Midwest Gun Works

Gun Culture Question:
If you had told someone, in the 2000's, that you were building a hunting AR they would have looked at you like you were crazy.

It seems like more and more people are building uppers or complete ri**es specifically for hunting.

What do you think has been the biggest driver of that change?

Visual parts list for the Weatherby Vanguard upgrades from our last reel.

This r***e came in on the GunXChange program, and with just one of the upgrades we were able to address two issues.

1) Internal Mag w/ Hinged Floor Plate
They have their merits and use cases, but, for the sake of ease of reloading and unloading, we wanted an external detachable magazine.

2) Stock Comfort / Lack of Adjustability
The original one was the grey polymer stock from the factory.

Upgrade Solution:
The MDT Field Stock for the Howa 1500 was the obvious, cost conscious choice for this. The stock replaces the original bottom metal and allowed us to use AICS pattern magazines. It also gave us an adjustable stock comb and length of pull spacers that can be adjusted so there's a consistent cheek weld and eye placement each time someone gets behind the glass.

This thing should be a sweet little shooter now.

The 6.5 before Creedmoor… .260 Re*****on

Anytime something gets posted about a 6.5 Creedmoor, there will inevitably be comments saying the .260 Re*****on is better—but if that's true, why does the 6.5 Creedmoor even exist when the .260 Re*****on has been around a decade longer?

Before the .260 Re*****on designation, wildcatting circles used a few different names for the round, including 6.5 Panther and 6.5-08. 6.5mm bullet and base on the venerable .308 case—this should have been a home run, right?

There was trouble from the start. Re*****on selected a twist rate that was too slow to stabilize the 120 gr. bullets, and the revised 1:9 twist left the 140 gr. bullets options “hit or miss”. This left an initial impression of .260 Rem. being inaccurate, a broad sentiment that it could never really shake.

Hornady’s release of 6.5 Creedmoor would finish off any remaining hope .260 Re*****on had for widespread adoption. Aside from the massive marketing push, the 6.5 Creedmoor’s case dimensions were developed with long, heavy-for-caliber, high-BC bullets in mind. Because the .260 Rem has a longer case length, it can require seating those high-BC bullets much deeper than intended to fit into a SA magazine.

That doesn’t mean the 6.5 Creedmoor is inherently better. Those high-BC bullets are great and really shine at long range, but those benefits are arguably negligible at typical hunting distances. Using the same hunting loads, .260 Re*****on actually has a slight advantage over Creedmoor, but it is hard to say if you'd notice any real performance difference in the field.

So which one should you choose for hunting?

The correct answer: either one.

If you enjoy long-range target shooting and regularly go out 600-1000 yards, the high-BC bullet options of 6.5 Creedmoor might make it a better choice for you.

If you hand-load and like being a little different from everyone, then the .260 Re*****on may be the right call.
There is so much more nuance and history around the .260 Re*****on that had to be left out to make it all fit into one post.

Let us know what info we left out that should have been included!

The Great American Cartridge, still standing after 120 years…

The modern cartridges can’t hog all the spotlight; legacy calibers have their place, and no other legacy cartridge has cemented its place in history and its place in the American hunter’s safe quite like .30-06 Springfield, better known as “thirty-aught-six”.

Some of you may be surprised to know the hunting cartridge that is “as American as apple Pie” owes a lot of credit to a German ballistics expert—an ironic fact in retrospect.

Before the .30-06, the bullets used in U.S.-manufactured cartridges were large, heavy, and rounded. The 1903 Springfield was originally chambered for the .30-03 Springfield. This short-lived service round used the same long rounded bullet as its predecessor, the .30-40 Krag. Seeing that the .30-03 was vastly inferior, the Ordnance Department developed their new .30 cal bullet using the “spitzer” design and officially adopted it in 1906. The caliber and year of adoption gave the cartridge its common name, .30-06.

