Planning ahead

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Hopefully, I'll move some of my thompson center gear soon. With that money- I'm thinking about building up a 300 blk upper. It would be nice to have a cast bullet friendly AR ready to go, and I think that might be what happens next. Most likely it will be either a model 1 build or a DSArms, as they both have reasonably priced 300 blk uppers ready to go. If I go DSArms, I'll have to use all low caps and hack off the bayonet lug to be compliant with NYS AWB- which allows only 2 ban features (pistol grip and flash hider would max me out- so even though I own NYS legal high caps, never the two shall meet). If I knuckle up and eat the extra 50 bucks, I can go with the model 1 build, which will allow for use of my high cap mags.

Now the 300 blk is an interesting cartridge. Coming from the 300 whisper / fireball / 300-221 lineage, the cartridge basically tries (in my opinion) to emulate the best facets of the 7.62x39 cartridge (which people often compare to the 30-30, but I think that is like comparing 357 sig to 357 mag- some loads look similar, others not so much) but being able to meaningfully cram the potency of the more powerful round into an AR15 platform while still being very agreeable to suppression. That being said, the availability of quality bullets, and the long range ballistics capabilities due to the good BC of modern 30 cal bullets, opens a lot of doors for the 300 blk.

Living in NYS, I have zero desire / opportunity to play with suppressors or silencers, but I do see the benefit of big, heavy, slow moving projectiles. 300 blk owners are getting 150 gr projectiles in the 1900 fps range, 175 gr projectiles are being pushed safely in the 1500fps range, and 225 gr projectiles are traveling in the 1200 fps range safely out of a 16 in barrel. Some of the more adventurous loaders have tagged at least another 150 fps on all of those loads with proper bullet and powder combinations. That puts these loads at a minimum of 700+ foot pounds of energy, and has some of them tipping the scales at 1400 fpe. That puts the 300 blk easily in the class of the 44 magnum for energy, with the added benefit of low recoil, better ballistic coefficients, and a very easy to use rifle format.

Finally, when playing with 200+ gr bullets, the velocities are slow enough that you can get away without gas checks if you find a lube / powder combination that works for your rifle. That translates to huge savings for anyone out there who owns a sufficiently sized 30 cal mold. Also with 820 pd loads being worked up that will still cycle carbine actions, this setup could feasibly become my cheapest, and most fun high capacity rifle to play around with.

stay tuned.