300 black out

[bear foot bowhunter]

can anyone give me a idea of what these are capable of hunting , load, range , animal ext.

[Oldbloke]

Dont own one. But ballistics suggest pigs, goats, perhaps fellow out to about 150 meters

[gunnnie]

Have spoken at length to an SSAA CWM member who has used the cartridge exclusively for the past few years. He has had great success with it on a wide variety of game from fox/cat right through to fallow deer. As such, there's no reason why you wouldn't be able to successfully target medium pig and goat as well.

As for range, he works on trying to keep his shots to under 200M. This is not an unreasonable range and expectation. If your intended targets are at greater ranges than this, then maybe stalking skills need to be improved or another more suitable cartridge should be considered.

Personally, I am working with pills in the 110-125/130gn range. I did pick up some of the Lehigh Controlled Chaos 68gn pills but have yet to work up loads with it. If you stick with the lighter 30cal pills pushed at the best possible safe velocity and place your shots, you'll find the cartridge will suit your needs.

The 125gn Sierra Match Kings are very accurate in my rifle but dare say not the best for thin skinned game as I'm not sure of adequate expansion. The 125gn Woodleigh may perform better being a soft point, but I can't quantify this. I've also picked up a box of the Sierra Hog stopper 135gn HP's and am keen to see if these will be both accurate and expansive on game.

I will caveat the above para by saying I have yet to trial any of the factory rounds or my reloads on game yet! But am going off data and images seen from the above mentioned contact.

[in2anity]

300BLK always reminded me of a chubbier 30/30, only that you're not limited to flat-nose bullets. It's a .30 cal, so I reckon you could experiment with pretty much any 30 cal projectile through it, ranging from light-and-flat, to heavy-and-parabolic. Having this kind of flexibility really intrigues me; I'd love to see how a 300BLK bolt would handle cast-lead over something like Trail Boss or AP70N. Then at the other end of the spectrum, try something like a 168 HPBT .308 match round over a hot mid burn like AR2208 or AR2206H - they could be some very accurate loads with a bit more reach I'd guess.

It has a pretty tight twist on it which explains how it can stabilise a heavy 220gr; that'd gel fantastically with something like Trail Boss around the ~1100fps mark. It'd certainly pack a reasonable punch for a subsonic load - not a deer load, but certainly capable of taking on medium game.

Long and short of it - due to its flexibility, it'd make a great plinking round that you could really scale up for added reach or hunting purposes. And given it's a standard .30 cal, it gives you a lot of handloading options so it could also be pretty cheap to run.

[happyhunter]

.

[bladeracer]

I thought the idea of the BLK was a cartridge suited to subsonic loading for auto and semi auto firearms?

I think the idea was just to get a heavy thump out of the AR platform.
Subsonic heavy bullets is just an option that works well also due to the tight twist.

[in2anity]

I thought the idea of the BLK was a cartridge suited to subsonic loading for auto and semi auto firearms?

I think the idea was just to get a heavy thump out of the AR platform.
Subsonic heavy bullets is just an option that works well also due to the tight twist.

This. All said, there's not really anything you can do with the BLK that you can't do with a 308 - the main difference is that the cartridge is more compact and thus more appropriate for an AR (which is where its origins stem from). And given the nanny country we live in, this pretty much invalidates any benefits such a compact cartridge offers (because ARs and silencers are illegal).

Sorry, but If you buying your first .30 cal bolt, you'd couldn't turn away from a nice 308. Shame really.

[Oldbloke]

Back to the start here. The 308 can be made to do what the 300 BLK does, no problems. As they are the same calibre I with a difference in velocity seems unnecessary to have both.

Just a little off subject but relevant examples

EG. I am using 15 grains of AS50N in my 3006 giving me about 1550 fps with a 180 gr cast bullet. I'm believe you could use the same powder for normal bullets in the 308 too.

I am also using AS50N to give me light hornet loads in my 223 using copper jacketed bullets.

