22 ARC Overview: Taking pictures Hornady’s New Sizzling Rod Spherical

The 22 ARC is an fascinating cartridge that occupies a particular area of interest. The promise it makes is to ship .22-250 Remington efficiency from a spherical that feeds by means of AR-15 sample rifles and magazines.

As well as, it has a case design that accommodates heavy-for-caliber .224 bullets which can be optimized for long-range capturing and looking medium sized recreation.

It has a pair different tips up its sleeve, too. The cartridge is tuned to work properly in sure aggressive capturing video games—assume run-and-gun sniper matches—and for looking predators at evening with thermals. 

The 22 ARC goes to should battle for its place on the desk, nevertheless. The sector of excessive efficiency .22-caliber centerfire cartridges is crowded and contains beloved classics just like the .22-250 Remington and .223 Remington, in addition to relative newcomers just like the 22 Nosler, 22 Creedmoor, and 224 Valkyrie. 

22 ARC Specs

• Bullet Diameter: .224 inches
• COL: 2.260 inches
• Case Size: 1.525 in. 
• Case Head: .441 inches 
• Shoulder Angle: 30 levels
• Twist: 1:7
• SAAMI Max Strain: 52,000 psi

22 ARC Overview Highlights

• Minimal recoil
• Equals or betters .22-250 efficiency by means of a shorter barrel
• Provides “level, shoot, and hit” efficiency on targets at prolonged ranges
• Manufacturing unit ammo delivered excellent accuracy and constant velocities
• Common accuracy with 5-shot teams at 100 yards: 0.852 inches

Historical past of the 22 ARC

The 22 ARC has an fascinating origin story. You may moderately assume that it’s a spin-off from the 6mm ARC, which Hornady launched in 2020. However you’d be mistaken.

The 22 ARC predates the 6mm ARC and might hint its lineage by means of the 6.5 Grendel, which is the father or mother case for each ARCs. 

Ballistic tinkerers have been necking down the 6.5 Grendel to .22-caliber for a few years, and one one that embraced the 22 Grendel wildcat was Greg Hamilton, Director of Particular Tasks at Proof Analysis.

Hamilton is a high aggressive shooter, significantly within the realm of dynamic two-person sniper matches, and seemed on the cartridge as a approach to get most efficiency from an AR-15.

He wished an correct .224-caliber spherical with wonderful downrange ballistics that might interact arrays of distant targets rapidly with out the necessity to vary every bit of metal.

His experimentation led him to neck down 6.5 Grendel brass and pair it with Hornady’s 75-grain ELD-M bullet. 

The primary group he put downrange with the 75-grainers—on November 18, 2018—measured .570 inches at 3136 fps out of a 22-inch barrel. What makes that much more spectacular is that it was a ladder take a look at with CFE223 and the group had an excessive unfold of 120 fps. The cartridge was off to a very good begin.

In competitors, the wildcat delivered on its promise. Hamilton was capable of maintain excessive, or simply barely over, metal targets and rating hits because of the forgiving nature of the spherical’s trajectory.

For example, based mostly on his information, in case you zero a rifle 2.5 inches excessive at 100 yards, it will likely be useless on at 275 yards and be simply 8 inches low at 375 yards. A two-thirds IPSC goal measures 12 inches vast by 20 inches tall and is a typical sort of goal encountered in subject sniper matches. So by holding on the goal’s head you’d have the ability to rating hits at 450 yards with none must dial or vary. After all, you would modify your zero offset as wanted for particular situations, however you get the concept.

Potential for Searching

Hamilton labored with Hornady all through his experimentation, and his counterparts there recognized alternatives for the spherical past the competitors realm.

The qualities that the yet-to-be-named 22 ARC dropped at sniper matches additionally translate to looking and that’s the place Hornady noticed the larger play.

A selected area of interest that the 22 ARC is optimized for is looking coyotes at evening. Image a pack of coyotes shifting towards your name at nighttime and attempting to circle downwind, as they at all times do. You may by no means depend on them standing nonetheless for greater than a second or two, and also you’ll hardly ever know their precise vary, which is very laborious to discern by means of the flat picture generated by thermals and evening imaginative and prescient.

