A cartridge, also called a round, refers to a design for a how a case (the brass shell that holds the gun powder) and a bullet all fit and function together. At bottom, bullets damage things, people, and animals by transferring energy to them. . None of the 210-grain VLD handloads cycled the carbine's action. Summary: The 300 Blackout was designed from the ground up to work seamlessly with the AR-15. The vast majority of states, though, including my native Virginia, dont allow you to shoot deer with 5.56 ammo, which presents a problem: How can you use your beloved AR-15 to go deer hunting? The M4 profile is light under the handguard and .750" at the gas block with the M203 cut. While the cross-compatibility of our .300 BLK and 5.56 NATO rifles is highly desirable, it could be a potential risk if we do not check ourselves and make sure we are putting the right rounds into the right firearm. The military was interested in this kind of performance for clandestine operations, I assume. As an added bonus, its all-copper construction means you dont have to worry about picking slivers of lead out of your steaks. After a number or trips to the range and a lot of brass and bullets, I found a load that would work- note the bughole in the middle left side of the target below. Whats your take on 300 Blackout ammo? This issue isnt unique to 300 Blackout bullets, though. For bulk practice ammo I wet tumble all my 223 (5.56) / 300 blackout after resizing on the 650/RT1500. Not only do hollow points create much larger holes, they also cause the bullet to slow down much faster after entering the target, reducing the chances that itll pop out the other side. Frankenstein AR-15 troubleshooting question, .300 Blackout/Whisper Ballistics Gel Results, retrieve your We cannot show the process itself of resolving the problem due to YouTube TOS. by 20X11 Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:19 am, Post Beyond the upgrade in bullet diameter, the 300 BLK offers the versatility of heavy 220 grain plus subsonic projectiles as well as lighter supersonic offerings. Although the cases are similar, the 300 Blackout case is shorter, which reduces the amount of gunpowder that can fit in the case by about 25% versus the 5.56. When youre blasting rotten fruit, rubber balls, and reinforced steel plates without any other goal than to see and hear things go splat and ping, then youre plinking. These metal shards fly off in multiple directions, causing far more damage than even a well-designed hollow point. For example, a 220-grain 300 Blackout bullet moving at 1,050 fps has 539 ft.lbffar more than both the 5.56 and the 9mm. After testing 11 currently available .300 AAC Blackout factory loads, I came to a couple conclusions. Keep your gear handy when it's not on your belt. Best results are found with bullets between 110 and 125 grains. And other states like Montana, North Carolina, and Vermont dont care what the hell you shoot animals with. This is why theyve become popular for home defensetheres no risk of overpenetration. Two of these loads failed to fully cycle the action of the AAC MPW carbine. Typically, these bullets are the product of thousands of hours of computer-aided design and testing and are much more expensive to make than standard practice ammo, but theyre well worth the cost. Chris Parkin takes the Ruger American in .300 Blackout out for a spin, and reports back to us in this detailed rifle test and review. You will have to tweak subsonic handloads based on your rifle and the ambient conditions in order to get consistent subsonic performance. So I recently built a 300 blk out upper and took it out to the range over the weekend and had cycling issues. If it's ejecting okay where does the spent brass land? Had problems with cycling both. Its so bad in this regard that it often doesnt penetrate as well as 9mm ammo. The 300 Blackout shooter is getting 30-30 performance with about one-third the powder and slightly less recoil. Do you have a 300 BLK that hammers (say, five 5 shot groups under 1 MOA in a row)? When frangible bullets hit a hard target, like a wall, they disintegrate into dust without passing through the target. To correct this and ensure all of their ammo has more or less the same muzzle velocity out of all barrel lengths, Discreet Ballistics offers two loads for this ammo: The bottom line is the Discreet Ballistics 188-grain Subsonic Selous Machined Expander is one of the single best subsonic hunting cartridges you can buy. To be honest I will probably shoot the gun suppressed 90% of the time anyway. The aluminum nose of the Lehigh Defense bullet also helps it feed into the chamber better than many hollow point designs. That is probably the most succinct way to sum up what .300 Blackout is. All technical data in this publication, especially for handloading, reflect the limited experience of individuals using specific tools, products, equipment and components under specific conditions and circumstances not