.300 Blackout?

[richhodg66]

I've been curious about this caliber for a while. Not an AR guy, but the idea of shooting heavy for caliber .30 caliber cast which uses small primers, free brass and very miserly powder charges is very appealing.

There is a lightly used Ruger American Ranch Rifle in a local shot. The round poses few advantages over things I already have, unless they are generally throated to accept long, heavy bullets. Can I expect that to be the case? Seems like all the factory ammo I see is loaded with 125 grain bullets, which doesn't re ally interest me. I've been impressed with the Ruger American Predator I own, so no concerns about the action.

Any thoughts on this? Most of my shooting anymore seems to be .30 caliber cast so I have a lot of molds.

 

[Ian]

If you have a .30-30 you have the same thing except brass is expensive and it takes large primers.

I put together three blackout ARs in various configurations, all used with suppressors exclusively, and the project docket for the machine shop of the Empire of Treasure is a 32-gauge Special dart barrel with pitted bore to be fitted to my H&R .45 Colt carbine and used as a stub for a 300 BLK. My ARs are quiet but a single-shot loaded with a pinch of Titegroup that doesn't have to cycle the action is more quiet and with a brake mount pinned and welded to make the barrel 16-1/4" is also very handy and light even with a can screwed on. Need a quieter rig for the house so I don't have to get my truck gun out to dispatch varmints around the house in the wee hours of the morning. GM has 1 in 7" barrel blanks for $90.

If you don't plan on suppressing it or do plan on hunting anything larger than coyotes with it, choose something else. The subsonic heavies are about as effective as a target arrow on game except for direct CNS hits. Supersonic kind of defeats the purpose of the cartridge IMO and gets you essentially a modern .30 Carbine at best.

If you REALLY want to have fun, put together a .458 SOCOM and load it like a Trapdoor Springfield, 400-500 grains of cast bullet at 1000-1300 fps. My SOCOM has a 10.5" rifled portion of its permanently-shrouded barrel and I load Lee 500-grain bullets, powder coated without gas checks, at 1000 fps. It will knock a medium pig off its hooves with a broadside hit. It is also one of the few exotic chamberings for the AR that actually, really, truly feeds and functions correctly with bone-stock 5.56x45 magazines. The downside is brass is about a dollar a pop.

 

[fiver]

i have a ranch rifle in 300.
it takes a bajillion types of 30 cal bullets and it also accepts mil-surp cut down brass with 310 diameter bullets.

my AAC will not do that, if i want to use milsurp brass i have to use jacketed bullets or 308 size cast, or turn necks.
not a big deal but a pile of mixed cases and one picky rifle complicates things just a tad.

if all i had was the Ruger i'd throw whatever in whatever and only keep H/S cases separated for a little bit of load consistency.
it does make a pretty decent inside 200yd. Bunny/yote/squirrel cartridge with 100-110's at 2400 fps.

 

[Glaciers]

I was interested in a AR in 300, but figured I’d be better served with a 762x 39 in the AR package. I could see it in a bolt gun where there isn’t a need to cycle the action then that would make since to me.
That would be a fun rifle and cartridge combo.

 

[RicinYakima]

IMHO, having been exposed to both AR's and CZ bolt guns, unless you just want to play with this, or suppress it, you would like a 7.62 x 39 better. With that said, it is cheap to shoot and uses small rifle and little powder. You will have a long road getting 200+ grain bullets to shoot accurately and then within 150 yards or so. FWIW

 

[RBHarter]

If you're going to rebarrel, I'd go with a .308 groove , 300 BO neck , and one of the PPC x39 bodies . The expensive brass for the 22 NOS is only once . You get SRP or SPP priming , 223 bolt face , x39 AI capacity with a strong shoulder, and the 2.5 gr 32 pistol bullet BB squirrel slayer with a legitimate 150-165 gr 30-30 claim . It will also run a 250 subsonic and 200s almost 1900 fps with about 25 gr of 4350 and fit in the 2.26 mag length .

 

[popper]

BO does fine for supers, see no practical purpose (except SD) for subs. Load mild to wild, not quite 30/30 but effective. My other rifles get lonely! 150 gr ish cast @ 2k fps does about everything I need. 100gr & a little red dot is cheap and fun too. Unfortunately, there is not a powder that is tuned to it (including cfeblk but 2400 is close). Many work but either slightly too fast or slow. I have CVA (1:8), ar carbine (1:10) and pistol (1:8), all fun, go for a 1:10 if you can find one. Actually the 125 gr SST is very good for hunting, extra range and fps, heavy enough to do hog/deer damage. I've used 190gr cast in mine @1500, works OK, just no real advantage. Another interesting one is the 30 Hamr, slightly more space and uses 125gr with higher fps. Uses longer brass though.

