AR 15 pistol 300 BO no good

[Nuclear Worker]

On a side note I shot my last one with the hornady sub x ammo. I've had no luck with any subs before they just pencil through and either don't expand or barely expand.
These sub x actually work I shot behind shoulder and had a very nice 1.5" exit wound and lungs were in rough shape. Very nice blood trail on that one.
Might be worth a try for your limited distance shooting.

Thanks for the info

 

[Nuclear Worker]

W

Thanks for the info

What-length barrel are you or they using?

 

[snox801]

I have an 8.5" and a 16" I use the most of. I get very little diffrence in speed from one to the other. I can't recall what my fps was with the 8.5" but I know is was very close to the 16". That's the beauty of the blk barrel length doesn't play as much of a factor as with the .223.

 

[Gord0]

I'm not knocking the 300 Black out because I don't have one. So I was interested in finding out more about this very popular cartridge.

In my research I found that about the best it could do with a 150 grain bullet was just barely over 2,000 ft/sec in a 16 " barrel. in a pistol velocity would be down from that 2 to 400 ft/sec. Add distance (50 yards) and the 150 grain bullet would be at or below the minimum design velocity of 1800 ft/sec for performance, and you could not expect it to perform perfectly every time, or even most of the time.

I also ran the 125s and found that the best velocity you could expect was around 2400 at best. the subsonic velocity was just over 1000 ft/sec for the 125 and 871 for the 150.

So it looks like the bullet does not have much of a chance to perform at these velocities. Full penetration is easy as long as the bullet does not fragment and damage could be compared to an arrow with a lot
less velocity and energy. In fact many times when I was bow hunting a field tip was used for hogs when they were not good to eat and the desire was for them to run off and not mess your deer hunt. (The arrow normally made a complete pass through). but the hog still died.

Again, not knocking the 300 black out but in my opinion you are asking to much of the cartridge and the bullet when hunting larger game like deer and hogs.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

Hey J E, what were you using for powder on those 150gr loads? I'm running the 150gr Speer gd BLK at 1850fps out of my 7.5" pistol with CFE BLK. They're pretty awesome.
Edit: These were ballistics gel tests done not by myself.

To the op, 300BLK is a great round in certain areas. Same as a 22lr and a 300wm. Sounds like the deer season xp worked well, just didn't have enough oomph to make it all the way through. Since you don't reload it limits your options for a hunting bullet. The 6.5 Grendel will definitely have more options. It also works great in shorter barrels. A 12.5" 6.5 Grendel won't lose much to a 16".

 

[CaptnC]

Gord0
"The 6.5 Grendel will definitely have more options. It also works great in shorter barrels. A 12.5" 6.5 Grendel won't lose much to a 16"."

IMO the Grendel is not the same type of cartridge as a BO...it not the same class.

I don't believe the Grendel was intended to be used as a slow sub velocity loading. For a start the 6.5 bullet selection is no where close to that of the 30 cal.

The smaller bullets allow a lot more room for powder in the case. I see guys complain quite a bit on the Grendel site because they don't get it. They use a short barrel and don't get the velocity they want.

My 20" barrel get a solid 100 fps over my 18" with the exact same load combos. I've tried to tell them 2500fps is a lot better than 2000fps with 120gr bullets.

But they see the BO guys successfully shooting 200gr bullets out of a 8" barrel and think they can do the same thing with 120gr bullets...that's two different animals.

 

[Dr. Mac]

Sounds like a typical heart shot deer no matter what it was shot with. They are dead but most of the time it takes them running 50 or so yards for that message to get to their brain. If you want to drop them in their tracks use a high front shoulder shot. Yep the 6.5 Grendel is a good one. Killed a deer a couple weeks ago with one. Used a hand loaded 120 Speer Gold Dot, Hornady case, 28 grs IMR 8208, CCI 450 out of my 20" barrel AR does 2550 fps. Smoked the deer at 111 yards. Shot was to center of chest facing me. Deer dropped and did a little break dance and died. The hydrostatic effect of the bullet pulped the heart and lungs and broke the first 2 to 3 ribs on both sides and broke the left scapula but bullet held together going completely through the gut and exited the belly about 6 inches in front of the crotch with about a thumb size hole. I have killed hundreds of deer with about most everything between a stick and 45-70 with many different makers bullets but I have never seen the type of effect that these Gold Dot bullets deliver. It seems that the bullet expands violently upon impact but holds together and exits. The Gold Dots might not have the highest ballistic coefficient but they seem to be awesome killers.

Exact same load with the Hornady 123 SST with same results. 6.5 Grendel hits way above its weight class or paper ballistics. Same for the 6.5x55.