Obviously the results of firing a round in this manner would be catastrophic. I am using a can. But what does this mean for boar and deer killing performance? For example, I have an AR-15 upper that fires 5.4539, but I have to be careful which magazines I use as some of them simply wont feed this Russian ammo properly. Cutting long grooves down the nose of the bullet, an area known as the. Their higher B.C. All of these companies have a reputation for making good but inexpensive ammo thats ideal for practice, plinking, and recreational destruction. Adam is a manager at The Guns And Gear Store in Waite Park, MN. It penetrated as deep as any of the lead-core bullets loaded in the factory loads I tested. Bullet trajectory is the path of a bullet as it makes its way to the target. by jFlacoS Sun Dec 29, 2013 12:50 pm, Post As this bullet penetrates into someone the aluminum nose of the bullet is pushed back into the copper base. There's a narrow band of powders that work well with the .300 Blackout. Granted, not all obstacles are going to be soft pinewood, but this does illustrate just how much more effective the 300 Blackout is at penetration than the 5.56. I found somebut not allHornady and Remington brass had crimped primers. | An Official Journal Of The NRA, Should You Carry Your Gun With an Empty Chamber? Hornady 300 Blackout 125-grain Full Metal Jacket Frontier (Supersonic), Hornady 300 Blackout 125-grain Hollow Point American Gunner (Supersonic), Hornady 300 Blackout 208-grain A-MAX Hornady BLACK (Subsonic). You can fire all of these cartridges through what looks and feels like more or less the same gun, which means you dont have to get used to shooting and cleaning a new rifle. He bought one of these https://www.americantactical.us/6334/detail.html and it won't cycle the 208grn hornady amax subsonics without suppressor. Although .30 Rem. In other words, if you were to shoot a 5.56 through a 9-inch barrel, it would have significantly less muzzle energy than the 300 Blackout. That might seem like a lot, but remember this is specialized hunting ammo. Q: Can you provide your insight regarding the 300 blackout cartridge and its use on boar & various species of deer? As deer ammo goes, that's slow, but only 200 fps slower than the old 30-30. 10 mph wind coming at a right angle from the side of the shooter, 0.3 ballistics coefficient (about average for 300 Blackout). 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. Like the same mid-length gas that's on a 5.56/223 rifle? An adjustment in overall length might correct this problem. I dont want to knock the 30-30 here, but its also true that the Blackout is more versatile than the 30-30. One of the benefits of 300 Blackout ammo is that there are umpteen different bullet designs to choose from. Because velocity is critical to performance, this load should be a great match for an SBR. 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. Now, to calculate a bullets energy on target, you need a few pieces of data: Bullets have the most energy right after they exit the muzzle of the gun, and this number is referred to as a bullets muzzle energy. That way, you can practice on the cheap while maintaining your skill with home defense cartridges. That bullet is more blown open than a T-1000 after a run-in with Arnold Schwarzenegger. This presents little problem if you do not already own a 5.56mm rifle, but it seems fair to wager that the majority of prospective .300 Blackout owners also own AR-15 type rifles chambered in 5.56mm. In case you arent familiar with the term, plinking refers to more or less randomly shooting at stuff for fun, in a safe manner. They came up with a solution for that problem, too. Perhaps one of the most sobering problems with .300 Blackout is the ability to chamber in a .223 or 5.56mm barrel. I used the following data for these calculations: (Although these cartridges are slightly different, their stats are fairly representative of average 300 Blackout and 5.56/.223 ballistics.). Just for funsies and completeness, heres a table with all of the data from the above charts: 300 Blackout vs. 5.56 Bullet Drop (In Inches). In my experience the 300 Blackout runs best with a pistol length gas system. This unique cartridge, not surprisingly, has a varied grain weight range. My 300 BO will not cycle using subsonic ammo with a can. Its more powerful, efficient, and lethal when fired out of short-barreled rifles than 5.56 ammo. Visit his YouTube Channel for more great shooting information. Often theyll ask something like, Ive been shooting and reloading for years, no matter what I try, I cant get the gun to shoot better than 2 MOA, with an occasional 1 MOA group, why is this? Do you care about your Second Amendment rights? by jFlacoS Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:13 am, Post . 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. Shooters who join the .300 BLK bandwagon may attribute issues they experience in failure-to-feed (FTF) or failure-to-eject (FTE) to their rifle when in fact, they should take a more discerning look at the magazines they are using. Trouble with RCBS 300 Blackout Dies Not Seating Bullets Consistently March 31, 2021 If you're having trouble with RCBS or Hornady 300 blackout dies not seating bullets consistently, this should help. Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Should I take out 2 weights or clip his spring a couple coils? Next, I tested terminal performance by firing each load into blocks of 10-percent ordnance gelatin. In lieu of any formal testing, we can look at some of the videos floating around showcasing the effectiveness of these Lehigh Bullets, like this one: As you can see, the bullet penetrates several inches into the ballistics gel and basically explodes into sharp metal fragments. 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. If you like Rifleshooter.com, please follow us on Facebook. I appreciate all the advice. Thus, the 300 Blackout cartridge refers to a particular bullet and case combination. The cartridge, primarily intended for hunting, offers a greater case capacity and comes with a 1:12 twist (so you cant stabilize the heavies). If youve spent any time poking around online, youve likely heard its . Though I had used the 110-grain Speer Deep Curl for plinking quite a bit, I had never tested its terminal performance before this project. For example, if you level your rifle at a target 100 yards away and fire, and the bullet hits 3 inches below where you aimed, then there were 3 inches of bullet drop. 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? This is the perfect balance of barrel length for high muzzle energies, they say, without making the gun front-heavy and awkward to shoot. For comparisons sake, lets look at the trajectory of a standard 55-grain 5.56 bullet fired under the same conditions. Whats the Ideal Barrel Length for a 300 Blackout Rifle? First time shooting the gun, loaded up a 30 round magazine and I fire the first shot with no issues. Increasing it from 8 inches to 16 inches, though, might only result in a 20% increase in muzzle energy. Known for its ability to deliver heavy subsonic bullets for standard AR magazines while cycling the action in suppressed applications, [], Ive done a few Special Purpose Rifle (SPR) builds over the years and was always happy with the results. Its also moving considerably slower from the get-go, though, and experiences more bullet drop as a result. This is due to the 300 Blackouts bullet and case design, which allow the gunpowder to be more quickly and efficiently burned in a shorter barrel. To eliminate this sonic boom, you need to use bullets that travel below the speed of sound, or less than 1,100 fps. The gas tube is pinned. The bullets also behaved very differently after entering the wood. So I recently built a 300 blk out upper and took it out to the range over the weekend and had cycling issues. The most accurate handload beat out the best factory load by .60 inch when both were fired from the same gun. At that distance, the 300 Blackout has 2 feet of bullet drop versus 1 foot for the 5.56. A 300 Blackout bullet fired from a 14.5-inch barrel has almost the same muzzle energy as a 5.56 bullet fired from a 20-inch barrel. He is a Glock and Smith & Wesson Certified Armorer as well. Not only that, but it's also more powerful than 5.56 when fired through short-barreled rifles or when using subsonic ammo. The two primary kinds of ballistics you need to worry about are external ballistics and terminal ballistics: So, with this model in mind, lets look at the 300 Blackouts external and terminal ballistics. Summary: The 300 Blackout has significantly more muzzle energy than the 5.56, and this is particularly true when youre shooting these cartridges through shorter-than-average barrels. 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. It works well with supersonic ammo. Its hard to find a cartridge that does this better than the Discreet Ballistics Selous Machined Expander you just learned about. The 300 in 300 Blackout stands for .30-caliber, which is a measure of the diameter of the barrel a bullet is designed to be fired through. The RCBS Primer Pocket Swaging tool will correct this, but taking care of the issue is a time-consuming affair. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Even after handloading, I still believe subsonic shooting is the forte of the .300 AAC Blackoutjust as J.D. Youll also see bullet widths measured in millimeters (mm), and the width of the 300 Blackout bullet works out to 7.62 mm. It's probably just the block shifted out of place. I would note that of those three things the Springfield Saint 300blk has only the first. (L to R) 5.56 NATO, .300 BLK, .30 Carbine. The bullet drops about 4 inches at 100 yards, 2.5 feet at 200 yards, 8 feet at 300 yards, 18 feet at 400 yards, and 30 feet at 500 yards. Discreet Ballistics also went to great pains to ensure that the bullet was as accurate as possible when fired through a suppressor, which is their modus operandi. 