necessarily reported in the article and over which the National Rifle Association (NRA) has no control. At the time, the U.S. military was embroiled in multiple large scale urban battles across Iraq, and many special forces units had started using short-barreled rifles to make it easier to maneuver when fighting house-to-house. If you are looking for a cartridge that can run with subsonic and supersonic ammunition in your AR, it is a great choice. Another good example of this principle is that of the Glock 17 versus the Glock 17L. The 300 Blackout cartridge was designed from the ground up to be fired through AR-15s, and as a result it doesn't suffer from any of the reliability problems of other cartridges. The subsonic 300 Blackout loads are often compared to 45 ACP, 10 mm or 9mm subsonic rounds. Discreet Ballistics 188-grain Subsonic Selous Machined Expander 300 Blackout (Subsonic), Hornady 110-grain GMX Full Boar 300 Blackout (Supersonic). You wont find a cartridge that does it all better than the 300 Blackout. The chief advantage of 300 Blackout is its versatility. When I built mine, I settled on a 22 barrel, [], The 300 AAC Blackout (300 BLK) is a popular alternativecartridgein the AR-15/M16 M4 (AR) community. And all you have to do to shoot 300 Blackout is buy a 300 Blackout upper, slap it on your existing AR-15, load up your regular AR-15 magazines, and start shooting. The ability to shoot 30 caliber bullets from a standard AR-15 M16/M4 style rifle bysimply changing the barrel and ammunition has made the 300 AAC Blackout (300 BLK) a popular choice for AR shooters looking for an alternative to 223 Remington/5.56 NATO. Written By Michael Crites Licensed Concealed Carry Holder Reviewed by The .300 Blackout started out as a military round. +1 on trying a standard carbine buffer. I took no special pains putting these loads together. Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. These Some would even say the 300 Blackout is too good at penetrating obstacles. So why do Ithink the 300 BLK isnt an inherently accurate? Another reason as to why a dedicated .300 BLK magazine would be beneficial is the markings on them. If youve spent any time poking around online, youve likely heard its . They arent exactly the same, but they have nearly the same performance and can be thought of as the same cartridge when it comes to ballistics comparisons. JavaScript is disabled. It will eject the spent brass, but not pickup a new round. The Oxford English Dictionary also defines it as the study of the effects of being fired on a bullet, cartridge, or gun.. Is the 300 Blackout just a new knickknack for tearing up targets at the range, or is it the better mousetrap weve been promised? The Best 300 Blackout Ammo for Plinking and Practice, The Best 300 Blackout Ammo for Classes and Competition, The Best 300 Blackout Ammo for Home Defense. For what it's worth, sizing brass without the expander ball also goes a long way toward keeping case necks straight, which generally results in solid accuracy. Discussion about rifles in 300 AAC BLACKOUT (7.62x35mm), hosted by the creator of the cartridge. If you do decide to join the dark side and try 300 Blackout, make sure you come back here and let me know what you think of it! It may only be me, butwhen I do encounter a 300 BLK that shoots, its often not a true 300 BLK. I even took the time to order a special 1:7 twist barrel from Bartlein barrel to give me the edge with the heavy loads. by 20X11 Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:50 am, Post The best hunting ammo will generally include all of the features above, but the particular balance of accuracy, speed, and lethality you want depends on what youre trying to kill as well as your personal preference. ALWAYS CONSULT COMPREHENSIVE REFERENCE MANUALS AND BULLETINS OF PROPER TRAINING REQUIREMENTS, PROCEDURES, TECHNIQUES AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY SIMILAR ACTIVITIES. Besides the easy conversion between 5.56 and .300 BLK, the .300 BLK does a lot the 5.56 can't. First off, it's a very versatile load with projectiles weights ranging from 110 grains to 220 grains. At that distance, the 300 Blackout has 2 feet of bullet drop versus 1 foot for the 5.56. . Did you say 16" barrel with a midlength gas system? He bought one of these https://www.americantactical.us/6334/detail.html and it won't cycle the 208grn hornady amax subsonics without suppressor. A grain is a unit of measurement used in the firearms industry for measuring bullet weights, equivalent to about 1/15th of a gram. . You can easily adjust for the 8 inches of drop at 200 yards by aiming slightly above the target. To eliminate this sonic boom, you need to use bullets that travel below the speed of sound, or less than 1,100 fps. Apparently not. This is the perfect balance of barrel length for high muzzle energies, they say, without making the gun front-heavy and awkward to shoot. Chances are that looks like gobbledygook to you, so here are the