Why it matters: Small cartridges on small bolt actions are a growing corner of the hunting-rifle market, and this episode gives a full parts list, with prices and problems, for one finished example that has already taken game.
Episode 255 of The Hornady Podcast, posted October 1, has host Seth Swerczek interviewing Kyle Brockhaus, who works in Hornady's tech department answering customer calls and emails and fielding questions from law enforcement agencies. The subject is a bolt-action 6mm ARC hunting rifle that Brockhaus built on a Howa Mini Action. Swerczek notes that it closely resembles the mini-action 6mm ARC rifle built by Hornady's Preston, featured in an earlier episode.
Brockhaus says he started the build around 2022, before he joined Hornady, while working as a machine operator at a Nebraska shop. He describes himself as an adult-onset hunter whose first rifle was a muzzleloader. His goal, he says, was "just like a mega ultralight rifle" for mule deer, whitetail and possibly antelope.
Howa Mini Action barreled action and Proof Research barrel
The build began as a Howa Mini Action barreled action in 6.5 Grendel, bought from Brownells. Brockhaus says he took the factory barrel off right away, and on the podcast he says he now wishes he had shot it first. He chose the Mini Action for its compact size, and he says cost also played a part, putting the barreled action at about $400.
The replacement barrel is a 20-inch Proof Research carbon-fiber barrel in a full Sendero contour with a 1:7.5 twist, chambered with a standard SAAMI reamer by a gunsmith about an hour and fifteen minutes from where he lived, working on a manual lathe. Brockhaus stamped "6 ARC" onto the barrel himself with a letter-punch set. He says he chose 20 inches because a cartridge this size gains little velocity beyond that length, and because he planned to run a suppressor.
He kept the Mini Action's factory two-stage HACT trigger, which he puts at about 3.5 pounds and has not adjusted. Both men spend time on the action's three-position safety, which can lock the bolt closed. Swerczek argues it matters most on long walks, when a sling carry can press the bolt handle against the hip and open it.
Stocky's VG Mini stock, bottom metal and optic
The stock is a Stocky's VG Mini, a vertical-grip carbon-fiber stock that Brockhaus says was marketed at 20 ounces. The barrel did not fit the varmint barrel channel he ordered. His employer at the time would not let him put carbon fiber in the shop's mill, he says, so he opened the channel by hand with a Dremel tool over about an hour. He finished the raw carbon with a textured Rust-Oleum desert paint and a clear coat.
Brockhaus says the factory plastic bottom metal cracks if its screws are torqued past 45 inch-pounds, and that he learned this by cracking one. He replaced it with a Jefferson Outdoors hinged floorplate. He names Oregon Gunsmithing as the only other maker he knows of for the Howa Mini and says both sell out quickly.
“The build began as a 6.5 Grendel barreled action, and the factory barrel came off before he ever fired it.”
J.D. Whitfield, The ReticleOn top is a Leupold VX-3HD 4.5-14x40 with a 30 mm tube, a dial-up turret and side focus, in Talley lightweight rings, which he says cost about $45. He says the scope's elevation travel gets him to about 600 yards, past the range he plans to shoot. The rifle carries a short-configuration Dead Air Nomad suppressor, direct-threaded, under a Cole-TAC cover. A bipod mounts through a Salmon River Solutions Picatinny adapter, because he says the stock's sling-swivel studs stood too proud for the bipod maker's stud mount to tighten. Brockhaus estimates the loaded rifle at "right at seven" pounds, perhaps 7 pounds 4 ounces.
6mm ARC handloads, factory 103 gr ELD-X and an antelope hunt
Brockhaus says he handloads. His usual load is Hornady's 90-grain CX monolithic copper bullet, which his notes put at about 2,925 feet per second, and he says he would not shoot it past about 400 yards. For a hunt where he expected longer shots, he tried handloading the 103-grain bullet with StaBall Match, a powder new to him. He says he started his charge too high and saw pressure signs right away. He switched to factory 103-grain Precision Hunter ammunition.
With that ammunition, he says, he killed an antelope buck in Utah at about 275 yards, shooting off a bag in a position he credits to precision-rifle competition practice. He says he heard no impact. The buck ran about 10 yards over a rise and was found dead with a lung hit. Asked the show's closing question, which cartridge and bullet he would keep if limited to one, he picks the 6mm ARC with the 90-grain CX, adding that elk would make him nervous with it.
The episode includes ad reads for Hornady's Vexus vault doors, V-Match ammunition and Click Adjust seating micrometer. Swerczek closes by urging listeners who are undecided about building a rifle to try it.
For context
- Hornady introduced the 6mm ARC in 2020 as a cartridge sized for AR-15 actions and magazines, and it has since been adopted in small bolt-action rifles.
- The Howa Mini Action is a short action in the Howa 1500 family, and its barreled actions ship with a HACT two-stage trigger and a three-position safety that locks the bolt.
- The Hornady Podcast is produced by Hornady, which makes both the cartridge and the bullets discussed, and the guest is a Hornady employee.
- An earlier episode of the show, Ep. 171, covered a similar Mini Action 6mm ARC rifle built by Hornady's Preston.