To reinforce the 22 ARC’s virtues for this (and different) forms of looking, Hornady created a brand new projectile.

Hornady 62-grain ELD-VT: The 22 ARC’s Secret Sauce

When Hornady introduced the 22 ARC final fall it indicated it will be accessible in three manufacturing facility hundreds: the 88-grain ELD-M, the 75-grain ELD-M, and a brand new projectile, the 62-grain ELD-VT.

The ELD nomenclature stands for “extraordinarily low drag” and the three flavors of ELD bullets within the Hornady ecosystem are match bullets (ELD-M), increasing looking bullets (ELD-X), and the new varmint/goal sequence (ELD-VT).

What’s fascinating in regards to the 62-grain ELD-VT is that it’s designed with a considerable hole cavity behind the polymer tip. By eradicating that lead, the bullet maintains the size and normal profile of the modern 75-grain ELD-M, whereas dropping weight.

(As a aspect notice, Hornady has added this and the opposite new VT bullets to their 4DOF library, in order that constructing a ballistic profile with the free 4DOF app is a snap.)

The good thing about the burden loss is that it may be pushed at quicker velocities whereas retaining a excessive ballistic coefficient (BC). It additionally improves the bullet’s stability, as a result of it strikes the projectile’s heart of gravity to the rear.

Heart of Gravity and Heart of Strain

When a bullet flies by means of the air it experiences strain on the ogive, which is the curved portion of the bullet between the shank and the tip. The precise location of that spot—often known as the middle of strain (CP)— shifts a bit relying on how briskly the bullet is touring.

With out getting too nerdy, the CP creates instability on projectiles by pushing the nostril of the bullet (the ogive) to the aspect. Take into consideration a horse shifting in a straight line. The CP is just like the bit within the horse’s mouth. Strain on the bit from the reins will flip the horse to the aspect. When the horse goes slower, it takes much less strain to show the animal. When it’s galloping, it takes quite a lot of strain to get it off its straight line.

The identical is true with the bullet. When it’s spinning quicker it has extra gyroscopic stability, and can resist the destabilizing affect of the CP. When spun slower (as from a slower twist charge), it’s extra vulnerable to yawing and going off beam.

Right here’s the place the bullet’s heart of gravity is available in. The space between the middle of strain and the middle of gravity (CG) is sort of a lever that permits the bullet to withstand CP-induced instability. The extra distance between the CP and CG, the extra steady the bullet.

(Quick and stubby bullets will naturally have a shorter CP-CG lever, making them much less steady than lengthy, heavy-for-caliber trendy bullets that, amongst different issues, have an extended CP-CG lever.)

By eradicating lead from the entrance of the bullet and shifting the middle of gravity rearward, the 62-grain ELD-VT lengthened the CP-CG lever much more and that, mixed with the quick 1:7 twist, improves stability and accuracy.

ELD-VT Terminal Efficiency

One other advantage of that open-air cavity behind the polymer tip is that it initiates violent fragmentation on affect. On light-skinned recreation like coyotes, antelope, and deer this can result in devastating hemorrhaging.

I haven’t had an opportunity to hunt with this bullet but, however a bunch of my buddies have, and their studies have been universally optimistic.

The Magic Combo for After-hours Coyotes

If we got down to design the right cartridge and bullet for looking coyotes at evening, it will be laborious to enhance on the 22 ARC with the 62-grain ELD-VT. Will different cartridges and bullets work? After all. And I’m not about to inform you that your favourite heavy barreled varmint rifle is out of date. However I believe it’s truthful to say that the 22 ARC hits a candy spot like no different spherical in the intervening time.

• Works in AR-15 platform rifles making it useful and quick
• Has negligible recoil for fast follow-up pictures
• Delivers related trajectory and higher wind resistance than a .22-250 Remington
• ELD-VT bullet anchors coyotes rapidly with wonderful terminal ballistics
• Cartridge and bullet are inherently correct and steady

22 ARC Accuracy

Quite a few rifle producers have jumped on the 22 ARC bandwagon, however few rifles have been produced but. I bought a rifle from Proof Analysis, nevertheless, and have put an honest amount of rounds downrange by means of it.

