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