The 6mm ARC round has caught the attention of many serious shooters and manufacturers here in the U.S. It is an intriguing round with exceptional potential. The challenge has been to get this round into a gun worthy of its performance and capable of getting everything we can out of the round. Enter Wilson Combat and their new 6mm ARC Tactical Hunter AR. I had the chance to shoot a couple of rifles chambered in 6mm ARC, but when I heard Bill Wilson turn his attention to it, I knew something special was coming down the line. Wilson Combat does nothing halfway, and their new rifle was one I had to get a closer look at. The Wilson Combat 6mm ARC Tactical Hunter

Wilson Combat 6mm ARC Tactical Hunter – Lightweight Tack Driver

Wilson Combat has extensive experience developing precision AR 15 platform rifles, and the Tactical Hunter in 6mm ARC seems to follow that lineage. The rifle has a flat-top lightweight billet upper and a well-finished billet lower receiver. The heart of the accuracy formula on this gun is the barrel. Wilson uses its own 18″ Tactical Hunter fluted match-grade barrel. It is rifled in a 1-7.5″ twist to maximize the accuracy and stabilization of the round.

On top of that sits a mid-length gas system with a low-profile gas block. The barrel is threaded at 5/8″ x 24 if you want to run it suppressed or add a muzzle device. The barrel is covered by Wilson’s 12.6-inch M-LOK rail with its rubberized rail covers. A quick note on these covers. This small addition is typical of Wilson Combat and its attention to small details. I have run several Wilson rifles, and these covers are extremely comfortable and allow solid, no-slip purchase on the gun. The pistol grip is the Wilson Combat/BCM Starburst Gunfighter Grip, which looks as good as it performs. Returning to the rifle, we find the six-position Rogers/Wilson Super-Stoc. The rifle is wrapped up in a camo Armor-Tuff finish applied over a hard-anodized finish on the upper and lower receivers.

The 6mm Advanced Rifle Cartridge

Hornady was kind enough to send me some ammo for the testing. A little background on this unique round is needed to understand what is happening here. On the surface, it may appear that the cartridge designer Hornady just decided to push out a new round. This is not remotely the case. The 6mm Advanced Rifle Cartridge (ARC) was designed to meet a request by the U.S. Military. The 6mm ARC has unofficially been in service with U.S. Special Operations for almost two years. The exact units using the round are a piece of close-hold information for Hornady, and they say it is being used by a “notable Department of Defense (DOD) entity.”

The 6mm ARC is based on the 6.5 Grendel. The designers necked down the cartridge to 6mm, then pulled the shoulder back closer to the case head .030-inch. The case was also shortened to help make it compatible with low-drag bullets. The question most people ask is what is the goal of the 6mm ARC? It is the same thing that every cartridge designer has ever chased. A lighter round that performs like a heavier round. The 6mm ARC is designed to do what much larger cartridges can. It is built to deliver substantially better ballistics than the 223 and offers a lighter gun/ammo system with 30% less weight than the AR-10/308 Win system. In short, the round is designed to be effective in combat situations. With the bullet design, the 6mm ARC does this well. It stays supersonic past 1000 yards and has demonstrated solid accuracy.

Wilson Combat 6mm ARC Trigger

The mix of this unique round and the hyper-performance characteristics of Wilson Combat rifles made for an interesting range day. My range day focus would be absolute accuracy, so I would be camped out on a bench. My first impressions of the rifle were more than positive. The attention to detail, perfect fit, finish, and performance make this gun a winner out of the box. Performance-wise, it is a shooter. Wilson is using their TTU (Tactical Trigger Unit) M2 with about a 4-pound break on the gun, which fits well. Remember that this is a gun with Hunter in the name. While a 2-pound precision trigger would be nice, it goes against the intent of the rifle design.

I ran two versions of 6mm ARC ammo for the testing. The Hornady 108gr ELD Match and their 103gr ELD-X Precision Hunter. Both performed extremely well, with the Match ultimately giving me the best group at ¾ of an inch at 100 yards. This round and rifle, however, are not meant to be locked into 100-yard shooting. It is designed for long-range performance, so the steel was loaded and placed out downrange. I took the time to build the round and rifle into my ballistic app, and it did a pretty decent job.

Going the Distance with Wilson Combat 6mm ARC

The first up was 300 yards, essentially just to test my calculations. The rifle printed a tight grey lead group on the steel, and I quickly moved on. 400, 500, and 600 produced the same results. The furthest shots I had for this range were at 800 yards. I used ¾ IPSC silhouette steel, which looked tiny to my less-than-youthful eyes. While I had no wind at the gun, I quickly saw dust swirling after my first shot and miss. A quick hold adjustment to the left edge for wind and my next four shots rang the steel center mass. Oddly, this was very frustrating because I wanted to run the rifle even further to see its outer limits. However, time and light were against me. Shooting half a mile would be the limit for the day.

Exceptional Performance

This rifle is a long-range shooter without a doubt, even with a 16-inch barrel. The 6mm ARC was originally designed around an 18-inch barrel because of military applications. However, Jayden Quinlan or Hornady shared that they tested up to 26-inch barrels down to 12 inches. What they found was a very little deviation in performance. The Wilson Combat 6mm ARC Tactical Hunter is the best-performing 6mm ARC rifle I have run. This gun is desirable in my books because it is not designed as a bench queen. This rifle is meant to be as effective at taking game as shooting small groups. Wilson Combat has done its reputation well with this rifle, and I am sure it will be a hit.

Specs

For more information, visit:https://wilsoncombat.com/