300 Blackout, First Impressions

Since this is my first post, I suppose an introduction is in order.  Being raised in northern Nevada, I’ve always enjoyed shooting sports, but I never got into hunting as a child since you have a better chance of hitting the lotto in Nevada than you do drawing a deer tag.  I married my lovely wife in 2005, and after graduating from college, we moved to eastern Washington.  Since moving here, I’ve become involved in Project Appleseed and am almost a red hat instructor.  Now onto something more interesting…

Before I have any rants or political posts, I want to start with something fun so I’m going to do my best to give you an unbiased (as unbiased as possible) experience with the 300 Blackout.  This caliber has been around for a little while now and is continuing to gain popularity. I just finished my build a month ago and had the opportunity to get some trigger time with it at the last Appleseed event I was at.  A few things stand out so far.

Ammo availability sucks.  Ok, I know it’s hard finding any ammo right now, but 300 BLK is ridiculous.  Short of spending $1.50/round on GunBroker, it just isn’t going to happen.  You can reload, but good luck finding any lightweight ballistic tip.  The same thing goes with powder, not much out there for it.  Because of this, I’ve been using some Speer 130gn hollow points.  This may have biased my experience with the next point.

300 BLK can be very particular about magazines.  It’s pretty well-known that 300 BLK and Magpul don’t get along, but even with USGI mags, it’s tricky getting the bullet depth right so that it feeds through the magazines properly.  I expect that once I can get some of the more popular bullets, I’ll have a little more success with feeding.  I’ll keep everyone updated as I experiment with different bullets.  Some longer 150gn are next on the list.

Now for the good.  It feels fantastic!  It’s like the difference between a 9mm and .45.  The feel is more of a thump than a crack.  It also seems quieter than the .223 round.  When I went down range to look at my targets, the difference in diameter between the .223 and the 300 BLK is impressive.  It also seems like it’s a bit cleaner than .223, but this isn’t scientific, just my impression.  Long story short, even with the ammo availability and magazine feeding issues, I love it so far.  I know some of the issues will be worked out over time as I develop good load for my setup.  I have a bunch more thoughts on it, but we can dig deeper in another post.

BaldSinceBirth

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3 Responses to 300 Blackout, First Impressions

  1. JD Rush says:

    What Speed number is the bullet? My Blackout eats 125 grain Speed TNT like candy, if you load them around 2.08 to 2.09″ OAL. Pmag or GI. I even tried some Speer 130 grain round nose. They fed fine in my rifle, though many people have trouble with them.

  2. Old NFO says:

    Your experiences seem to mirror most of the rest I’ve seen. Good luck on the ammo!!!