300 AAC Blackout

[Jgun]

I read an article about the Army Marksmanship unit competeing in the Nationals last year using a cartridge that they developed in house. They called it the .30 Gremlin. The cartridge is (I think) basically a 6.5 Grendal case necked up to take a .30 cal bullet. In order to do this, they had to make a chamber reamer so that they could make the barrel, they had to extend 6.5 mags to get the needed rd capacity, and they had to make loading dies in order to load the ammo. The thing that caught my eye was that they did it because the rd (with 125 gr bullets) has similsr characteristics to 77 gr 5.56 rds (flat shooting), which may not be the case with the 300 BLK. For me the 300 is a natural progression in my education to more advanced reloading, and all things AR related. It also has the advantage of being very doable financially for those of hs that don't have the resources, mfg wise and dollar wise of the Army guys. I figure, even if I determine it doesn't meet my needs, I'll only be out the cost of the barrel and loading dies. the rest will all be usable for .223 or 7.62 X 51.  Come to think of it, I guess the same thing would apply to the 7.62 X 40 as well, with the exception of the mags.

[survivalshop]

yep building a rifle around the mag....your getting reeled in  <munch>

Didn't he do that with a gas tube pin ? <laughs>

[survivalshop]

Since this cartridge is in its infancy still , the potential or its lack of ,is still out there .

I have never been interested in any wild cat cartridge until the 300BLK came out . I just have this feeling about it & ya can't go wrong with a .30 cal bullet.

As far as bullets , this cartridge is never going to be a speed demon . That's OK with me . I now know its limitations & will work with bullets already available to get the most from them .

I know the 300 Whisper has been around ,but never paid much attention to it .

[Jgun]

I guess I must have been living under a rock or something, because I had never heard anything ,aside from the name, about 300 Whisper before my buddy started telling me he was planning to build the 300 BLK. One of the things he said, which I have heard from a number of people since, is that it's like the whisper, but better. I'm not really sure that it's all that different. One thing I do believe  is that the popularity and factory support is bound to make shooting it an easier proposition than the whisper, ammo and barrel wise. And as you point out, the more popular it becomes the more load and performance info there will be available on it.  I, also had a feeling about it. The Idea of shooting a .30 cal bullet from an AR-15 platform with just a barrel change, sounded to good not to try it for myself.

[survivalshop]

Ordered a Magpul CRT stock for the lower to complete it today & loaded a bunch of 125 gr. & 150 gr. loads to see what kind of groups I can get out of this rifle .

I have some 135 gr. Sierra match bullets on the way & will compare them when I load them . I will use the new 300BLK primed brass I got for them .

I also want to see how the POF gen. II lower works ,mated up to the POF upper.

 

[Jgun]

I loaded 100 rds of 300 BLK last night.  I've got 16.5 grs of Lil Gun behind a 145gr FMJ BT bullet. Not too bad for my first attempt at forming and loading rifle rds on a single stage press, or any press for that matter. If I have any complaint with them it's the sharp edge at the front of the case, I didn't chamfer the outside of the case at all. The lake City brass is just as I cut it off in the lathe. I loaded them to 2.1" OAL. They feed and chamber with no problem, I'll just have to see how they cycle once I get to try them at the range.  I also picked up a lower for it (but don't know when I'll get around to putting that together) As soon as the bolt carrier group and buffer spring get here, I'll be all set to head out to the range and function test. If I can borrow a chrono, I'll be able to see how close I am to major PF.

[98Z5V]

That's a beautiful pic, brother.  Beautiful.  <thumbsup>

[survivalshop]

Jgun

You show off , now I'm going to one up on ya & show my Dillon set up to seat the 150 gr. Hornady's .

Your 650 will pump these out ,big time , once you get your .223 conversion .

I also put these in the reloading section for the new reloaders , to show how a progressive can be used as a single stage also, but with progressive results.

Let us know how the LilGun powder runs .

