Just about this time last year I began reading about the 6mm BR cartridge that had been legitimized by Hornady and sold to the American military as the “6mm ARC (Advanced Rife Cartridge)”. The round is a slightly modified 6mm Bench Rest that uses the 7.62 x 39 shell necked down and with a sharper shoulder to accept long/heavy for caliber low drag projectiles.

Now, I’m no long-range competitor or hunter of African elephants but I thought this sounded like a fun caliber for playing with in general. I already have the obligatory AR platform(s) for which it was originally designed, large and medium game rifles but I wanted a bolt action anyway…just to play with.

As it turns out, Savage Arms has the Model 110 Tactical with a stiff barrel, 18 inches long and threaded for whatever you would like, with an installed Picatinny rail, and it accepts the AICS magazines. The entire package was less than 1,000 shekels so I ordered one…in July of 2020!

I spoke with Savage in the last week of March 2021 and Customer Service told me there was nothing they could do for me or anyone else I could speak with about the situation and that I should just “try to be patient”.

I told the customer service guy, “Look, I’m 67 years old. Is there a remote chance I will see my rifle in this life?”

He said, “Maybe…”

I local gun shop told me their distributors are not even taking orders at this time until they can catch up on the backorder list.

“Maybe…”

I am getting to the point that I think I’ll have better odds of shooting a Unicorn than getting my new rifle!