300 blk whats your thoughts?

mattgoulding

mattgoulding

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For a while I have toyed with the idea of getting a bolt gun in 300 black out. Now let me start off by saying this will not be my main hunting rifle. It will be a coyote/beaver/ranch rifle for popping unwanted critters around the farm, and maybe a doe when I fill my main tag with my normal hunting rifle.

Looking to hear feedback from guys who have experience with the caliber, the good the bad. Success you have had hunting with it. Is it worth looking in to at all?

Let me know your thoughts.
 
I have a 20 inch barrel on a weatherby vangaurd and shoot it regularly out to 300 yards, 125 to 180 grain bullets. I would not hesitate to hunt with it out to 150 yards on deer sized game but beyond that 2 things tend to happen, the bullet drops like a rock, and it slows down like a ford pinto racing up a steep hill after starting out rolling down hill, bullet drop alone from 200 yards to 300 yards is on average 5 MOA, any misjudge in distance is going to be a bullet in the dirt and no dirt nap for the prey
 
yodave said:
I have a 20 inch barrel on a weatherby vangaurd and shoot it regularly out to 300 yards, 125 to 180 grain bullets. I would not hesitate to hunt with it out to 150 yards on deer sized game but beyond that 2 things tend to happen, the bullet drops like a rock, and it slows down like a ford pinto racing up a steep hill after starting out rolling down hill, bullet drop alone from 200 yards to 300 yards is on average 5 MOA, any misjudge in distance is going to be a bullet in the dirt and no dirt nap for the prey
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I hunt a lot with a 357 or a 44 mag bolt gun so I am use to hunting game with in “bow range” we will call it. What twist rate is that barrel? 125-180 gr is what I was thinking for the weight of bullet I would want to shoot also.
 
if you reload you're in for a treat
with regular powders my 300BLK is just shy of the performance of a 357mag
but with CFE-BLK I can send a 180gr bullet at near 1800fps from a 16" bbl
good enough for dispatching critters
 
mattgoulding said:
I hunt a lot with a 357 or a 44 mag bolt gun so I am use to hunting game with in “bow range” we will call it. What twist rate is that barrel? 125-180 gr is what I was thinking for the weight of bullet I would want to shoot also.
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8 twist barrel, I shoot right up to 225 grain subs for short distance plinking.
It's a handloaders dream, my 168 grain loads are closing in on 2000 fps, I load for accuracy over speed so not sure what the real numbers are, but basically max load of CFE BLK for almost everything but ramshot enforcer for the 125 grain, accuracy with that came a couple grains down below max load
 
yodave said:
8 twist barrel, I shoot right up to 225 grain subs for short distance plinking.
It's a handloaders dream, my 168 grain loads are closing in on 2000 fps, I load for accuracy over speed so not sure what the real numbers are, but basically max load of CFE BLK for almost everything but ramshot enforcer for the 125 grain, accuracy with that came a couple grains down below max load
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I’m with you on the reloading for accuracy over speed. Nice to hear from a few guys who understand what they are talking about when it comes to the blackout. This is the kinda information I was looking for, plus a few hunting stories thrown in.
 
I wish my reamer had of had a little less freebore, my bullets are right at the end of the neck in order to be 50 thou off the lands, hindsight is having the reamer spec'd to the heaviest of the bullets I was planning on shooting seated to the neck/shoulder junction. If I had to change anything about my build if I were to do it all over again, that is the one thing I would change for sure.
If you're never planning on shooting anything heavier then 165/180 that is the one thing I would look into over the standard match chamber reamer
 
legi0n said:
if you reload you're in for a treat
with regular powders my 300BLK is just shy of the performance of a 357mag
but with CFE-BLK I can send a 180gr bullet at near 1800fps from a 16" bbl
good enough for dispatching critters
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'm working up loads for me RAR using hardcast boolits in the 165-180 gr range. I'll soon find out how well they do.
 
I had one for a short while and I concluded that it answered a question that didn't need to be asked in Canada. If we could have suppressors and AR's to hunt with I would be all over it but.... we can't, so I don't see as it does anything better than a ton of other cartridges you probably already have. If you have to have one just because, fill your boots but in reality, here in Canada, it's just an anemic 30 cal that's no better than a 30-30, if that.
 
elimsprint said:
it's just an anemic 30 cal that's no better than a 30-30, if that.
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A fact stated above by elimsprint & 30-30 ammo is less expensive.

