If the ammo aisle feels more like an ice cream freezer these days, Andrea Bogard has found the newest flavour worth scooping up: Hornady’s 6 GT — the “Mango, Tango, Bango, Berry” of ballistic brilliance.

A stroll through the ammo department is starting to look like an excursion through the ice cream aisle at the grocery store – a flavor for every taste, fat content preference (just spit out the chunks), non-dairy ice cream enthusiast, anti-gluten afficionado, sugar-free focused, and of course, the vegan ice cream consumer. The bottom line? There’s something for everyone. The 6 GT from Hornady is another fire-power-focused flavor looking to tantalize the palette of the precision rifle enthusiast. Let’s take a look at this interesting ballistic offering and the flavor profile that inspired it. 

“Mango, Tango, Bango, Berry”

As a child of the 80s, McHale’s Navy was a staple in the VHS cabinet (those clunky plastic things before blueray and Amazon Prime). The first time I read about the 6 GT, I wanted to know what the “GT” stood for. Am I the only one that thought “ice cream flavors!” when they heard it stood for George and Tom? Just me? Okay then…

I’m a big fan of acronyms (and ice cream). The more I learned about the 6 GT, the more I thought of that iconic (perhaps fictitious; but I’m hopeful) ice cream flavor. And here’s why: 

Mango - Magazine

The 6 GT was developed with several important ballistic characteristics in mind. Based on our flavor profile, we’re starting with “magazine.” George and Tom wanted a cartridge that was unerringly AICS magazine compatible. The dimensions and geometry of the 6 GT are focused on flawless proportions of shoulder, neck, angle and overall length. 

Many 6 MM wildcats melted into the background due to feeding issues (see what I did there?). Why? The delicate ballistic balance wasn’t achieved. The 6 GT focused on overcoming this issue and predicated its design on proper feeding and cycling. 

A couple of the predecessors to the 6 GT battled delicate magazine tuning and persnickety feeding processes. Additionally, ammunition sourcing was both laborious and delicate. The 6 GT now has the full production resources of Hornady behind it, bringing quality, consistency and availability to this inherently reliable and high-performing cartridge. 

Tango – Twist

The next item in our flavor profile is twist. George and Tom wanted to create a cartridge that not only fed reliably, but maximized the full capability of the 6 MM speed potential. The standard twist is between 1:7 and 1:8, with 1:7.5 being a solid middle ground to get the most out of the commercially offered bullets.  

Bango! 

If it doesn’t go “bang,” the rest of the process is irrelevant. The 6 GT is designed with a small rifle primer pocket. The unique geometry of the 6 GT case allows for slightly expanded case capacity over some of its predecessors. This means it can go faster. 

Speed has a couple of bi-products, though. First, is recoil. The 6 MM diameter is inherently soft-shooting, but even more so out of traditional 6 GT platforms based on purposed. Second is barrel life. The 6 GT is gentle on barrel life. Through careful engineering of case dimensions to achieve ideal pressures and burn rates, this round will outlast many of its predecessors in standard barrel life. 

Berry – The cherry on top…

Thanks to George and Tom, precision rifle enthusiasts and competitors have a reliable feeding, low recoil, fast and highly accurate cartridge. And, thanks to Hornady, you don’t have to handload to maximize the power, potential and fun of the 6 GT.  

Like ice cream flavors, there really is a ballistic favorite for everyone. The 6 GT is fun to shoot, accurate and feeds perfectly! The best part? I can buy the ammo off the shelf. I’ll definitely be adding the “Mango, Tango, Bango, Berry” of bullets to my shooting diet. How about you?

What’s your next Hornady adventure?