[Boomstick Bonanza]

If you don't mind casting your own bullets you can load a blackout subsonic for next to nothing, If you do, they are expensive compared to some .223. They hit really hard, good for foxes and the Americans tell me pig (would easy drop a roo out to 300yds I reckon but the round drops like a stone) Great with a can on them to really keep land owners happy, can always use some of your 308 bullets for some supersonic loads should see you out to 400-500yds. subsonic needs a 1:9 min to stabilize.

[in2anity]

If you don't mind casting your own bullets you can load a blackout subsonic for next to nothing

Or you could just pick yourself up some coated projectiles from:

http://www.hrbc.com.au/

OR

http://www.westcastings.org/

OR

http://www.topscore.com.au/

Although I've had a few accuracy issues with .30 cal coated projectiles; I thinking lubing them might be the answer though... (work in progress)

[bladeracer]

If you don't mind casting your own bullets you can load a blackout subsonic for next to nothing

Or you could just pick yourself up some coated projectiles from:

http://www.hrbc.com.au/

OR

http://www.westcastings.org/

OR

http://www.topscore.com.au/

Although I've had a few accuracy issues with .30 cal coated projectiles; I thinking lubing them might be the answer though... (work in progress)

What do they cost?
The only reason to shoot cast lead is their cost, seems pointless to buy them?

[Aussier]

The 300BLK is a unique cartridge as in it was designed for a specific purpose and in that it does well. As for a garden variety hunting cartridge, well, it will always cause derision.

A cartridge is just a cartridge, I don't think anyone cares about the thing itself. The vibe that surrounds it, mostly in US circles, is what's a bit weird.

If it suits your purposes get one, that's no different to any other rifle.

You can't help but roll the eyes a bit though when some knob bought one because it's "cool" and with the sub-sonic .30 cal tells themselves they're an honorary member of the SWAT urban sniper team

[Boomstick Bonanza]

You can't help but roll the eyes a bit though when some knob bought one because it's "cool" and with the sub-sonic .30 cal tells themselves they're an honorary member of the SWAT urban sniper team

They'd still use the faithful .308 I dare say.

[in2anity]

If you don't mind casting your own bullets you can load a blackout subsonic for next to nothing

Or you could just pick yourself up some coated projectiles from:

http://www.hrbc.com.au/

OR

http://www.westcastings.org/

OR

http://www.topscore.com.au/

Although I've had a few accuracy issues with .30 cal coated projectiles; I thinking lubing them might be the answer though... (work in progress)

What do they cost?
The only reason to shoot cast lead is their cost, seems pointless to buy them?

A helluva lot cheaper than jacketed rounds. Around $70 for 500 which is a fifth of the price of jacketed, even better if you buy larger quantities. Pair this with an economical powder like Trail Boss and anneal your brass, and you're looking at well under 50c per round. Granted it's a little trickier to squeeze the same accuracy out of them, but with a little perseverance it CAN be done.

[bladeracer]

A helluva lot cheaper than jacketed rounds. Around $70 for 500 which is a fifth of the price of jacketed, even better if you buy larger quantities.

Not too bad I guess.
Costs me about $9 to cast 100 180gn 8mm bullets, or 200 90gn .314" bullets for the .303 and 7.62x54R.

[in2anity]

A helluva lot cheaper than jacketed rounds. Around $70 for 500 which is a fifth of the price of jacketed, even better if you buy larger quantities.

Not too bad I guess.
Costs me about $9 to cast 100 180gn 8mm bullets, or 200 90gn .314" bullets for the .303 and 7.62x54R.

Yeah that's cheap, I'd love to get into casting my own down the track, I'm sure it's extremely satisfying. But logistically that's just not possible for me at this point of my life (both from a time and space perspective). So buying pre-cast bullets is the best compromise when it comes to cost-cutting measures.

[Wobble]

can anyone give me a idea of what these are capable of hunting , load, range , animal ext.

Because of the muzzle velocity range is limited, but they're still heavy pills which carry some decent punch for that first 100m +

Anything up to and including medium size game inside 150m it'd work fine for.

See a couple of photos here about half way down, 300 AAC Blackout fad over?

Smashes a fallow at 100m, no two ways about it. Check the picture in that topic.

200m and on it looks too slow for my liking, I'd be unenthusiastic about using it on large game too.