[Jgun]

survivalshop,

can you tell me what OAL your loading them too, and do the Hornady's come to an actual point, or is there a small hollow point? I'm definitely looking forward to being able to crank them out on the progressive, but I'm probably going to spend my next gun money on a trigger so I can assemble the dedicated lower, so I guess I may be using the single stage to load 300 for a while. Hopefully it will give me time to  work up an ideal load.

[Jgun]

I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in reloading, but since it's 300BLK specific, I decided it would be better here. This might be of some use to us in the future.

                        http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=548891

                               

                                   

[survivalshop]

That crimp die shows that there is more intrest in this caliber from other manufacturers & that can only be a good thing .

What I want to see is Factory ammo available for this caliber . That may be the thing that breaks this wide open as far as more intrest than there is already.

The Hornady's are a exposed lead point bullet , I'm not a fan of using those type of bullets in an AR type rifle .

They are not very pointed ,more like a round point  & I'm have them at 2.082-3 ". They have a crimp grove & I'm a little over half way into it .

If your not making hundreds of rounds at one sitting , a single stage is fine . I use mine for a lot of things .

[survivalshop]

Just finished my POF lower to complete my 300BLK rifle .

I only had the the pivot pin detent pop ,out once when assembling . <thumbsup>

I got the Magpul CTR stock & Smith enterprises brake today , along with some detents I was missing , to finish the POF lower to match the POF upper receiver.

I think it looks much better now ,that its not matched to one of my other lowers.

I kept the old Turkey scope on to do some accuracy testing. (better than Iron sights ,well magpuls , I have for it )

[6132expert]

Very nice <thumbsup>

[Jgun]

Yes, very nice indeed. Those POF lowers are amoung the best looking out there, IMO. I'm hoping that one of these days I'll have something finished to post pics of. As I've said before, I always seem to be waiting for parts or funds (or both) to finish my builds. Don't know how you guys do it ! Good luck with it. Now that it's done, You'll be able to tell us how accurate the 300BLK is.

[98Z5V]

SS, you have assembled an incredible weapon.  Cheers to you.  <thumbsup>

[survivalshop]

Now I have to come up with some kind of optics that suites this cal..(and me of course ).

Not sure if I want to go with a CQB type or just go all out hunting type .

I look at this cal. to be a short range hunting( under 200 yrds ) or CQB type .

I think the .30 cal. bullet choices make it just great for both ,so if I just put some kind of CQB ,lighted system on , it should be fine for hunting also , right ?

[Jgun]

Survivalshop,

What magnification do you think you'd want ideally for this? I'm planning to try my 1-4X Trijicon on mine once I know  I have a functioning gun.

[survivalshop]

I can not say enough of , how much fun it is to shoot the 300BLK .

This new set up has a different feel from the A2 stocked lower I first tested it with . I can feel a little more push ,but its still light even with the 150gr. bullets.

The new type Smith Enterprises muzzle brake did its job & did it well . This is a very light weight rifle & except for a gentle push ,there was virtually no muzzle rise & I dumped a 20 rd. mag of 150 gainers & that was real nice .

I normally test a build with five mags as fast as I can shoot & reload a mag. in the rifle , but not this rifle , mainly because I had to work up safe loads for this caliber , but with the dump of the 20 rounder , I feel good it will pass my function test .

The Wilson bbl. is a 1-8 & I'm not sure what bullets its supposed to like but ,it seems to like all I have put through it so far.

Decent groups , about a 2"  moa rifle with the trigger & scope I have on there . When I start playing with OAL with these bullets ,& get a better trigger/scope ,it will do much better.

[Jgun]

Got some range time with the 300 upper today. Although the lower's not together yet, I pinned it on an AR-15 lower. I didn't do any sighting in or shooting for groups. I just broke in the barrel, finction tested and chrono'd the rd's I made. Once I had adjusted the gas system properly and swapped out the heavy buffer for a lighter one, the gun worked 100%. I need to get some diferent types/weights of bullets to test out but so far I'm pretty excited about this gun.

