was smooth and reliable, even when I ran the rifles, with a VERY different habitual bolt throw than their actions (mechanical ejectors on theirs, cock on close spring ejector on mine).

It is tempting to build a bolt rifle using this cartridge. I am not quite sure if it would fill a need for me but it might be a relatively inexpensive cartridge to punch paper on noncompetitive range days. I would imagine that barrel life will be fairly long. Only time will tell if this one hits the sweet spot in the market and becomes popular with civilian shooters but it sure looks like a great idea.

I wanted to post this over the weekend but couldn’t recall my Flickr login info to host the photo. But here’s a side by side comparison with my 6 Creed. I’m shooting 105 Hybrids over 41.9grn H4350 running 3163fps from a 26” barrel (which is ~80fps faster than this same load produced in my last two barrels), pictured here beside his 110 A-Tips over 31.5grn Leverevolution (slightly over book data, bolt gun only, no AR’s) at 2900fps from a 28” barrel. One of the Hornady shooters in my squad running the ARC placed in the Top 10 at the NRL match this weekend, which he said was his highest placing to date, so it obviously kept up, despite vicious winds and an intense course of fire.