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. If you want to shoot it through your AR-15, all you have to do is buy a 300 Blackout upper, load up your regular AR magazines with 300 Blackout ammo, and start shooting. by smustian Sun Dec 29, 2013 1:08 pm, Powered by phpBB Forum Software phpBB Limited. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. A new large format pistol from the oldest gun manufacturer in the world. 4500$, Caliber: This is certainly the prominent selling pointof the cartridge, but one of the areas the 300 BLK will sometimes lack is accuracy. Some people question whether or not the 300 Blackout is effective for killing deer, and the simple answer is, yesabsolutely. If you want a cartridge thats nearly Hollywood quiet, but still powerful enough to excel at home defense, hunting, target practice, and combat, you want to try the 300 Blackout. To learn more about the 7,62x40WT click here. It should work in AR-15 rifles and magazines, with only a change of the barrel required to make it operational. Instead, you want the bullet to enter the target, transfer all of its energy and lethal force to the person, and stop inside them without flying out the other side. In addition, my testing revealed it is relatively easy to assemble .300 AAC Blackout handloadsboth subsonic and supersonicthat are more accurate than factory loads. Okay, so it isnt terrible exactly. It may only be me, butwhen I do encounter a 300 BLK that shoots, its often not a true 300 BLK. All rights reserved. If that sounds like a rather small case to be necking up to 30-caliber, consider that the Fireball itself was made by shortening the 222 Remington, itself one of our smallest 22 centerfires. . Short Barrel 338 Lapua Magnum Load Development Results, 300 BLK load development: 125, 135, 175 and 220 SMK with H110 and IMR 4227, Accuracy testing a 16 carbine: Daniel Defense Hammer Forged Barrel, Refreshing a poorly machined Remington 700 action, 223 Remington/5.56 NATO, velocity versus barrel length: A man, his chop box and his friends rifle, Replacing a plastic recoil pad on a shotgun, USMC M40A5 Build- Part 3: Receiver Truing, Fortune Favors The Brave.Even When Outnumbered, Customizing the 1911: countersink and flush cut slide stop pin, 6 Creedmoor barrel length versus muzzle velocity (31 to 17 inches). . by 20X11 Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:19 am, Post Bill Marr 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. You might think that a bullet approved by the military for killing peoplethe 5.56would be approved for killing deer and other wild game, but thats not the case everywhere. The bullet almost exploded inside the gel block, shredding the first 8 inches. The only time when increasing the barrel of a 300 Blackout beyond about 9 inches or so would offer a significant advantage is when youre taking shots longer than ~300 or so yards. In supersonic loads, 150-grain bullets are on the heavy side for the .300 Blackout. Penetration indicates the point in the gel block where the largest piece of the bullet came to rest in inches. Being a Prepper is Getting More Expensive. . . when loaded with fairly standard 220gr subsonic rounds, that guide presses into the projectile of the subs inside the 5.56 magazine. I recently finished a 300 blackout SBR build and I'm having some failure to extract issues. The bolt wont close on a .300 Blackout round if it is closed slowly, but if the round has low neck tension, the momentum of the bolt carrier can force the bullet back into the case, allowing the bolt to close and lock. As youll learn later in this article, while this does make rifles much easier to use in confined spaces, it also neuters the power of the 5.56 cartridge. The 300 Blackout provides an elegant solution. The Hornady Full Metal Jacket Frontier 300 Blackout ammo is their value target practice cartridge, but since its Hornady its more than good enough for classes and competition. Click here to find out. Not in the sense that leaving a bottle of lotion on the coffee table and playing Goodbye Horses is a terrible way to impress a date, but it also isnt what most of the breathless fanbois are fainting over, either. . The 300 BLK rifle magazine is based on the original design offered by the company and provides a steel and polymer design for both a translucent smoke finish and solid black options The reliable, and trouble-free feeding system is tailored perfectly for the dimensions of the 300 BLK cartridge. What is true, though, is that you quickly reach a point of diminishing returns by increasing the length of a 300 Blackout barrel much beyond 9 inches. In fact at the 300-yard mark your typical 68-77 gr .223 round will be delivering more energy than that 300-Blackout/Whisper round . Many states dont allow hunting deer or any other large game with 5.56 or other similar bullets like .223 Remington, although the details are confusing. The reason why a dedicated .300 BLK magazine is so crucial is because of the wide grain weight range .300 BLK works in. . 