22 ARC a better Mousetrap?

[mavracer]

The marketing is leaning in really hard to varmint hunting. It will be interesting to see how that turns out for them since the world of varmint hunting, and hunting in general seams to be really shrinking. Personally when I was doing a lot of varmint hunting I always thought even a 223 is pretty overpowered as a varmint round. Even a 22 hornet is absolutely deadly out to the distance that I did 98% of my shooting, so I am not in the market for a more powerful varmint gun than a 223. If I lived somewhere where I needed more range than a 223 I would probably use a 6mm arc, or for a bolt gun I would probably just use my 6.5 creedmoor.

I think at this point the marketing departments are just throwing spit balls and don't care if they stick or not, cause they're already working on the next big thing.
As long as some consumers fall for 50-100 fps there's no reason for them to stop.
The 22 ARC is just another in a line, it'll get bought by a few but ultimately most will just use that nifty new 62gr bullet in a 5.56 and be happy.
I love my Valkyrie but it doesn't make sense to me as a varmint round, making the case short enough to fit the long VLD type bullets takes away from it's powder capacity for varmint bullets. I really think the problem with the Valkyrie wasn't necessarily the support but it all stemmed from the 90gr SMK, it's really IMHO a poor choice for the Valkyrie, the 80gr class of VLD's are much better.
The FGMM 80.5 gr Berger load came too late and had poor timing of being introduced right before another ammo crunch.

 

[jmorris]

I’m pretty confused why we need to have 224 valk, 22 nosler, and 22 arc which are all practically the same thing. Of course they have to keep inventing new stuff to sell us but it’s pretty egregious in this case.

Well, the 300 fireball, 300/221, 300 whisper all didn’t do as well as the 300 blk and they all shoot the same.

 

[mavracer]

Eta, found another article, 3300 with the 62 eldvt 24" tube, puts it squarely between the valkyrie and .22-250....

???
The Hornady 224 Valkyrie 60gr Varmint Express load is advertised at the same 3300 fps.
It would seem our splitting hairs is down to a couple grains.
Bottom line
5% more capacity ~ 5% more pressure

 

[horsey300]

???
The Hornady 224 Valkyrie 60gr Varmint Express load is advertised at the same 3300 fps.
It would seem our splitting hairs is down to a couple grains.
Bottom line
5% more capacity ~ 5% more pressure

I'm willing to believe the ammo numbers, I was going off of my handloads.

 

[IndianaBoy]

The history of the 6.5 CM and to a lesser extent, the 6 ARC, show the opposite. They sell a ton of factory ammo.

6 ARC brass seemed impossible to find a few months ago in any kind of quantity so I just ordered 1k of the Hornady match ammo. I'm still waiting on my Bartlein barrel from Compass Lake so I have no idea how it shoots yet. But if it shoots well I will probably just keep buying factory ammo. I don't enjoy reloading for extreme precision. Just too time consuming. Although I may find it necessary depending on how well the factory stuff shoots.

 

[mavracer]

I'm willing to believe the ammo numbers, I was going off of my handloads.

My point was that the 22 ARC really isn't "squarely" between the Valk and 22/250.

The SPC vs Grendel case battle has been well played out in the wildcat world for decades. There's really just not much difference when held to the length that fits a stanag mag well.
Ultimately the 22 ARC will suffer the same fate as the Valk it's doomed to be a niche cartridge because the vast majority will keep shooting 5.56.

 

[dh1633pm]

Not interested. Don’t need the added expense. If I need 22-250 performance, I’ll just dust off the 22-250. I could see it makes sense for those not already invested elsewhere. Otherwise, I’ll pass.