Of the three manufacturing facility hundreds, I’ve been capable of take a look at two: the 88-grain ELD-M and the 62-grain ELD-VT. In whole I’ve shot 16 teams for accuracy, following the Outside Life protocol of 5-shot teams at 100 yards. I shot half with the 88s and half with the 62s. 

The common 5-shot accuracy at 100 yards of all of the teams is .852 inches. The 2 bullets shot practically identically, with the common of all teams with the 62-grain ELD-VT at .844 inches, and the common of all of the 88-grain ELD-M teams at .859 inches.

One factor that caught out at me was how constant all of the teams had been. Of the 16 teams, solely two measured over one inch—1.107 and 1.121 inches. The very best teams had been .556 inches and .614 inches. Every thing else fell neatly in between.  

Muzzle velocity of the 2 hundreds averaged 2713 fps for the 88-grain bullets and 3175 fps for the 62-grain ELD-VT. With the 88-grain ELD-M the acute spreads (ES) and customary deviations (SD) averaged 43.5 and 14.3, respectively. The ES of the 62-grainers averaged 60 and the SD averaged 17.7. All these figures are good for factory-loaded ammunition. 

Proof Elevation MTR Check Rifle

I’ve owned and shot a handful of Proof Elevation MTRs through the years. They’re stiff, succesful, useful, correct, and light-weight. If you happen to’re going to go together with a bolt gun for a varmint cartridge, it is a superb platform.

I did most of my capturing with a Banish Backcountry suppressor connected. Topped with a Nightforce 7-35×56 ATACR scope—a hefty however succesful brute—the rifle weighed 10 kilos, 13 ounces. Taking pictures this rig off sandbags generated hardly any recoil.

This rifle got here with a single-stack AICS journal made by MDT that had been modified with a spacer to take care of the stubby 22 ARC cartridge. It fed the brief spherical reliably and I had no biking points through the take a look at. 

22 ARC vs 22-250 Remington

Since one of many promoting factors of the 22 ARC is that it performs on par with the .22-250 Remington, I wished to check the 2 slightly extra carefully.

I’ve owned a Savage Mannequin 12 BVSS-S for a pair a long time, and that heavy-barreled single-shot .22-250 Remington has despatched extra prairie canine and floor squirrels to the Nice Alfalfa Subject within the Sky than I can tally. (Savage now not gives it in single-shot trim, however you will get it with a four-round journal within the Mannequin 12 BVSS.)

It has a 26-inch barrel with a 1:12 twist, which is definitely quicker than the usual 1:14 twist most old-school .22-250s include. 

That leisurely 1:12 twist is greatest suited to traditional .22-caliber varmint bullets within the 40- to 50-grain vary. It can nonetheless drive 55-grainers okay, however the precision begins to fall off. Bullets heavier than that gained’t stabilize sufficient to ship good accuracy and are additionally too lengthy to work properly in a typical .22-250 Remington chamber.

And to reply a query that’s certain to happen to the extra ballistically-savvy reader: No, you can’t run the 62-grain ELD-VT bullet in a .22-250. It is going to be too lengthy to chamber and gained’t stabilize. 

This goes for all of the bullets within the VT line. Whereas they could appear like a very good choice for legacy cartridges that predate the arrival of Trendy Cartridge Design as a result of their weights are consistent with what an older cartridge can shoot, that isn’t the case. Usually talking, they’re too lengthy to run in cartridges just like the .22-250 that had been constructed to drive shorter, lighter bullets as quick as potential. 

For this comparability, I shot some Winchester 55-grain Ballistic Silvertips and a few 40-grain varmint hundreds from Sig Sauer.

As you may see, the 22 ARC from the shorter barrel (20 inches versus 26 inches) does a very good job hanging with the a lot quicker .22-250. The 62-grain ELD-VT mainly runs neck and neck with the 55-grain Ballistic Silvertip, till round 700 yards at which level the Hornady VT bullet runs flatter.