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? A Magpul .300 BLK PMAG (left) and a 5.56 PMAG (right). Unfortunately, reducing the speed of a bullet also significantly reduces its energy. As the bullet bleeds speed, the force of gravity begins to overpower the bullets inertia, making it drop even faster. If it's ejecting okay where does the spent brass land? None of the metal fragments penetrated more than 16 inches, which is exactly what you want with home defense ammo. I recommend first to try slower powder, I had the exact same problems with mine. What if you prefer to hunt with subsonic 300 Blackout ammo fired through a suppressed rifle? Because 300 sounds more powerful than .30, which is why many companies refer to .30-caliber bullets as 300- something or other, like the 300 Winchester Magnum and 300 Norma Magnum hunting cartridgesall of which fire .30-caliber bullets. Its light weight and high speed also causes it to fragment, which is great for tearing up soft targetslike peoplebut not so great when trying to penetrate hard targets like wood. Maximum velocity deviation dropped from 139 fps to 35 fps, and the group shrank to 2.96 inches. With that out of the way, lets look at the bullet drop of the 300 Blackout. Their higher B.C. through a short-barreled AR-15 . If you also know a bullets ballistics coefficient, you can then use a ballistics calculator to estimate how much energy the bullet loses along its path to the target. August 17, 2016 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. A metal grip frame, slide ports and a red dot cut are just some of the new features. You may discover published data will generate supersonic loads, and you may need to reduce powder charges to ensure each bullet remains subsonic. 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. I spent a lot of time (and money) building this rifle. There are three key points worth noting about this data: Summary: You can easily make accurate shots with supersonic 300 Blackout ammo up to 300 yards away and 200 yards away with subsonic ammo. Like the same mid-length gas that's on a 5.56/223 rifle? What's the problem with the caliber based on this thread? The barrel is 16" with a mid length. This test is a good example of the penetrating power of 300 Blackout: In the video, a 300 Blackout bullet penetrates 24 inches of pinewood whereas a 5.56 bullet only penetrates 16 inches of pinewood. If it's not feeding the next round you might try a lighter weight buffer or a different magazine or different type of magazine with a different spring rate. The recovered weight (RW) is the weight in grains of the largest portion of the bullet. Jones chambered T/C Contender handguns for these rounds and called them Whispers because he was keeping muzzle velocities below the speed of sound. VERDICT: I reviewed an "American" a few . Its literally how much bang you get for your buck. I have experienced light strikes on Remington Match ammo on numerous occasions. Two reasons, case capacity and barrel twist. I took out the carrier bolt assembly, and re-oil it and still the same problem. In this article, youre going to learn . Even with vertical stringing apparenta result of the supersonic/subsonic velocity mixthe 190-grain VLD load was more accurate than any of the subsonic factory loads I tested. The more energy a bullet imparts to a target, the more damage it causes, and the likely it is to kill someone or destroy something. articles and videos are considered to be suggestions and not recommendations from Springfield Armory. 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. 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. So, having a dedicated .300 BLK magazine will not only help safeguardagainst such risks, it will also guarantee more reliable functioning and feeding for your firearm. Then show it finally being reso. Finally, some .300 AAC Blackout brass has crimped primers, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason for this occurrence. Summary: When it comes to rifles with barrels less than 16-inches long, though, the 300 Blackout is more lethal than 5.56. This additional mass gives the 300 Blackout a lot more momentum to push through obstacles and into your target. The 5.56, for instance, is designed to reach maximum muzzle energy when fired through a 20-inch barrel, and barrels shorter than that produce less muzzle energy. The Oxford English Dictionary also defines it as the study of the effects of being fired on a bullet, cartridge, or gun.. 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. CONS: A little short in the stock and I'm no fan of super soft recoil pads. The Blackout with a 220- or 225-grain bullet can be driven at least 1,000 fps from a 16" barrel to give about 488 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle. Jones envisioned with the cartridge's predecessor, the .300 Whisper. Unfortunately, small variations in the shape of the cartridge can cause ammo to snag, jam, or feed slowly. Subsonic ammo is lower-powered ammo that only propels bullets to just below the speed of sound. Think again. As weve already covered, a well-designed subsonic bullet can be quite lethal, but its never going to cause as much damage as that same bullet moving at supersonic speed.