Wednesday, October 16, 2013

300 Blackout- Yes, again!



Yeah, I know. You’re tired of hearing me carry on about the 300 AAC Blackout. Too bad. Here’s some more on it so quit whining, pay attention, or get sent to the principal’s office.

I have long felt that, as much as I like the 5.56 for a police patrol rifle round, it just needed more size. It has way more than enough speed and flatness of trajectory and could do well to swap some of both for bullet mass and impact energy.

In 1992 when I started the 12-year-long push for my department to get patrol rifles, the 5.56 was the best thing going. It has proven effective for many police engagements (blessedly not at my agency) but its high speed and flat trajectory are lost in the typical police rifle shooting. These typically are less than 75 yards.

Were I at a department today, I would be pushing for rifles chambered in 300BLK. At any realistic police shooting range the 300 BLK has more oomph than the 5.56.

As for non-police defense usage, the 300 BLK is also ideal. I do not see much use for a personal defense round at much more than typical police shooting distances and probably much less than 50 yards is closer to actual. The 300 BLK is perfect for this.

An argument against the blackout is accuracy. It is simply not a super-accurate, sub m.o.a., long distance sniper round. My home-brewed rifle shoots 1.5 to 2.5 m.o.a. depending upon how well it likes the ammo. Bear in mind that I do not have a high power optic on this. I shoot with a medium quality 1-4x scope. Were I to add on a better quality scope pushing up to the 9 or 10 power range, the groups would shrink. This accuracy is more than enough for the intended purpose. I’ll take the extra energy and bullet diameter and give up 1 m.o.a. any day for this use.

Also, with the relatively small powder capacity of the case, most all the powder is used up well before the 16” barrel length. Sounds like a great candidate for the hopefully-soon-to-be-legal SBR, doesn’t it? Add a nice suppressor and some heavy subsonic ammo, and you have a polite man’s (or woman’s) neighbor-friendly backyard plinking machine.

I have been tinkering with this blog for a while and tonight I came upon the attached article. As much as I hate to admit it, the author makes the case I was trying to make damn well; perhaps even as well as your Blog Sarge.

So, pleased check out this link… 300 BLK Article Link

2 comments:

  1. In my opinion, the real home defense area where the BLK shines is using subsonic ammo and running a suppressor. I'm pulling together parts to do just that for an AR-Pistol build in 300 BLK as I wait for my 80% lower to arrive. A change in the SBR laws would obviously impact that, but even if they don't change a 7.5"-9" barrel with (eventually, 6-12 months from now) a permanently attached can would meet current barrel length laws (depending on the can, of course). That's a serious home defense weapon without the danger of hearing loss. :)

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  2. A short barrel with a can on it is just what the doctor ordered for a non-SBR gun. I like the way you think!

    I would suggest considering a full-sonic load for defense due to penetration. In FBI tests a higher velocity expanding load like the 110 TTSX or 125 ProHunter will tend to expand and limit penetration whereas a slow, heavy load will lean toward deeper penetration with less expoansion. We saw this with 5.56 loads which would penetrate less than a 9mm or 40S&W handgun.

    Still, either would be an effective home defense load.

    Cheers, and thanks for the comment,
    Blog Sarge

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