I've loaded, cast & shot the 300Whisper(sub-heavies) & 300 Blk Out (sub & super-light(110gr) & heavies(180-250)for plinking & vermin for decades thru AR carbine platforms.
No Hodgdon powders used-Shooters World SBR & BlkOut Rifle for my Whisper/Blk Out uppers.
 
Skip the 300blk and go 300 ham'r! Then let us know your thoughts ��

I have a savage with a 300blk barrel. Few things that some might not realize. With the short cartridge, it wants to fall off the bolt face before it clears the raceway, unless I run the action exceptionally fast. The chamber opening is small compared to .308. Feeding anything except fmj/spire point is out of the question in this action. Single feeding rounds with cast lead flat point us also impractical... they just can't find the hole. Otherwise it's a nice soft recoil, and low muzzle blast in short bbl rifles. I regret not picking up a cz527 in one when I seen it, I think that little crf action might actually be suitable for the cartridge. Otherwise the cartridge is primarily intended solution in an ar platform. I'm wishing to return that savage of mine back to .223, with soft point ammo, the .223 is surprisingly effective on any thin skinned game. One of my favorite Australian pig shooting youtube channels uses .223 55grn soft point almost exclusively.

https://youtu.be/vRPMJiu6uKo
 
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elimsprint said:
so I don't see as it does anything better than a ton of other cartridges you probably already have. If you have to have one just because, fill your boots but in reality, here in Canada, it's just an anemic 30 cal that's no better than a 30-30, if that.
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Oh I am well aware of how anemic it is, and I agree it does the same thing as my 357 mag and my 30-30 and others I own. Just something about it makes me want to try it, but I have no idea why.
 
Big JD-From the hills said:
Skip the 300blk and go 300 ham'r! Then let us know your thoughts ��

I have a savage with a 300blk barrel. Few things that some might not realize. With the short cartridge, it wants to fall off the bolt face before it clears the raceway, unless I run the action exceptionally fast. The chamber opening is small compared to .308. Feeding anything except fmj/spire point is out of the question in this action. Single feeding rounds with cast lead flat point us also impractical... they just can't find the hole. Otherwise it's a nice soft recoil, and low muzzle blast in short bbl rifles. I regret not picking up a cz527 in one when I seen it, I think that little crf action might actually be suitable for the cartridge. Otherwise the cartridge is primarily intended solution in an ar platform. I'm wishing to return that savage of mine back to .223, with soft point ammo, the .223 is surprisingly effective on any thin skinned game. One of my favorite Australian pig shooting youtube channels uses .223 55grn soft point almost exclusively.

https://youtu.be/vRPMJiu6uKo
Click to expand...

Thank you for bringing that up. Maybe I will be better off getting a barrel for my encore in 300 blk then buying a bolt gun. Would help with being able to chamber and shoot different shape bullets
 
mattgoulding said:
Thank you for bringing that up. Maybe I will be better off getting a barrel for my encore in 300 blk then buying a bolt gun. Would help with being able to chamber and shoot different shape bullets
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Yeah was a total oversight on my part when I bought that gun. loaded up some nice 180 Grain cast lead flat points and I was like dang, these feed mint from my tikka .308. On an interesting note it takes 8grains of pistol powder in .308 to make the same velocity as 5grn in the 300..... but now that primers arnt $30 per 1k........ cost difference is nothing. Just was wanting one gun to stay setup for that "pest control" load, and my tikka precision rifle setup for the serious business. On a side note you don't need much if any lube running 300blacklout through the sizing die....
 
300 HAM'R is your huckleberry...anyone wanna go in halfers with me on a reamer set from PT&G? :p I've been planning a Howa Mini project with that chambering for awhile now.
300BO is fine if you lived in a suppressor friendly environment.
 
I have a personal affection for small capacity cartridges and their miserly powder consumption.
I believe the .223 case is incredibly under utilized. The necked up wildcats based on it get stellar reviews by the few who run them but their popularity remains low. The .300blk is the glaring exception to this however it’s whole design is wrapped around fitting subsonic heavies in an ar platform. As noted above, we don’t get to play with suppressors and ARs are a sore subject... in a bolt build for supersonic loads a full length.223 case blown out to .30cal (aka 30/223, .30apache, 30tcu) provides a significant velocity advantage. I made a long, single stage expander mandrill and can resize annealed range brass in one shot.
 
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