.300 Blackout: Thoughts for a comfortable hunting rifle

7055steved

7055steved

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Hey cgn, I was on a course at work recently and got talking to a colleague who was building a .300 Blackout for deer hunting and it got the wheels turning in my head.

Most of the deer hunting I do is stationary at 10 to 200 yards tops. So the slow moving round would be fine for lots of my hunting scenarios when combined with purpose built subsonic hunting bullets (Maker or Lehigh for example) and good shot placement. It would also have hardly any recoil and low noise, so it would be a treat to shoot it while hunting without hearing protection.

I'd like to keep away from a semi for this rifle and don't really want to spend a ton of money on what may turn out to be a novelty. I've kind of narrowed down my options to either a Ruger American Ranch with its 16" barrel, or buy a used Savage/Stevens 200 off the EE in 223 and rebarrel with a 26" McGowan. It seems like the Savage option might be a few hundred dollars more and a bit of a project vs just buying the Ruger and off I go...

My question is, is the noise reduction of the longer barrel and possible accuracy gains of the higher quality barrel worth the extra few hundred bucks, or should I just get the Ruger? Are you Ruger American Ranch shooters finding subsonics are already quiet enough in your rifles?
 
26” barrel kind of takes away from a 10-200 yard rifle?
Besides the 300 Blackout burns most of its powder in the first 7”
Ruger would be cheaper option, but rebarrels are fun too...but go 16-18 tops
 
Accuracy gains with sub-sonic loads will largely come from a fast twist rate - you'd want to try and find the fastest available. Any of my research points to 1/7 being about the fastest in a bolt gun, thats at least commonly available. It was also originally developed to get the most out of a 9" barrel, a 16" within reasonable distances will likely give you great performance.

Another thing to remember is that most barrels in the US are 16" because of their short barrel rifle laws, and the additional tax stamp + wait time. Since we're only limited by overall length, it'd be pretty interesting to mess with a fast twist, short as possible barrel (while maintaining the 26" overall length).

You probably can't go wrong with the Ruger American at all.
 
For a bush / tree-stand / scouting Rifle in 300 Blackout, I was thinking 20 inch Barrel (Same as most win 30-30) or what length/ (thickness) barrel would Balance well on a Savage Action ..
(26 inch is prob too long, and front heavy)

Before you get a Barrel think of what you are going to feed it ... I have heard cast 247g air cooled subsonic put deer in the cooler
any of the common bullets that are used for the 30-30 (thin jackets) would preform best in the 300.
But do your research on barrel twist for what you are shooting 1/7 or 1/8 most common



thinking red dot 0-150 yds for my older eyes

sound report would be less than any of the Magnums out there
 
Before you get a Barrel think of what you are going to feed it ... I have heard cast 247g air cooled subsonic put deer in the cooler
any of the common bullets that are used for the 30-30 (thin jackets) would preform best in the 300.
But do your research on barrel twist for what you are shooting 1/7 or 1/8 most common
Click to expand...

Eh, there's more than enough projectiles actually designed for subsonic... and realistically supersonic use out of .300 blackout, I don't know why you would attempt to use a .30-30 projectile that's not designed at all to expand at subsonic velocities.
 
I'm getting 2400fps with 110 and 125gr bullets
the difference is the powder (bullet diameter too)
ballistics like this get me slightly further than 357 mag but not by much
 
I run a 20 inch barrel, have 2 of them, one is built on a weatherby vangaurd 1 that has nothing stock left on it, and the second is on a stevens 200 in prairie laminate boyds stock. both of them got shot to 300 yards with 155 grain bullets regularly, well out of it's hunting range it still hits like a hammer at 200 yards, 125 grain bullet would be the better option for deer. recoil is mute, and the muzzle blast.....wait, what muzzle blast???
 
Thanks for the feedback. The rebarrel would have a 1-7" twist as my research says the same, that a minimum of 1-8" is required to stabilize the heavy long subsonic hunting bullets I have in mind.

While I was out deer hunting this morning with my favourite ultralight 308, I was reminded of playing with some subsonics I had made in 308. They were 110 gr flat nose and the 1-10" twist on my two 308 rifles seemed to stabilize them nicely (they're much shorter than the subsonic hunting bullets). I used magnum primers for good ignition with a few grains of Trail Boss. They were about as loud as a 22 LR subsonic, and the noise difference between 22" and 26" was nil. This brought my pondering to a different plan of attack here: I could use this as an excuse to rebarrel my 308 to a 20-24" barrel with a 1-7" twist. This would stabilize some subsonic hunting loads with purpose built bullets, and could also stabilize regular weight of 30 cal bullets. Does anyone have experience with the issues of "overstabilizing" bullets with a twist rate that is too fast? Say shooting a conventional 150-168 gr bullet out of that twist at regular 308 speeds?
 
If the 1-7" twist would be too fast for conventional bullets at conventional speeds in 308, then it sounds like the Ruger would be a fine option for a nice comfortable deer rifle. I'm almost just as excited about the handloading fun to be had with subsonic hunting loads as I am for hunting with them haha
 
https:// makerbullets .com/ proddetail.php?prod= 308180SBLK
I broke up this link on purpose in case my post would be blocked otherwise. I think I may have solved my own problem here... This bullet is designed for subsonic hunting with a 1-10" twist barrel. I already have one of those on my 308 ;-)
 
As a handloader and in a standard-sized bolt action, I'd stick with a fast twist 308. For supersonic heavy bullet loads, I've pushed 200gr ELD-X at 2400 fps with a long-throated Mauser rifle - 3.05" COL. That was a 1:10 twist. Now I'm running a Savage with a shorter throat so I can't match that. I haven't tried my 230gr Lee bullet mold yet but 190gr cast bullets seemed to do well with Trail Boss through the 10 twist.
 
I use subsonic cast lead for grouse and rabbits so I have no clue about big game terminal performance with the subsonic loads. As far as a 1:7 or 1:8 twist with conventional loads, I doubt it would cause a problem; I've found over stabilization to be non-existent in my Mauser 96 and my AR15. With thin jacketed varmint bullets at extreme velocities it can reportedly cause bullets to come apart mid flight but, again, I have no first hand experience with that and it won't be an issue in a 308. Especially with thick jacketed big game bullets.
 
The 300AAC is a 300 yard deer cartridge when loaded with the Barnes 110gr Tac-Tx. I have hundreds of them leftover from my Blackout, and lots of brass if anyone is interested
 
Thanks for the input everybody. I think I will try the bullets that I found from Maker and if I go for a rebarrel then I'll lean towards a faster twist. I like having the same main big game rifle for familiarity so if I can get a couple different roles out of it then all the better for me. Thanks again!
 
It's difficult to 'over stabilize' a projectile. The bigger issue is more traditional projectile design and not being able to handle the revolutions created by faster twists - which could case them to come apart mid-flight, as mentioned above.
 
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