Ruger No.1 in .300 Blackout?

Stevebot-7

Stevebot-7

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Kool-aid time!

I am interested in the possibility of finding and/or putting together a Ruger No.1 in .300 Blackout because I am a hopeless fanboy and since I already stock .223 brass and .308 bullets this seems a better choice than 7.62x39 or 30-30 or one of those other more common calibers. Plus it's different and will make me feel like a unique snowflake for daring to defile the No.1 with such sacrilege. If I could get a load developed with IMR 4064 that would be perfect, but internet rumour tells me that it is a bit too slow. However that information was all for ARs, I'm not sure if the same goes for a single shot.

As I understand it, a .223 Remington receiver is the best place to start, right? Then all I would need is to lie/cheat/con my way into a freshly cut .300 blk barrel.

Then I'm going to put together some sort of Home Depot fence post frankenstock that is sure to horrify everyone.

Anyone have any recommendations? I've sent Prophet River firearms an email to see if they could bring in a .223.

If anyone has any advice or recommendations I would appreciate it.
 
You'll have to build it, cause you said it best... A No.1 in .300 AAC would be sacriledge of the highest order...why don't you consider a H&R Handi rifle... Cause they make it, it is reasonably priced and it is a really nice little gun... I had one for a month, until it sold at the range...
 
You can buy some cheap barrels from the US, but getting ones in Canada can be pricey. ATRS can do one for you, and can do a nice short barrel as well, but the costs are up there, if that sort of thing matters.
 
hoytcanon said:
You'll have to build it, cause you said it best... A No.1 in .300 AAC would be sacriledge of the highest order...why don't you consider a H&R Handi rifle... Cause they make it, it is reasonably priced and it is a really nice little gun... I had one for a month, until it sold at the range...
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I've been contemplating that, but partly I just really want to get a No.1. I have a Handi Rifle in .223, but the idea of getting a new rifle is a lot more exciting than the idea of getting a new barrel that H&R will fight tooth and nail to not ship to Canada, or that I'd probably end up spending a few hundred bucks on domestically. I could shop around for a complete one, but then comes the issue of the headspacing not being correct for my current receiver, and there's nothing I gain from having two Handi Rifle receivers when the barrels are meant to be swapped.
 
before you go to far What bullet are you going to shoot, I have seen data for 110g jacketed to 247g cast bullet

some of it for ar's but all of it can be used in a bolt gun

What velocity you are going to shoot them at sub sonic or past the speed of sound
as it will affect the barrel twist are you going to shoot 1/7,1/8 1/10/1/12

Twist ,velocity and bullet can give you small or big groups

You can get a barrel blank and get your gunsmith to get a reamer
 
I'm still a long way from deciding on what barrel twist.

I do have some Nosler 175gr HPBT that it would be nice if I could use, but I'm not fully decided on that either.

Tentative barrel length would be 16" or so, I have a suspicion that might give me some leeway in trying IMR 4064.

The internet tells me that 4064 "worked for supersonics but only marginally." without any sort of data about why it sucks, other than mention of it being an intermediate-slow burning powder. Is this real life sucks where the bullet will hit the ground fifty feet in front of you, or internet sucks where a 0.75" group at a 100 meters is unacceptable garbage accuracy that's not good for anything?

I'm not going to be trying to break any benchmark records, and if I wanted to be punished I'd get it done professionally, so I'm going to stick with this being a close range gun, probably with iron sights. I know where this cartridge's niche is and I'm not going to try to force it to be a .338 Lapua.

I've got a lot of reading to do in any case.
 
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I'm not sure why you'd want to go with a Ruger #1 ..... to be honest I'm not sure why anyone buys one of those things in any caliber but that is another discussion. There are several options for buying or building a 300 BLK but most of them are in bolt actions.

I'm also not sure why you'd want to use a slow rifle powder in this cartridge? 4064 would not work in an AR and any kind of non-semi-auto action will be considerably quieter with a fast burning pistol powder. I have been building bolt gun loads using VV N320 and a few other fast pistol powders.

My third question is why go with such a long barrel? The BLK burns all its powder in about 10". The most common barrel lengths range from 8 - 12". Longer barrels become finicky with subsonics and greatly increase the potential of sticking a bullet in the bore.

There are several guys on this board who have built 300 BLK bolt guns. Ask around there is lots of knowledge here.
 