Adopting the round also proved to be a turning point for hunting fi****ms in the U.S. when the surplus of 1903 ri**es chambered in .30-06 hit the civilian market. In addition to private citizens sporterizing their surplus Springfield 1903s, Re*****on used surplus M1917 Enfield parts to create a commercial hunting r***e, the Model 30.

In the cartridge's 120-year life, it has been an offering for most, if not all, hunting r***e models put into production, regardless of the action type: bolt action, semi-auto, break action, falling block, pump action, straight pull, and even lever action if fed from a box magazine. Because of the cartridge's popularity and the sheer number of ri**es chambered for it, it's the one box of ammo you are sure to find wherever you go.

Everyone knows this round, even if they don’t like hunting or even fi****ms as much as we do. If you don’t believe that, go ask your non gun/hunting friend to name a hunting cartridge.

It may be long in the tooth, but this round isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. New hunters gravitate toward it because of the name recognition, and hunters who have depended on it for decades will continue to.

All Hail the Small Frame King…?

Shooters boast about its long-range performance, with many reportedly taking it out to 1,000 yds.

However, in those cases, it is typically steel targets. There is a big difference between making steel ring and ethically harvesting live game. Could the 6 ARC be suitable for both?

The 6 ARC builds on the rounds that preceded it, the 6.5 Grendel, which itself is based on the .220 Russian. Hornady took the Grendel case, necked it down to 6mm, and set the shoulder back slightly.

At first glance, you’ll notice the odd proportions of the 6 ARC: a short, chubby case that seems completely at odds with the sleek aerodynamic projectile at the end of it. The 1.49” case length allows for the use of heavy-for-caliber, high BC bullets while still being short enough to reliably function within the AR-15 platform. Something traditionally reserved for larger-frame semi-autos and bolt guns. This gives the 6 ARC less bullet drop and wind drift than .223 and half the recoil of .308, while still shooting flatter and staying supersonic longer than .308.

Many hunters know the 6mm bullet is a more-than-capable projectile, as it was, for a long time, the most commonly recommended choice as a first deer r***e for youth hunters. But the .243 Wi******er has a larger case that holds more powder and, because of that, has a higher velocity than 6 ARC but can’t be used in the AR platform.

Using the Hornady Precision Hunter with the efficient ELD-X 103 gr bullet, we stay well above 1800 FPS out to 500 yds. At that velocity, we should expect consistent ELD-X expansion on impact. In addition, the commonly cited 1000 lb energy threshold isn't crossed until around 450 yards. Keep in mind that the 1,000 lb threshold is more of a rule of thumb than a law. Proper expansion and pe*******on depth play a bigger role in a round's terminal performance, but we’ll let you guys fight about it in the comments.

There are just a few of the reasons why the 6 ARC has become an increasingly common choice for those hunters looking for a r***e setup that is light, compact, and light-recoiling in both AR’s and bolt guns.

This may be the most underrepresented deer hunting cartridge...

The humble 350 Legend isn’t talked about as much as it should be. Like the round they shoot, the hunters who use it show up to put in the hard work without making a big fuss about it—something the PRC guys wouldn’t know about.

All jokes aside, the 350 Legend flies a bit under the radar. For new hunters, it doesn’t have that long-established history and instant recognition like 30-06 or .270. To be fair, it's only been around for 7 years, which is very young compared to the 100+ years of others.

Maybe because it was intended as a modern answer to regulations in “straight wall states” like Indiana or Ohio, many hunters outside those states haven't given it a proper look because they aren’t handicapped by regulations that limit or ban bottleneck cartridges for hunting.

Yes, the straight-wall cartridge is an older design and cannot generate chamber pressures as high as the bottleneck design. And yes, you will get a more efficient, faster, flatter-shooting bullet if you choose a round with a bottleneck case—but do you really need it?

Some of you do; don’t get us wrong. Some of you have the privilege of hunting beautiful open country with strong crosswinds or massive cornfields, and you take wild game at 200+ yards every single time.

However, if nearly every deer you have harvested, or plan to, is going to be about 150 yards or less, 350 Legend may be worth considering.