[survivalshop]

Nice , I like that hand guard too.

When I first shot this rifle complete ,I was wondering how the carbine buffer would work compared to the full length rifle buffer assem..

I had no problems with function , well I take that back , the one round that blew a primer was the last round in the mag & it failed to hold the bolt back ,but all others worked .

AS far as optics , still not sure.

Been looking though .

[Jgun]

Almost all of my shooting friends that have built or had built for them, comp AR's to shoot the matches, use the Ace ARFX rifle length stocks. I think the rational is that the rifle length buffer/spring works marginally better than the carbine. They also like the rigidity of the fixed stocks. I'm not sure about the performance advantage of the rifle length or not but I prefer the adjustability of the CTR over the ARFX for when I'm shooting with heavier clothes in the winter and then in a tee shirt in the summer.

[BLACKTIP]

I will stick with my 5.56 - 77 grain OTM's that I load to the same velocity as the US military's new

5.56 - 77 grain M-262, which give plenty of power and range. If I need anything bigger I'll go to

my 7.62x51 AP-4 or AR-10

I don't see the military ever adopting a new caliber for the AR and  I predict this .300 Blackout will

stay too expensive and hard to find. If the military ever changes the AR it will be to another type

of rifle with a different caliber.

[Jgun]

If you load your own .223 ammo, and 300 BLK uses .223 brass, I'm thinking the only difference pricewise between loading .223 and 300 will be in the cost of the bullets, I'm curious, how much more expensive than a .223 bullet is an inexpensive  30 cal bullet?

[survivalshop]

I will stick with my 5.56 - 77 grain OTM's that I load to the same velocity as the US military's new

5.56 - 77 grain M-262, which give plenty of power and range. If I need anything bigger I'll go to

my 7.62x51 AP-4 or AR-10

I don't see the military ever adopting a new caliber for the AR and  I predict this .300 Blackout will

stay too expensive and hard to find. If the military ever changes the AR it will be to another type

of rifle with a different caliber.

I really don't care if the military adopts it or not , that's not why I or any that I have talked to about it have chosen to work a rifle around this caliber.

If you look around , the name brand manufacturers of the barrels for this caliber are back ordered for quite some time .

Every day you see another manufacturer come out with die sets or ammo for this caliber .

Its not about the military to every one , some want to hunt with a AR type rifle & this caliber fits the bill .

Sure you can lug around a ten pound + AR308 ,but in the 300BLK configurations , its light weight makes it a dream to handle & carrie.

Now where this caliber does out shine any thing the military has in its arsenal is when using a suppressor ,its deadly quit & shooting a 220 gr. bullet . For silent CQB ,its the ticket for the military or LE .

You will see it used for that because I believe it is what it was designed for . Our use for target or hunting is just an added benefit .

[survivalshop]

I finally got the proper height scope mount for the 300BLK & can do some real target shooting to see what I can get out of this cartridge.

Not having the proper height ,Really screws things up. I put a Burris P.E.P.R mount on & will use the Bushnell 1.5 X 4.5 X 32 , scope , an old Turkey scope I had on one of my shot guns.

Its what I have been using & what's good about it is the low power for CQB ( close quarter hog battle).

I am hard to fit a scope properly , my cheek weld or old eye sight , is not a good match . I had to ditch the Magpul BUIS , because even this mount is too far back to permit use of them , but man is it nice to bring up the rifle & have a perfact sight picture.

Going to try to get to the range Friday & do some more Chronograph results with the 135gr. MK's,

Will put up some photo's & target results when done .

And all brass will be Rem. ACC 300BLK , I went over & over them again ,so I don't have the same problem as last time .

Some will be reloaded with Rem. 7 1/2 Bench rest primers & will give separate results .