I have an AR, a break action single shot, and a boltgun, the No.1 looked interesting.

Mostly, I have buckets of 4064 lying around because I use it for .223 and .308. Being able to use .223 brass, and .308 bullets, and sharing a powder between all three would have been some nice simplicity. I'm trying to avoid having too many types of powder lying around to minimize the chances of me exploding myself.

The whole idea is just the flavour of the month, I'm just tossing around ideas. I'm still researching the barrel length and just basing it off of short barrels generally being a hell of a lot louder than longer ones.

How much "considerably quieter" would a fast burning pistol powder be? Are we talking 60 decibles versus 87? More of a change, less? There's all sorts of internet forum drama burying any sort of technical documents or scientific testing that I've looked for. All I can see is videos of people going "Oh, that's so quiet!" after shooting with a microphone that is extremely unclear about how loud the sound actually is. Or supressor testing, that's all well and good, but it doesn't do me much good because I paid money for my guns, I don't get paid to shoot and have permission to use supressors.
 
Stevebot-7 said:
I've been contemplating that, but partly I just really want to get a No.1. I have a Handi Rifle in .223, but the idea of getting a new rifle is a lot more exciting than the idea of getting a new barrel that H&R will fight tooth and nail to not ship to Canada, or that I'd probably end up spending a few hundred bucks on domestically. I could shop around for a complete one, but then comes the issue of the headspacing not being correct for my current receiver, and there's nothing I gain from having two Handi Rifle receivers when the barrels are meant to be swapped.
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First, H&R won't ship "you" anything... But they deal with distributors and your LGS can get whatever you need. Second you say that now this must be a "swap barrel set," but in your original post you were going to do a No.1? Why not spend the $450 and buy a complete Handi in 300 BLK... If you do want to make it a swap barrel set you can fit the barrels to the better SB2 frame after trying them... Headspace is not the issue, fitment is the issue... In my experience about half the barrels will fit any given current frame, another 48% percent or so can be made to fit with some simple DIY jobs... I have fit dozens of barrels on SB2 and SB1 frames... I wont bore folks here, but you can PM me "if" you go that route.

P.S - You "should" get a No.1 they are a very fine platform, I love mine... Just not a BLK. No.1's are not range guns, what they offer is a particularly fine carry, supreme handling and feel, inherent pointability and excellent hunting accuracy... You can of course shoot them at the range, but if you are chasing itty-bitty groups there are better platforms...
 
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I want to do a No.1 build, but if I got a Handi rifle in 300 blk there would be no point in it having a separate receiver from my existing .223 Handi Rifle.

Why do you think 300 blk is only for the range? Having as a range gun is not my intent.
 
Stevebot-7 said:
I want to do a No.1 build, but if I got a Handi rifle in 300 blk there would be no point in it having a separate receiver from my existing .223 Handi Rifle.

Why do you think 300 blk is only for the range? Having as a range gun is not my intent.
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I don't think that the BLK is "only" for the range, I think that if you are going to spend the time and money on a platform that is at its best in the woods harvesting game, then you should choose a caliber which is better suited to that purpose... The BLK is a substandard cartridge for making things dead... The Ruger No.1 in .218 Bee didn't last long for a reason. I can't fathom why you are fixated on a second H&R receiver (seperate BLK gun) being "a waste?" And as I said, if you really just gotta, fit both barrels to one receiver and sell the other... The going rate for a new SB2 is around $100... Get some of your money back. I have swap barrel sets in MANY configurations and dozens of calibers... The fitting is easy and can be done by anyone... Half the time NO fitting is necessary. So in the end your total cost to scratch your ".300 BLK itch" is under $400. Then do your No.1 build in a truly functional and/or unique hunting caliber... Your investment will retain more value this way, should you decide to sell down the road... Anyway, you asked for opinions... There's mine... Good luck.
 
Stevebot-7 said:
Why is the 300 blk a substandard cartridge for hunting? What would be a more suitable unique hunting caliber?
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6.5X55, 7mm-08, 7X57, .280, .308, .30/06, .300 WM/NM, etc... Etc... Etc... Hey, its an opinion... You asked for it, and then you seem offended by it... To my thinking a .300 BLK No.1 makes no sense... But if you just gotta, then have at it... It will be unique because I don't see many jumping on that wagon...
 
