Factory Hornady in 6mm ARC

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PrairieDogs

New member
I’m about to finish my 6 ARC upper and still can’t find brass so I bought some 103 gr Precision Hunter. Upon review of the Hornady load data I see it’s loaded at 2800fps which is near max for bolt gun, whereas gas gun max is 2500/2550. I was just reading here that there have been several broken bolts on ARs. I’m wondering if that is the cause since the Hornady loading manual clearly says that the AR bolt can’t handle the bolt gun load pressures.
Therefore I’m going to pull the bullets and adjust powder. The “book” way to do this is to replace with powder according to load manual. Also I am attempting to contact Hornady for a recommended reduced load of their powder. But, it seems safe to me (?), if I find that they are loaded with 30gr, I could reduce the charge to 28. That looks like a little less than their max under the gas-gun data. Has anyone done this? Any thoughts? I am really surprised that Hornady does not have a warning on their ammo box.
 
just run it.

they wouldnt sell ammo that wasnt safe for all platforms unless it had a specific disclaimer on it that said like "bolt/single shot only, no AR'S".

their huge giant pack of lawyers all but guarantees that.


their gas gun fps data is based on an 18" barrel
their bolt gun fps data is based on a 24" barrel


feel free to email tech@hornady.com to confirm that of course, but i wouldnt blink twice about putting their factory offerings in my ar.
 
I’ve run several hundred of all three of hornady factory offerings through two different ARs and not had bolt issues. One is a toolcraft and one is a BCA. I have also read that their published load data for ARs was causing bolt problems and loose primer pockets for people.
 
Response from Hornady:
“The ammunition we offer for this cartridge is loaded to SAAMI pressure specifications and is safe for use in gas operated semi-automatic rifles. The primary reason for the differences in velocities listed between the ammunition and the gas gun load data is due to the difference in barrel lengths. The ammunition's velocity is collected from a 24" barrel and the Gas Gun data was collected in an 18" barrel.”
 
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