300 Blk bolt action loads

[Richrob]

I'm newly back as a rifle owner after a very long break (28 or so years!)
One of the rifles I have picked up is a 300 Blk Ruger America, Ranch, due to very expensive factory ammunition in Australia, have decided to get into hand loading.
Should be able to get 223 cases to neck down and shorten
Just about all I can find is AR load data or if bolt action, data is for powder not available here.
I'm quite happy to experiment and find something that worked for me from predominantly subsonic loads to some full loads at 2800fps.
Anyone here play with this round and have safe working reloads?
Love the idea of making cheap plinking rounds for close 100 metre range and taking wild dogs.

[bladeracer]

I'm newly back as a rifle owner after a very long break (28 or so years!)
One of the rifles I have picked up is a 300 Blk Ruger America, Ranch, due to very expensive factory ammunition in Australia, have decided to get into hand loading.
Should be able to get 223 cases to neck down and shorten
Just about all I can find is AR load data or if bolt action, data is for powder not available here.
I'm quite happy to experiment and find something that worked for me from predominantly subsonic loads to some full loads at 2800fps.
Anyone here play with this round and have safe working reloads?
Love the idea of making cheap plinking rounds for close 100 metre range and taking wild dogs.

I don't think 2800fps is likely from the Blackout, a 60gn XTP might manage it perhaps, but I doubt it.

Try the Berry's Bullets copper-plated .312" 123gn bullet for plinking, they shoot very well for me in the .30-06 and are pretty cheap.

Trailboss is the ideal for your subsonic loads but nowadays you're pretty much limited to using AR2207, though there are small imports of pistol powder coming in every few months, you might be able to score some of that. All of ADI's fast powders up to and including AR2205 have not been manufactured for years and are not available. I would experiment with AR2207(IMR4198) and AR2206H(H4895).

ADI powders are available in the US under other brand names: *=discontinued powders
Trailboss - Trailboss*
AS30N - Clays*
AS50N - International*
AP70N - Universal*
AP100 - IMR SR4756?*
AR2205 - H4227*
AR2207 - H4198/IMR4198
AR2219 - H322
Benchmark 2 - Benchmark
BM8208 - IMR8208XBR
AR2206H - H4895
AR2208 - Varget
AR2209 - H4350
AR2213SC - H4831
AR2217 - H1000
AR2225 - Retumbo
AR2218 - H50BMG

Make sure you have a source of primers before spending on reloading gear, without primers you won't be reloading anything. Small Rifle are generally available now I think.

[wanneroo]

I play with 300 Blackout extensively and have done tons of videos on Youtube for it. The link to my playlist is below:

https://www.youtube.com/@wanneroo7106/playlists

Click on the 300 Blackout tab on the page. I've got over 30 videos in there with multiple loading projects going on. Currently am working on "Project Big Booty", a 300 Blackout subsonic loading project. The 4th video in that series is dropping soon and then a brief 5th video to wrap the project. I used CFE BLK and 220g Berrys Bullets for that project. I have other 300 Blackout projects that will be coming up on the channel with different bullets and powders.

When I do a project on the channel I do an introductory video where I explain what powder and bullet combo I am using and why. The next videos I go through things I learn along the way, answer questions/comments from viewers, get chrono data and do some accuracy testing. And I will do that until I achieve a final load I am satisfied with.

The Hornady 110g Vmax bullet project with Winchester 296(Hodgdon H110) I got up to 2500 FPS which matches a 7.62x39.

One of my favorite bullets for 300 Blackout plinking is the Hornady 150g FMJ. These are cheap and shoot well to 100 yards.

300 Blackout works with any magnum pistol powder. IMR 4227, Lil Gun, H110/W296, A1680 and others made by Vihtavouri and Lovex.

The nice thing with 300 Blackout is you can use just about any .308 bullet out there and you are shooting it out of a .223 sized action. It's a very useful short range cartridge.

Brass, yes you can cut down .223 brass and reform it and I have some of that but I prefer factory 300 BO brass. I like Starline Brass as it's great quality for not an outrageous price.

I use 16 inch barrel AR semi autos for everything but will add a bolt gun at some point to the mix.

I love 300 Blackout, I have more fun with it than any other cartridge.

[Richrob]

I'm newly back as a rifle owner after a very long break (28 or so years!)
One of the rifles I have picked up is a 300 Blk Ruger America, Ranch, due to very expensive factory ammunition in Australia, have decided to get into hand loading.
Should be able to get 223 cases to neck down and shorten
Just about all I can find is AR load data or if bolt action, data is for powder not available here.
I'm quite happy to experiment and find something that worked for me from predominantly subsonic loads to some full loads at 2800fps.
Anyone here play with this round and have safe working reloads?
Love the idea of making cheap plinking rounds for close 100 metre range and taking wild dogs.

I don't think 2800fps is likely from the Blackout, a 60gn XTP might manage it perhaps, but I doubt it.

Try the Berry's Bullets copper-plated .312" 123gn bullet for plinking, they shoot very well for me in the .30-06 and are pretty cheap.

Trailboss is the ideal for your subsonic loads but nowadays you're pretty much limited to using AR2207, though there are small imports of pistol powder coming in every few months, you might be able to score some of that. All of the fast powders up to and including AR2205 have not been manufactured for years and are not available. I would experiment with AR2207(IMR4198) and AR2206H(H4895).