Stevebot-7 said:
Mostly, I have buckets of 4064 lying around because I use it for .223 and .308. Being able to use .223 brass, and .308 bullets, and sharing a powder between all three would have been some nice simplicity. I'm trying to avoid having too many types of powder lying around to minimize the chances of me exploding myself.
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I have about a dozen different powders on my loading bench and have never mixed up one for the other. Just pay attention and keep one can open at a time.


The whole idea is just the flavour of the month, I'm just tossing around ideas. I'm still researching the barrel length and just basing it off of short barrels generally being a hell of a lot louder than longer ones.

How much "considerably quieter" would a fast burning pistol powder be? Are we talking 60 decibles versus 87? More of a change, less? There's all sorts of internet forum drama burying any sort of technical documents or scientific testing that I've looked for. All I can see is videos of people going "Oh, that's so quiet!" after shooting with a microphone that is extremely unclear about how loud the sound actually is. Or supressor testing, that's all well and good, but it doesn't do me much good because I paid money for my guns, I don't get paid to shoot and have permission to use supressors.
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I'm not sure exactly. I have never sound tested the difference in powders unsuppressed.

The BLK is a bit of a different animal because it is very efficient with small amounts of powder. Typical subsonic loads for an AR burn about 10gr of powder. The bolt gun loads I am working with currently are burning around 6gr of powder. I would suspect that noise reduction from powder alone would not exceed 10 dB which brings you down from 165 dB to around 155 dB. Not close to hearing safe but 10 dB is something like a 10x reduction in noise. You will hear the difference quite dramatically.

For full powder supersonic loads the shorter barrel will add a bit to the noise but not more than a few dB. In the end the BLK burns a lot less powder than something like the 223. Typical BLK supersonic loads burn about 18gr of powder compared to the 28-30gr of a 223.

The BLK is a plenty capable hunting cartridge. Within its performance envelope it kills things dead. For more info I would suggest hitting the 300 BLK Talk forum. There are loads of guys using this round for hunting on that forum. http://www.300blktalk.com/
 
hoytcanon said:
You'll have to build it, cause you said it best... A No.1 in .300 AAC would be sacriledge of the highest order...
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^ this is why a No 1 in .300BLK should be done.

Personally I hate being told that something can't or shouldn't be done based on what is deemed acceptable or appropriate. Build it I say.

*edited*

Didn't someone on here build/convert a Mini 14 into .300BLK awhile back?
 
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ShrtRnd said:
^ this is why a No 1 in .300BLK should be done.

Personally I hate being told that something can't or shouldn't be done based on what is deemed acceptable or appropriate. Build it I say.

*edited*

Didn't someone on here build/convert a Mini 14 into .300BLK awhile back?
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Nobody said "CAN'T" or "SHOULDN'T"... I said my "opinion" is that it doesn't make sense (to me - because that's what an opinion is)... If you live your life doing things just because you are told can't or shouldn't, you will end up doing a lot of "dumb azz sh#t." But to each their own...

Note; I did NOT say the BLK won't kill stuff... I said that it is "substandard..." Which it is when compared to the above noted calibers...

But again, if you wanna do it... Then go for it... The only reason any of us need is "cause I wanna..."

I'm working on a dumb azz project right now, that probably only makes sense to me...
 
Whoa, slow down son.. Wasn't a dig on you per say. Just used your quote to justify my take why it should be done as a project. Maybe bad wording on my part, so i openly apologize if i offended you. Wasn't my intention at all
 
ShrtRnd said:
^ this is why a No 1 in .300BLK should be done.

Personally I hate being told that something can't or shouldn't be done based on what is deemed acceptable or appropriate. Build it I say.
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Yeah, it probably stings extra-painfully when you try to sell a ridiculously inappropriate one-off project gun that no-one will have any interest in buying. Unless you think that this will be a keep-it-forever family heirloom (doubtful!), re-sale value is worth considering. The finest custom-grade rifles often sell for a fraction of the cost of their assembly, and these are guns which many people admire and appreciate...but they simply won't pay top dollar for someone else's idea of perfection. Just look at the responses to this thread, and extrapolate from that how small the re-sale market for this rifle will be when you tire of it. Generally speaking, fans of the #1 don't want a .300AAC, and fans of the .300AAC sure don't want a #1...at least not in the same gun.
 
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