 

[Glaciers]

Well really considering the 300 I compare it to the 30-30 which is great for cast with that long neck. 311-116 with a few grains of light powder to the RCBS 180 with a full charge. The added plus is it comes in the handy Winchester 94. Six pounds of fun and carries like a natural extension of my arms.

 

[sundog]

If supersonic, the 300 Ham'r is a better choice..., or 7.62x40WT. The RCBS 7.62mm-130-SPL, NOE 311-152-SP, and Accurate 31-146-SP, all GCd and PCd work quite well.

300 Ham'r barrels with 15 twist are available from Wilson Combat.

7.62x39 is okay in the AR, but there's not much meat left on the bolt to fit the case head.

 

[richhodg66]

Don't and won't own an AR. Nothing against them, really, just carried enough M16s over the years that they holdno interest to me. A small bolt rifle holds some appeal, and I figured that fast twist might allow for some things others might not, but yhinking now best to just stick yo thr mini Mauser in 7.62x39

 

[popper]

40WT and Hamr have shorter throat so limited in bullet size/weight.
If wanting to tinker with heavy bullets, might want to check out CVA scout SS. Inexpensive and decent rifle in several calibers.
Yup, same for me with bolt rifles. Given a junk bolt SS 22 as a kid (other kid wore it out), absolutely no interest now.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I agree if supers the HAM'r is "better".

I have a few 300's and really love them. I also have a Ruger American. One of the very first Bolt Ranch Rifles. It flat shoots!! This is FACTORY BLK HILLS 125 OT



The gun is a complete joy.

Yes a 30/30 can do about everything, I have those also.

CW

 

[fiver]

the Ruger is a 1 in 8 and not really fast for the 300.
a 1-7 like my AAC has will stabilize the LEE 230 down to stupid slow, slow enough a change from rifle to pistol primers puts it over the edge and you lose stability.
if i were gonna use the Ruger for 50yd. pop-slap shooting 200grs. is as far as i'd go.
but there's a literal butt-ton of 30 cal bullets 200gr. and under to chose from.

 

[Rushcreek]

The AR15 .300 that I built was great with any jacketed bullet I tried at supersonic speeds.
Especially 110 Vmax and 125 NBT.
Its 1-7” twist gave me no joy for cast, however- so I switched to a 1-10” 6.8 SPC and now I’m happy.
Like Popper said above, get a ten twist if you can.
A bolt or single shot in it would be fun.

 

[fiver]

rush try some 180 or 200 J's with 10-12grs of 4227.

you want to run something like a 165 at like 14-1500 to get the best results.
i use AA#-9 for that but i have no idea if it will work your AR or not.

 

[popper]

Hammr has a problem with greater than125gr. jacketed. Short throat and mag length. Wilson now has his own solid he likes.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Hammr has a problem with greater than125gr. jacketed. Short throat and mag length. Wilson now has his own solid he likes.

Its been fine to 150g
But it was built around the 130 Speer. (Dandy bullet too!)

Also built as a hunting caliber on hogs specific. Its dandy at what its designed for.

 

[fiver]

that 130gr speer and the 125gr. gold-dot are both good 'lower speed' bullets.

 

[Tom]

Interesting thread. I bought a banish30 suppressor with the idea of putting it on a 10.5" ar pistol. Now that the ar pistol is in regulatory limbo, both state and federal, I was considering a ruger American in 300 bo. I have an American rimfire and it's a dandy little rifle.
Dont ask me why, I no longer hunt, but the idea of a suppressed rifle seems cool to me. The 22 with the banish22 brought a big smile to my face. While there was a pop with cci quiet, the impact at the compost pile 25 yards away was louder.
The idea of hunting with a subsonic 300 seems a bit iffy to me. Maybe it'll tumble, maybe it won't.

 

[300BLK]

Ruger specs the RARR 300BO as 1-7 twist. Mine takes the AR mags, but doesn't necessarily feed long loaded rounds very well. Apparently I'm not alone in finding this as Ruger makes a singleshot conversion to get around the problem.

Maker makes copper bullets specifically designed to expand at subsonic velocities for that urban sniping with a can.

Maker bullets: Projectiles

makerbullets.com