ADI powders are available in the US under other brand names: *=discontinued powders
Trailboss - Trailboss*
AS30N - Clays*
AS50N - International*
AP70N - Universal*
AP100 - IMR SR4756?*
AR2205 - H4227*
AR2207 - H4198/IMR4198
AR2219 - H322
Benchmark 2 - Benchmark
BM8208 - IMR8208XBR
AR2206H - H4895
AR2208 - Varget
AR2209 - H4350
AR2213SC - H4831
AR2217 - H1000
AR2225 - Retumbo
AR2218 - H50BMG

Make sure you have a source of primers before spending on reloading gear, without primers you won't be reloading anything. Small Rifle are generally available now I think.

Just checking on the bullet size, isn't the 123 grain in .312 for the Russian AK 7.62 x 39? Can you run a .312 in a .308 bore rifle?
I like to just stick with 2 main bullet weights, something around a 120 grain and then a 180 grain.
Possibly even a round nose for the 180 grain.
I'm completely new at this and the amount of conflicting info I've found for this round is crazy.

[wanneroo]

Just checking on the bullet size, isn't the 123 grain in .312 for the Russian AK 7.62 x 39? Can you run a .312 in a .308 bore rifle?
I like to just stick with 2 main bullet weights, something around a 120 grain and then a 180 grain.
Possibly even a round nose for the 180 grain.
I'm completely new at this and the amount of conflicting info I've found for this round is crazy.

It's not all that complicated. Magnum pistol powders and .308 bullets.

One of the most popular 125g bullets for 300 BO is the Speer TNT. I'll be doing a project on the channel at some point with that bullet.

Most folks are going to use a 110g bullet for supersonic but there are other bullets in the 120 range like the Hornady SST, which I have loaded.

So far for subsonic loads I have been very happy with Berry's 300 blackout bullets. Inexpensive and they work.

Subsonic loads are a little more finicky to develop, so I would start with supersonic lighter weight bullets and get your feet wet first.

For general plinking, mid weight FMJ bullets do just fine.

[in2anity]

Yes. Don't overcomplicate it.

18 grains of AR2205 under a 125gr projectile. Speer TNT or Hornady SST. And the Ranch should give you 1.5-2" groups at 100m, under mild wind.

Alternatively, 17gr lilgun under the 125gr projectile.

Both those powders are rocking horse poop at this point.

Vihtavuori is around. Jump on any N110 then look at the manuals.

When it comes to forming from 223 - I had issues obtaining adequate neck tension, particularly with thicker brass like ADI. I ended up getting an extra mandrel for the collet die, polishing it down in a drill, until adequate neck tension was achieved. Now they never get set back even when cycled rough.

A word about performance expectations - the 300 BLK is wind sensistive, with near double the windage vs say 308. Keep your shots to modest distances. I won't go past 300m with mine, and even then the wind needs to be behaving, to have any degree of confidence about first shot accuracy. My technique is to calculate 7.62 windage (using some standardised method be it civillian or military), then multiply it by two for the little BLK!

[Wyliecoyote]

I agree with in2anity, Lil'Gun or 2205 are the pick of powders with CFE BLK right up there as well. Don't bother with 110 grainers as you run out of volume before you exceed the velocity by any great amount that you can get with the 125 grainers. The pick of the lighter bullets is the 125 TNT. Super accurate and works very well on pigs, goats and small deer like Chital where i try to keep shots inside 150 yards. To replicate the sub sonic 190/208/212 grain bullet load i have used CFE BLK at around 11 to 12 grains for sub 1100 fps.

[bladeracer]

Just checking on the bullet size, isn't the 123 grain in .312 for the Russian AK 7.62 x 39? Can you run a .312 in a .308 bore rifle?
I like to just stick with 2 main bullet weights, something around a 120 grain and then a 180 grain.
Possibly even a round nose for the 180 grain.
I'm completely new at this and the amount of conflicting info I've found for this round is crazy.

Yep, the copper-plated bullets are just hardcast lead, much softer than jacketed bullets. The only issue is that if you have a tight throat you might not be able to chamber a round with a fat bullet seated in it.

[wanneroo]

A colleague of mine who is an experienced long distance shooter, experimented and managed to get 110g Hornady bullets to hit a steel gong at 600 yards.

But yes it's not a long distance cartridge,

I think compared to 10 years ago there is much more knowledge and 300 BO specific products for the cartridge so it's been more optimized and pushed to it's potential.

I have a bunch of 125g Speer TNT bullets and they seem popular so I should probably do that as my next project on the channel.

I acquired a Lovex powder to experiment with and also am aiming to get some N110 Vihtavouri as well.

CFE BLK I found works with lighter weight bullets but it usually takes 2 grains more than other powders and likes compressed loads. Some people slammed it for subsonics and that it sucks, but so far it has worked fine for Project Big Booty.

[Oldbloke]

I assume you have looked here?

http://www.adiworldclass.com.au/data-rifle/

[wanneroo]

Looks like AR2205 is along the lines of Winchester 296/Hodgdon H110.

Another thing I saw in there is they used magnum small rifle primers, which is a good idea and ignites these powders better it seems. I use CCI #41 primers which are similar and "milspec". One can use regular small rifle primers but typically you require about .5g at least more powder to get the small velocities.

[OyKurwa]

I know this is a month old, but thought I'd register to post here as I'm just starting on the journey with reloading for 300BLK.

Lee publish a load for 110gr and 125gr projectiles using Accurate 5744, which is very close in burn rate to AR2207/IMR4198 (it's slightly faster). Starting at 19gr and maxing at 21.5gr. These values are from memory, I don't have the manual in front of me right now.

I've been working within these bounds using AR2207 and have had promising results so far using a 125gr Speer TNT over the minimum load, in recycled Winchester Super Suppressed brass, with a moderate crimp and at the recommended OAL. Shot straight, didn't exhibit any pressure signs and grouped well. I haven't chrono'd them yet but they felt very punchy. Going to start working upwards from here.