Greetings from Washington State

[dfosland]

Obviously new to this forum, and wanting to say hello.

Been watching people with the ARC for a couple years, and finally pulled the trigger (yes, pun intended) and built one.  Will be digging through the reloading info people have posted, as I'm curious what everyone has come up with.

For reference, here's my build and intention, sage rats (think gopher or small prairie dog) in eastern Oregon.

American Rifle Company (yes, an ARC for an ARC) Coup De Gras action
Preferred Barrel Blanks prefit in M24 contour, 26" 1:7 twist
Triggertech Diamond Single Stage
MDT Timber Chassis
Vortex HS-T 6-24x50 scope.

Since I only have 2 weekends from build to use, and only 1 weekend to actually do anything, not able to do much for load development, so am going with a within spec ammo recipe:
Starline brass
Sierra HPBT 107gn
Varget 26.7 gr
CCI 400 (what I had available)

Did a quick break-in/test the other weekend with factory Hornady Black 105 HPBT, and while it wasn't the most stable sitting on a bag at center of gravity, and twitching like an addict, once zeroed, was able to punch about a 1" group at 100 yards with 10 rounds, so I'm happy at this point.  Now to test the generic load this weekend.

Last bit of info, the MDT loves AICS mags, and I didn't realize that the Coup De Gras is an AIAW cut, so I'm looking at having to trim the mag a tiny bit so that it can catch on the mag release, it feeds just fine, but I should hand hold it to make sure it doesn't fall out of the chassis.

Anyway, thanks for making it this far, have a great day, and it's time to head to the range.

[grayfox]

Welcome to the forum! The list looks good to me, I do like the preferred barrels, I have a couple of them. And the Vortex and trigger techs.
Honestly 26" sounds a tad long for me, that's not to knock it, just my own preference. Being a smaller cartridge, you need to watch out that you might run out of gas from lengths --
I've got a recipe for the 107 with Lever in my 22" preferred/Uintah bolt action, and in 22" 100% of the powder is burned up, in fact my grt plot says burnout happens at 16.1". Lever is one of the slower powders and is great in the 6 Arc. So as long as you continue to get MV from gas expansion (which you probably do) you should be ok... Varget is faster burn than lever however. The barrel's already cut so again, not trying to knock it. We'll be interested in your results. I'm sure it will be a shooter.

I'm hoping to load up some 95 Smk's in Varget for this little puppy this week.

[dfosland]

I used Varget because it has been reliable for me, in different temps, and I NEVER know what the weather is going to be like in eastern Oregon. Going to try the load this weekend, see how it groups and chronographs, I'm not expecting world shattering results, just happy ones.

Interesting thoughts about LeverRevolution, I only have a pound of that, but had almost 20 pounds of Varget, "had" being the operative word, after loading for 6ARC, 204 Ruger, and 17 Remington, yes, I like oddball cartridges, as I've also taken 17 Hornet along for this as well.

With regards to barrel length, I'm not carrying it anywhere, so I don't have to worry about mass, just aim. Also I shoot 50 BMG, so all these barrels feel "small".

[grayfox]

"Small"... ha! good comment. At least one thing, with a bolt action you can load a bit longer of OAL, giving you a tad more room.
Go nail some of those lil ratz!!!
Speaking of sage anything, a sage hen took out our car radiator many years ago, while we were living in Idaho, we were driving up to Montana for a weekend. We really like Idaho... except for those long cold winters.