key takeaways of the design: The bullet fired from the 300 Blackout typically weighs 110 to 220 grains (~7 to 14 grams), or two to four times as much as a 5.56 bullet. Wish someone told you this before? Although theyre quieter, subs are also have significantly worse external and terminal ballistics and often dont have enough energy to make the gun operate properly. There is no argument that shooting a quiet rifle is a lot of fun, but fun does not stop bad men from doing bad things and subsonic bullets dont do a great job of stopping them, either. Two reasons, case capacity and barrel twist. The latest content straight to your inbox plus an automatic entry to each of our monthly gungiveaways! If you can't buy tires for your car, that's a more significant problem. With some loadsparticularly those using the 125-grain Nosler AccuBond and 150-grain Nosler Ballistic Tipthe bullet would migrate forward in the case when the cartridge entered the chamber. Thats not a bad tradeoff when you consider the terminal ballistics of 300 Blackout vs 5.56 (which youll learn next). This effect is known as bullet drop, and its basically a measurement of how much the bullet deviates downward from a straight line to the target. Accuracy was not. Reloading 101: Measuring group size and converting to MOA, Remington 700 SPS 243 Win to 6 Creedmoor conversion: Budget precision rifle, Designed to bridge the gap between 308 Winchester/7.62 NATO and 50 BMG, the 338 Lapua Magnum (8.670) has developed an impressivefollowing with long range shooters. This causes the animal to bleed faster and die sooner than if the bullet only enters but doesnt exit. Not the best for accuracy. and 5.56 NATO loads. The only prep work I did before loading was sizing the cases, tumbling them and chamfering their necks. Its literally how much bang you get for your buck. Often referred to as simply .300 BLK, it is simply a close cousin of a .223 Rem casing (technically .221 Fireball) that has a .30 caliber bullet placed in its upsized case mouth. Supersonic 300 Blackout bullets weigh 110 grains, or twice as much as standard 5.56 bullets. ), you have the overlap of a 5.56 NATO/.223 bolt-carrier group (BCG), and you can use 5.56 NATO/.223 magazines as well sort of. Jones chambered T/C Contender handguns for these rounds and called them Whispers because he was keeping muzzle velocities below the speed of sound. Finally, they also give you a choice between two different cartridge loads, which refers to how much gunpowder is loaded into the case of a cartridge. Theyre designed to lock onto the gun and then push fresh cartridges into the inside of the gun so they can be chambered and fired. The only downside of hollow points and frangible bullets is they typically cost about a dollar per round. Just like with the 190-grain VLD handload and most factory subsonic loads, bullet expansion was nonexistent and penetration was excessive. Using Fiocchi .300 blackout 220 grain subsonic ammunition. I spent a lot of time (and money) building this rifle. This New Hampshire-based company is unique in that they focus solely on making subsonic cartridges (hence the name), so its no surprise that 300 Blackout is right up their alley. Terminal performance was excellent. We dive deep into the best of the .300 Blackout. The Glock 17 has a 4.5-inch barrel and generally produces muzzle velocities of around 1,150 fps with 124-grain bullets. Summary: The sweet spot between maneuverability and muzzle energy for a 300 Blackout barrel is around 7 to 9 inches, although you can get slightly higher muzzle energies with longer barrels. Thanks to its unique design, though, it will still fall apart and not overpenetrate if it hits a tougher obstacle like a thick wooden wall, a car, or a tree. and opinions expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the The 5.56 bullet disintegrated after penetrating only a few boards, whereas the 300 Blackout stayed intact as it sliced through every single board in this test. Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter to receive firearm news, product discounts from your favorite Industry Partners, and more. One cartridge that has taken ahold of the modern sporting rifle industry and appears to have strong staying power is the .300 AAC Blackout round. Youll need to practice with the right optic, but with training you could learn to hit a man-sized target on your first shot at that range. Terminal-performance testing yielded some interesting results, which are detailed in the accompanying sidebars, and so did the handloading exercise. Do you care about your Second Amendment rights? After a second or two, youre pushing as hard as you possibly canyour powder has been completely burnedand you cant exert any more force on the car. One caliber is one hundredth of an inch, and calibers are written as decimals of 1 inch, like .30-caliber. I had the same problem with the exactly the same ammo, Remington 300 BLKOUT 7.62x35mm 115 gr Close Tip Flat Base. Summary: