New Hornady ‘The Hole Story’ writer Andrea Bogard shares how Hornady helped change her mind on AR platforms. In her words: “AR(C) — 15 — when a beloved platform is paired with ARC ballistic performance, gunpowder grins are a given!”

A walk through my personal gun closet will yield an ADHD indicative variety of bolt rifles, break-action shotguns, EDC pistol options beside classic wheel guns and a couple of carefully selected AR style goodies. My personal rifle preferences lean toward classic safari styling with upleveled wood and unique finish details.

In shotguns, I lean into over-under or side by sides (double guns). I love the clean simplicity, reliability and ergonomics inherent to the interface. Additionally, I don’t like to spend my shooting and hunting excursions picking up hulls off the ground…

Given those personality quirks, AR style rifles have not interested me overly much. One of the main reasons is reliability. With a lot more moving parts and ammunition inconsistencies, AR platforms have not held my focus. Here’s where Hornady helped change that.

I was wrapping up a story on the 22 ARC from Hornady as paired with a Ruger American Gen II rifle. Intrigued by the cartridge and feeling somewhat frisky, I decided I wanted to take the 22 ARC out to play in a gas gun. And so it began…

Being somewhat of an AR neophyte, I wanted professional expertise for this build. The 22 ARC has such vast ballistic capabilities, I wanted to be sure that whatever I put together showcased this sufficiently. I reached out to Helanbak Arms in Mississippi. They make high quality AR style systems with a mid-line price tag. I wanted quality and accuracy without a massive investment for purposes of this project. And here’s why.

The ARC Family Philosophy

Let’s talk about the ARC family for a moment. ARC stands for Advanced Rifle Cartridge. Hornady conceived this cartridge concept to serve as a gold standard of quality, reliability, consistency and precision within a broad spectrum of firearms. The focus of the ARC family of cartridges is functional performance out of a variety of platforms and price points. Basically, one doesn’t need to build a multi-zero custom rifle system to successfully enjoy top-tier gunpowder induced grins.

This was the first ARC family member I had spent time with. I now had a chance to enjoy an apples-to-apples comparison of a caliber across two different platforms. I was curious to see how the 22 ARC performed in a gas gun. In order to streamline the process, I used the same two types of ammunition:

• Hornady 62 grain ELD-VT V-Match
• Hornady 80 grain ELD-X

Running both suppressed (same suppressor), same ammunition and similar weight guns, the results were interesting.

• Ruger American Gen II scoped; unloaded; no suppressor — 8 lbs 6 oz.
• Helanbak Arms 22 ARC AR-15 platform scoped; unloaded; no suppressor — 9 lbs 4 oz.
• The suppressor was the Silencer Central Banish 30.

First, recoil, while negligible in the bolt gun was non-existent in an AR platform. With similar weight rifles, but the bias leaning toward the AR, this was anticipated.

Second, noise. The bolt platform was predictably quieter — both from a function and execution perspective. AR platforms are inherently noisier critters when it comes to accomplishing the same things.

Let’s talk accuracy. The Ruger American Gen II made ragged hole groupings at 100 yards and close clusters to 500. The AR was slightly more open, but still highly functional and accurate to 500 yards with huntable precision.

Reliability. This has been my major sticking point when it comes to AR platforms. The Hornady ARC ammunition cycled, ejected and rechambered with near monotonous predictability. The only issues experienced occurred during extreme cold temps with a dirty gun. After a good fluff and buff, we were back to flawless functionality.

It has been said that only accurate guns are interesting. To paraphrase Colonel Townsend Whelen, I believe only functional ammunition is interesting… The ARC ammunition line is predicated on accuracy, consistency and functionality regardless of price tag or pedigree. I don’t know about you, but I find that very interesting.

The Rest of the Story…

So, what’s the bottom line? Thanks to the ARC family of ammo, I might just take some more tours through AR land. Being able to compare the same ammunition in two different platforms with consistent results gave me quite a few gunpowder grins!

What’s your next Hornady adventure?

For more information, check out Hornady.com

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