It isn’t till about 900 yards that the 62-grain Hornady catches as much as the blazing quick 40-grain varmint bullet from Sig Sauer. And the 88-grain ELD-M lags behind all of them, solely besting the 55-grain .22-250 on the 1000-yard line.

However drop is simply a part of the story. Within the wind division, which is the actual key to long-range capturing, the 22 ARC beats the brakes off the .22-250 at each distance. 

The radically higher BCs on the Hornady projectiles give the 22 ARC larger wind forgiveness. Each 22 ARC hundreds have lower than 11 inches of drift at 400 yards, in comparison with the greater than 16 inches of drift within the .22-250. 

At prolonged distances the variations develop into extra pronounced. At 800 yards, the 22 ARC drifts about 50 inches, whereas the .22-250 hundreds drift 85 inches (55 grains) and 94 inches (40 grains). 

These numbers paint the image of how the 22 ARC achieves the efficiency objectives specified by its design.

From Russia With Love

I mentioned the 22 ARC and 6mm ARC each come from the 6.5 Grendel, and that’s true. However going again additional in time you’ll see that the unique father or mother case for all these cartridges is none aside from the 7.62x39mm, the traditional Soviet AK-47 navy cartridge.

The 7.62x39mm isn’t often known as an inherently correct cartridge— it was designed to be minute-of-insurgent on the battlefield—so it’d appear to be an odd selection the place precision is a aim.

However an offshoot of the 7.62x39mm was the 5.6x39mm, often known as the .220 Russian. And that’s a special story. The .220 Russian is essentially the most profitable father or mother case within the historical past of benchrest competitors. 

Different rounds based mostly on the .220 Russian embody the 6mm PPC (arguably essentially the most correct 100- to 300-yard cartridge on the planet), the .22 PPC — one other benchrest standout— and others.

So you may see why the .220 Russian held enchantment for Invoice Alexander, who created the Grendel, and for Hornady with the 22 and 6mm ARCs. 

Reloading the 22 ARC

Hornady is making 22 ARC dies—I’ve some on order—and the spherical ought to work properly with quite a lot of high quality powders. Whereas I wasn’t dissatisfied by the accuracy of my manufacturing facility ammo within the Proof Rifle, I’d wager actual cash that when I begin reloading the 22 ARC the accuracy will enhance considerably.

Powders to contemplate embody CFE223—which runs nice on progressive presses—Varget, H4350, Staball 6.5, Staball Match, and BL-C(2).

If you’re operating the 22 ARC by means of a gasoline gun, you’re going to wish to be aware of the SAMMI max strain of 52,000 psi and cargo accordingly. In case you have a bolt gun, you’ll have the ability to safely run at larger pressures, most likely on the order of 200 fps quicker than a gasoline gun from a given barrel size.

What the 22 ARC Does Effectively

The very best information is that the 22 ARC achieves what it claims it does. It shoots delicate, it’s correct, and it runs by means of AR-15 magazines and rifles. With the brand new VT line of bullets from Hornady it actually shines for work on predators and different recreation. 

The place the 22 ARC May Enhance

The most important downside is availability after all. It will be some time earlier than gun makers get 22 ARC chambered rifles to market in adequate numbers. There could be a pinch on finding ammo on-line and at shops as properly. 

Remaining Ideas 

Each time a brand new cartridge seems the most typical criticism (and query) is why? What’s the rationale? Why ought to we care? A big swath of shooters and hunters reflexively dismiss any new spherical as a result of they like no matter it’s they shoot, and don’t give a hoot about the rest. There’s no level in listening to these bellyachers.

However the 22 ARC does must reply that query from curious, however understandably skeptical, shooters contemplating a major outlay of cash to undertake the cartridge.

After capturing it, I get it. Sure, it’s a area of interest cartridge, and for the one who is deep into different centerfire 22s it most likely gained’t sway them to buy one. However for somebody who’s new to varmint capturing, or who actually desires to go laborious into looking with thermal scopes or who participates in competitions the place you need each benefit you may squeeze from an AR-15, it has its enchantment.

I doubt it’s going to catch hearth proper out of the gate, however I’m guessing it will be with us for a very good spell and can most likely eclipse a number of the different high-performance 22s in the marketplace.