Hornady built the 22 ARC for the AR-15 and said so plainly: in their own words it is “a compact cartridge that fits into your AR-15 but is equally at home in a bolt action”, bringing performance “that rivals the 22-250, to the AR-15 platform.”
Four years on, the catalog lists six rifles chambered for it and not one of them is an AR.
The rifles
| Rifle | Barrel | Twist | Weight | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruger American Generation II Predator Burnt Bronze Cerakote Bolt Action Rif | 22in | 1:7 | 6.7 lb | 10+1 |
| CVA Scout Matte Blued Single Shot Rifle | 20in | 1:7 | 6 lb | 1 |
| Ruger American Generation II Standard Gun Metal Gray Cerakote Bolt Action R | 20in | 1:7 | 6.5 lb | 10+1 |
| Savage 110 Trail Blazer Flat Dark Gray Bolt Action Rifle | 20in | 1:7 | 7.13 lb | 4+1 |
| Savage 110 Trail Blazer XP Flat Dark Gray Bolt Action Rifle | 20in | 1:7 | 8.27 lb | 4+1 |
| Ruger American Generation II Ranch Cobalt Cerakote Bolt Action Rifle - 16.1 | 16.1in | 1:7 | 6.7 lb | 10+1 |
Three makers: Ruger three, Savage two, CVA one. Three of the six feed from a ten-round AR-pattern magazine — all three Rugers — so the platform’s influence is in the feed rather than the action. That is the same pattern as the 6mm ARC, which at least has two semi-automatics to its name.
The ARs that have not arrived
This is the odd thing about the cartridge and it is worth being straight about. The 22 ARC was designed around the AR-15’s magazine box — that is what the name means, Advanced Rifle Cartridge — and the AR-15 is the platform predator hunters have been moving toward. Yet the rifles being sold are bolt guns.
It is not unique. Across the modern varmint cartridges in this catalog:
- 22 ARC — six rifles, no ARs
- 6mm ARC — fourteen rifles, two ARs
- .224 Valkyrie, built purely for AR-15 predator work — no rifles at all
- .223 — 159 ARs, and they are duty rifles: 16 inch barrels at 1:7
So the AR predator rifle is easier to find as an idea than as a product. If you want one in 22 ARC today, you are building an upper rather than buying a rifle — which, judging by search behavior on the 6mm ARC, is exactly what people are doing.
One caveat, stated on every page in this silo: this is a general outdoor retailer. An AR specialist would stock differently, and complete uppers in 22 ARC certainly exist.
Twist and barrel
Every one is 1:7, which is right — the 22 ARC exists to shoot long, heavy .22 bullets, and the load data tops out at 88 grain. A .22-250 at 1:14 cannot touch that; this is the whole argument for the cartridge.
Barrels are shorter: one 22 inch, three 20 inch, one 16.1 inch. Hornady’s published velocities come from a 24 inch barrel, so as with the 6mm ARC the figures on the box were measured in something longer than any rifle here.
For coyotes
The 22 ARC is genuinely well suited to coyotes — a .22 bore, so less bullet than a 6mm, with the twist to shoot high-BC bullets that hold up in wind. That is the combination this site has been arguing for on the .22-250 page, where only eight of forty rifles have a twist fast enough to do it.
The reservation is the ammunition rather than the rifles. Of the five factory loads, two are match, two are hunting and one is a varmint load — the same split as the 6mm ARC. It is a young cartridge and the varmint shelf has not filled in yet. If you handload, that is not a problem. If you do not, check what you can actually buy before you commit.
How this was checked
The six rifles were listed in a major US retailer’s catalog on 4 September 2026, across both its bolt-action and semi-automatic categories, with barrel, twist, weight and capacity taken from that retailer’s published specification.
A catalog listing is not a stock check. Firearms there are handled through the stores, so every rifle shows the same state whatever its availability.
No paid links. The rifle tables here are editorial. For the cartridge comparison, start at the hub.