Hornady built the 6mm ARC in 2020 for the AR-15, and the design brief was reach rather than speed: a fat, heavy, very slippery 6mm bullet going moderately fast, which beats a light bullet going quickly once you are past 300 yards.
It works. The 108 grain Match is still carrying 931 foot-pounds at 500 yards — more than double what the best .223 load manages, out of the same rifle platform.
Five factory loads exist. One of them is a varmint load.
The loads
The Application column is Hornady’s own classification, taken from the product line rather than from my opinion of it.
| Brand | Load | Grain | Bullet | Application | Test barrel | Muzzle | 300 yd | 500 yd | Muzzle energy | 500 yd energy | Drop at 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hornady | V-Match | 80 | ELD-VT | Varmint | 24” | 3,020 | 2,359 | 1,970 | 1,620 | 689 | -40.3” |
| Hornady | Custom | 90 | CX | Hunting | 24” | 2,950 | 2,300 | 1,918 | 1,739 | 735 | -42.4” |
| Hornady | Precision Hunter | 103 | ELD-X | Hunting | 24” | 2,800 | 2,288 | 1,979 | 1,793 | 895 | -43.7” |
| Hornady | BLACK | 105 | BTHP | Match | 24” | 2,750 | 2,260 | 1,963 | 1,763 | 898 | -44.9” |
| Hornady | Match | 108 | ELD Match | Match | 24” | 2,750 | 2,265 | 1,971 | 1,813 | 931 | -44.8” |
Read the muzzle velocities and then read the 500 yard column, because they tell opposite stories. The 80 grain leaves 270 feet per second faster than the 108 and arrives at 500 yards level with it — 1,970 against 1,971. Every foot per second of that head start is gone by half a kilometre. That is the whole argument for the cartridge in one table: bullet shape beats muzzle speed at distance, and the 6mm ARC exists to carry shape.
What that means for coyotes
The 80 grain V-Match, and it is the right answer rather than the only one. It is the fastest load here, the flattest to 300, and the only bullet in the list designed to come apart on a small animal.
The heavier loads will all kill a coyote and three of them will do it with a bullet built to hold together through a deer’s shoulder — the same trade-off the 22 ARC table shows on a smaller case. On a 30-pound animal that means a pass-through and a ruined hide.
One caution the table does not show. The heavy end of this list needs a fast enough twist to stabilize, and the 6mm ARC was designed around one — but barrels vary and an older or slower one may not shoot the 103 and 108 grain loads well. Check your barrel’s twist before buying a case of the heavy stuff. The 80 grain is the load least likely to give you trouble either way.
The full chart
Velocity, energy and trajectory from the muzzle to 500 yards, every load. It scrolls sideways.
| Load | Grain | Bullet | Application | Muzzle | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | Muzzle energy | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | Zero | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hornady V-Match | 80 | ELD-VT | Varmint | 3,020 | 2,788 | 2,569 | 2,359 | 2,160 | 1,970 | 1,620 | 1,381 | 1,172 | 989 | 829 | 689 | -1.5 | 1.5 | 0 | -6.8 | -19.8 | -40.3 |
| Hornady Custom | 90 | CX | Hunting | 2,950 | 2,722 | 2,506 | 2,300 | 2,104 | 1,918 | 1,739 | 1,481 | 1,255 | 1,077 | 885 | 735 | -1.5 | 1.6 | 0 | -7.1 | -20.5 | -42.4 |
| Hornady Precision Hunter | 103 | ELD-X | Hunting | 2,800 | 2,623 | 2,452 | 2,288 | 2,130 | 1,979 | 1,793 | 1,573 | 1,375 | 1,197 | 1,038 | 895 | -1.5 | 1.8 | 0 | -7.6 | -21.8 | -43.7 |
| Hornady BLACK | 105 | BTHP | Match | 2,750 | 2,580 | 2,417 | 2,260 | 2,108 | 1,963 | 1,763 | 1,552 | 1,362 | 1,190 | 1,036 | 898 | -1.5 | 1.9 | 0 | -7.8 | -22.4 | -44.9 |
| Hornady Match | 108 | ELD Match | Match | 2,750 | 2,582 | 2,421 | 2,265 | 2,115 | 1,971 | 1,813 | 1,599 | 1,405 | 1,230 | 1,072 | 931 | -1.5 | 1.9 | 0 | -7.8 | -22.4 | -44.8 |
Notes on the data
Every figure is the manufacturer’s published one, and where nothing is published the cell is empty rather than calculated. Source: Hornady 6mm ARC and the product pages for 80 gr ELD-VT, 90 gr CX, 103 gr ELD-X, 105 gr BTHP and 108 gr ELD Match.
All five are at a 200 yard zero and a 24 inch test barrel, so this table is directly comparable throughout — which is not true of every cartridge on this site.
The 105 and the 108 are near-identical downrange and that appears to be real rather than a copied row: both leave at 2,750 feet per second, and they diverge by a few foot-pounds at every distance, which a duplicated row would not do.
No ballistic coefficients. Hornady publishes BC on the bullet pages rather than the ammunition pages these velocities came from, and pairing the two out of different documents is how a table starts lying.
Know a load that should be here? Tell me and I will add it. Federal, Underwood and Barnes have all loaded 6mm ARC and none is on this table yet.