The 300 AAC Blackout is cartridge designed to work in AR-15s and other rifles with shorter-than-average barrels. For example, you cant increase the weight of a 5.56 bullet to more than about 70-grains before it starts causing problems. The set-out problem is caused by inadequate neck tension and trying to taper-crimp cases that are not all exactly the same length. Blackout ammo is loaded with a surprising variety of bullets from 78-grains to 220-grains with 110-grains quite popular at 2,300 fps to 2,400 fps. Do you want to know why the right to bear arms exists, why its worth protecting, and what you can do right now to save it? We dont need to get into the nitty gritty details right now, but the long story short is that the more you increase the length of a barrel, the more you increase the muzzle energy of the bullets you shoot through it. 300 Blackout vs. 5.56 Velocity Loss (In Feet Per Second). without overly sacrificing bullet performance and lethality . Keep in mind, that its wildcat predecessors like the .300-221 were known to be fairly accurate with the right twist rate. Their 300 Blackout ammo is a little pricey but still affordable, and they were one of the first companies to start producing the cartridge after it was invented. It may work exceptionally for some and mediocre at best for others. Second, theres the fact that this bullet causes a lot more damage than a hollow point 5.56. . ) The 300 Blackout was designed to be used in AR-15s, with one simple change: As long as you change the barrel of your AR-15, which can be done by popping out two pins and putting on a new upper receiver, you can shoot 300 Blackout ammo out of your AR-15. Like the same mid-length gas that's on a 5.56/223 rifle? It may not display this or other websites correctly. All content Copyright 1998-2018 Rifleshooter.com, FTC disclosure: some links on this site are monetized, Removing stripped and sheared screws from a rifle, Project Guns- Gunsmithing articles and posts. Posted: 2/5/2017 7:33:39 PM EST [#13] Quote History Fired from the MPW carbine, the six supersonic handloads produced an average 10-shot group size of 3.30 inches at 100 yards. All three of the rifles tested in this group had trouble feeding the stubby 300 Blackout cartridges if we just dropped the rounds into the opening of actions generally designed for longer cases. I would note that of those three things the Springfield Saint 300blk has only the first. This unique cartridge, not surprisingly, has a varied grain weight range. At my shop I won't sell 300 BLK barrels with carbine length gas systems. Early on, the claimed goal was to have ammunition prices on par with the inexpensive .223 Rem. No one doubts the deer-killing performance of the 30-30, and the 300 Blackout can match or exceed that. This bullet was purpose-built by Nosler for the .300 Blackout and the .30 Rem. A cartridge load for 7 to 11-inch barrels with slightly more gunpowder to increase the velocity out of short-barreled rifles. He is a Glock and Smith & Wesson Certified Armorer as well. To get down to the nitty gritty; live rounds are "being left" in the chamber. . What's the load data? While the bullet is obviously much larger, the parent case is 5.56mm so it will fit into the chamber. Youll be able to kill just about anything your little heart desires with a supersonic 300 Blackout bullet fired through a 7 to 9-inch barrel within 300 yards. when loaded with fairly standard 220gr subsonic rounds, that guide presses into the projectile of the subs inside the 5.56 magazine. For all intents and purposes, a good maximum range for supersonic 300 Blackout ammo is probably around 300 yards. Would you mind doing me a favor? While the barrel and bolt of an AR-15 are tailormade to only shoot 5.56/.223 ammo, the rest of the gun is more or less cartridge agnostic. PRESCRIPTION 6Bullet: 150-grain Nosler Ballistic TipPowder/Charge: Hodgdon Lil'Gun/17.0 grainsPrimer: Federal Small RifleCartridge Overall Length: 2.18 inchesMuzzle Velocity: 2,058 fps. (Have any suggestions for ammo that should be on this list? These cartridges are almost identical in design and price, but the hollow points also double as effective hunting cartridges for animals under 50 pounds. This is where a dedicated .300 BLK magazine can be tremendously useful. Well, firstly, the aluminum nose of this bullet allows it to penetrate relatively soft obstacles like drywall, glass, and plywood without falling apart like 5.56 would. Most people rarely shoot at targets more than 300 yards away with either 5.56 or 300 Blackout. As you learned a moment ago, the 300 Blackout has significantly more muzzle energy when fired through short barrels than the 5.56. Product prices mentioned in articles and videos are current as of the date of publication. This will give you good enough performance for short-range target practice (controlled mayhem?) They do not detail the comprehensive training, procedures, techniques and safety precautions that are