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July 27th, 2014 at 3:07 pm
Another nail on the coffin of 6.8. Not that 6.8 was ever doing well, or that Bison Armory has any pull, just here you have a retailer that chose 6.8, tried to do a 6.8sub, and later just tosses in the towel and supports the competing platform.
July 28th, 2014 at 7:37 am
Isn’t 300BLK just another 6.8, though?
Not starting an argument, but just really curious if I missed the part where 300BLK ammo was cost effective and available in mass quantities. Years ago I had a conversation with the Rem guy behind this whole thing and asked him why Remington never produced anywhere near the ammo they said they would. They introduced the round then walked away – just like they did with 6.8. No answer. Just posturing. Pissed me off.
I want to shoot 300BLK but I don’t have any interest in reloading (which is where 300 seems to have the biggest uptake), or paying a buck a pop.
So what’s a guy to do?
July 28th, 2014 at 9:29 am
Patrick,
If you don’t shoot suppressed, just stick with 5.56 or 7.62X39.
If you do shoot suppressed, then you are missing out by not adopting 300BLK.
300BLK will likely never be as cheap as 5.56, if for no other reason than it is 30Cal. If it will cycle a suppressed AR, then it is probably 220gr bullet or more…For that much material, you can make four 5.56 projectiles. The cost of brass and powder are not significantly different, but the bullet is where it’s at. That won’t change, unfortunately.
Of course, since the Administration is eliminating cheap Russian ammo…the cost of 5.56 may get much closer to what 300 BLK currently is.
July 28th, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Other Steve: we’ve hardly tossed in the towel. 6.8 has been and continues to be our bread and butter, but why would we ignore a popular caliber like the 300 BLK?
We continue with our 6.8 subsonic because it’s very cool and we sell a lot of it. We continue with 6.8 because it is 90% of our business. 6.8 remains the single best and most effective hunting caliber from an AR-15 rifle for deer sized game.
The 300 BLK is very interesting in pistol/SBR setups and that is where we are focusing for that caliber. The 6.8 is extremely versatile and ammo cost and availability really are not that bad.
July 28th, 2014 at 1:06 pm
I rednecked a 300BLK upper together out of a barrel and some spare parts, mostly for subsonic. It has a NV scope on it and waiting on NFA for a can. The night reaches out and touches you. There’s a wide range of .30 projectiles; you can load it from 110 to 220gr when you dial in the recipes. If you don’t load, well…
July 28th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
IMHO because .300 BLK uses the same bolt and magazines as 5.56x45mm Rather than being another 6.8 SPC, you can think of it as another .357 SIG.
.357 SIG will likely never be the most popular cartridge around, but so long as we still have .40 S&W it isn’t going anywhere.
July 28th, 2014 at 7:09 pm
@HL: Appreciate the information. I shoot a lot of suppressed (I have more suppressors than fingers, and haven’t suffered an industrial accident).
The only issues I have with 300NLK is availability of ammo. I don’t expect this to drop even close to Russian 7.62, but I want to see this come down via support from Remington, et al. They tossed it over the wall and ran. Right now I think it’s just slightly better than a wildcat round.
I might build an upper just to play with it, but the lack of ammo is a PIA. I typically like to keep one or two cases around, and at the current prices that is exorbitant. I am seeing well over $1 a round for name-brand factory ammo, and almost $.70 for reloads. Ouch.
My only reason for chiming in here was the proposition that this was better than 6.8.
In my book, it is the same exact scenario: Remington drops a load on the community and then retreats the second DoD/Mil/LEO look and say, “no thanks.” The rest of us get stuck reloading or paying overtly rapacious pricing. Remington screwed us again, by introducing a technically decent round that they abandon. I just don’t trust them anymore.
And if it requires reloading, it is “wildcat”. I got nothing wrong with that, but don’t consider it a commercially viable caliber. My fear is 300BLK is going to go away, and that reloading just isn’t worth the time for most of us.
If you like it, go for it. Not arguing against of calibers, just the idea that this is not some kind of wildcat/reloader special.
July 28th, 2014 at 7:44 pm
The thing with reloading this, is dependent on how much you’re willing to put into it, it doesn’t have to go away. It uses the same projectiles as your .308, cases resized from 5.56 (originally .221), and regular primers and powder. Won’t say easy peasy, but I’m not afraid of obsolescence. Of course, neither am I planning the thing for mag dumps in firefights, just short range, um… hunting, yeah, that’s the ticket.