Anyone using the 300 Blackout round yet?

[Wesley D]

So there I was, out in Broken Bow last weekend, and I had the thought planted in my head about this round... so now I'm considering getting into the 300 AAC Blackout caliber. 

The advantages seem to be the ability to still use 223 bolt and pmags with a round that's got a lot more ka-pow than the 223, with ballistics similar to a 7.62x39.  Plus the 220gr subs are easy to suppress.

Anyone else looking at this round?  Has Koenig started building a project gun in this caliber yet?

[bkoenig]

Not if I want to stay married.  Besides, I have to be home long enough to get my 6.8 to run reliably before I could think about another project.  Work travel pays for new guns but doesn't leave much time to shoot them.

I talked to a guy who was building one and he showed me a cartridge.  It's different looking, the exposed part of the bullet looks about as long as the case.  It would be a fun gun to shoot with a can.

Now that I think about it some more I may be thinking of the .300 Whisper.  Not sure what the difference is though.

[Wesley D]

Yeah, it reminded me of the 300 Whisper, too.  You ever read Sniper's Eyes?  That was the first time I had heard of that round.

The thing about the whole suppression... I'd almost have to Form 1 a lower to make it a manageable length.  Guess that's what happens when you take up stamp collecting as a hobby?

[Wesley D]

Philately will get you nowhere? 

Time to go update my forum info for my interests to add philately... 

[bkoenig]

Yeah, even a 16" AR with a can gets kind of unwieldy.  Plus the longer the barrel the more I assume it will flex with a suppressor mounted and change the point of impact.  That's why I opted to Form 1 a lower first.  I figured if I ever got a can I would want it on an SBR.  Still waiting for CMMG to come out with their 5.5" 22LR upper so I can get a can for that......

How are the ballistics with the Blackout in say a 12.5" barrel?  I've read you don't want to go shorter than 11.5 on a centerfire with a can because the muzzle blast will eat up the baffles.

[Wesley D]

I believe guys are running cans on 9" barrels with the 300 BLK subs.

[FarmerRick]

This one looks fairly nice...   
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=7&f=118&t=867322

[bkoenig]

You know that getting an obscure caliber means you have to start reloading, right?  And you might as well just do that right and buy a Dillon RL 550.  No sense in going half way 

[Wesley D]

In for a penny, in for a pound...

So how'd you sell the deluxe press purchase with your wife Brian?

[bkoenig]

I wish.  I'm still making do with a Lee turret press.  Works great for pistol, not so much for rifle.  I have problems with consistent seating depth due to the slop in the turret. 

I've heard good stuff about the Hornady Lock & Load too, and they're a local company.  If I was starting out handloading for the first time I would probably get a Lee single stage press to learn on and upgrade later.


I did some reading on the Blackout and apparently you can form the brass from .223.  That's a huge advantage over the 6.8.  Buying new Hornady or SSA brass is expensive.  The 6.8 has a tad more range for hunting purposes but it's more expensive to get into.  I also read that while the Blackout is supposed to use standard AR mags in the real world guys are having feeding problems with the standard mags unless they modify them.   Probably not a big deal if you're handy.

If you decide to build an upper let me know and you can borrow my tools.  You don't really save any money by building from scratch but you can set it up exactly the way you want it.

[David Hineline]

The difference between 300 Blackout and 300 Whisper or any other wildcat cartridge is it is a SAAMI   caliber that manuf. is supported by any ammunition company that wants to manuf. it.  So it is not a wildcat.

[bkoenig]

Well, it's not an SBR upper, but AIM has complete 16" CMMG .300 AAC uppers for sale:

http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?item=XCMMGM3001603R

[Wesley D]

Tempting, but I still want to sell this AK before I get into another caliber...

[bkoenig]

ooh, they sell the ammo, too:

http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?item=ACMMG300BLKSUB&name=CMMG+.300+BLACKOUT+%287.62x35%29+175grn+Subsonic+200rds&groupid=6

[bkoenig]

Wesley, did you ever sell that AK to get a start on this?  Or is the new addition using up all your gun money?

I'm seriously thinking of selling my 6.8 barrel and switching to a blackout.  The idea of being able to form cases from .223 brass is really appealing.  Plus I'm getting frustrated with the lack of mags, brass, poor bullet selection, etc for the 6.8.  Delta Company has nice barrels at a very reasonable price so I could make the switch for almost nothing out of pocket.

I just found out Leupold has a sweet custom bullet drop reticle for the .300 blk, with marks for both supersonic and subsonic loads.

[Wesley D]

The little Nugget is going to be using up all the gun project money for a while...  I mean, now there's one more person to outfit with rifle, mags, ammo, etc.   

You should totally switch to 300BLK.  That way, I'll be able to get feedback on the barrels and optics when I finally get ready to start. Though, I suppose my first step should be putting a Form 1 to a lower so I can build it as an SBR. 

[gunsunited]

A 300 AAC Blackout upper is on my purchase list. Now i just need some of my customers to pay up...

[bkoenig]

I think it's going to come down to selling the 6.8 for either a .308 rifle or a .300 blk barrel. 

[Wesley D]

I think it's going to come down to selling the 6.8 for either a .308 rifle or a .300 blk barrel. 

That's a tough call.  What .308s you considering?

[bkoenig]

Either a Savage bolt gun like the NFOA raffle gun or the new CMMG AR10.