absolutely necessary to properly carry on similar activity. In this case, your best bet is to look for 300 Blackout ammo in the range of 75 to 150 cents per round. Editors Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. With a magazine follower designed around the varying profiles of .300 BLK, a larger cut for rounds to exit the magazine, and feed lips that are equally engineered for the spectrum of bullet shapes, a dedicated .300 BLK magazine is truly the way to go. . This high velocity gives the bullet a muzzle energy of 1,358 ft/lbs, which is also about three times higher than most subsonic 220-grain 300 Blackout ammo and almost the same as supersonic 115-grain 300 Blackout ammo. The easiest solution is to use a special bullet thats designed not to overpenetrate such as a lightweight hollow point or frangible bullet. But when I watch some videos on YT they always look like ready to use Just for kicks, I also assembled subsonic loads with two heavyweight bullets. Click here to find out. I'm a huge fan of the 300 Blackout round. For comparisons sake, lets look at the trajectory of a standard 55-grain 5.56 bullet fired under the same conditions. For my part, Ive become thoroughly convinced that the 300 Blackout is here to stay, and that it deserves its newfound following. In the gel, it acted like a high-velocity pistol bullet, which it isSpeer designed it for the .30 Carbine cartridge. Than 5.56 Ammo, 300 Blackout Ammo Can Be Used in AR-15s with Minimal Modification. The bottom line is the Lehigh Defense 300 AAC Blackout 78-grain High Velocity Close Quarters cartridge is one of the single best cartridges for home defense you can buy. To learn more about the 7,62x40WT click here. 300 Blackout Ammo Is More Powerful, Efficient, and Lethal When Fired out of Short-Barreled Rifles Than 5.56 Ammo 300 Blackout Ammo Is More Powerful Than 5.56 Ammo When Shooting Subsonic (Quiet) Bullets 300 Blackout Ammo Is Legal and Effective for Killing Deer 300 Blackout Ammo Can Penetrate through More Material (Walls, Trees, People . Sorry, an error occurred and we could not sign you up. Maximum velocity deviation dropped from 139 fps to 35 fps, and the group shrank to 2.96 inches. Most people train with cheaper ammo and then occasionally break out their fancy home-defense ammo to familiarize themselves with how it feels when shooting. Also guessing that you've already checked that your gas block is properly lined up with the port; opening up the port would be my last resort unless it's one of the barrels known for having small ports to begin with (have to search around the net, don't remember which they were but there was some discussion of them a while back). This additional mass gives the 300 Blackout a lot more momentum to push through obstacles and into your target. So if you enjoyed this, would you share it on Facebook and Twitter? Testing was conducted at an elevation of 2,200 feet above sea level. Bullets in the Barnes Triple-Shock family typically need more velocity than traditional cup-and-core bullets to expand, and the .300 Blackout just does not generate a lot of velocity. I have tried a lighter spring and heavy lubrication with no success. I love researching and writing these articles, and the more they get shared around, the more Im encouraged to write. I have used multiple mags with no success. You can find brands that make better ammo for certain applications, but its hard to match both the quality, quantity, and value of Hornady ammo. This load was very accurate, besting the most accurate factory load I fired from the AAC MPW carbine by more than .50 inch. Apparently, the story goes that an unnamed special missions unit in the U.S. Army asked for a round that could fit inside a .30-caliber rifle, and would be usable with any AR weapon. This is assuming that both of these bullets were fired through 16-inch barrels, though. In other words, the drop of 5.56 bullets is about half as much at any given range as supersonic 300 Blackout bullets. I say that because they aren't getting stuck, it's almost like the bolt/extractor isn't even engaging the case. PCCs may seem like a good idea at first glance, but when you get down to brass tacks they offer all of the disadvantages of a rifle (too large to conceal or carry conveniently and not easily operated with one hand) with the primary disadvantage of a pistol (weak ammunition). views and opinions of Springfield Armory. . A 300 Blackout bullet fired from a 7-inch barrel (like youd find on the. AR15.Com reserves the right to overwrite or replace any affiliate, commercial, or monetizable links, posted by users, with our own. Springfield Armory recommends you seek qualified and competent training from a All else being equal, you want your bullet to retain as much energy as possible by the time it hits your target. Have anything else to share? This is less of a problem with mid-grade 300 Blackout ammo from reputable companies. 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