#.300Aac

SIG Sauer has a new round for users of the 300 Blackout. The bullet weight is 205 gr with a tip designed for hunting varmints and predators.

Many AR-15 enthusiasts and hunters have a strong appreciation for .300 AAC Blackout because of its versatility and available grain weight range. It has very similar ballistics to a traditional AK-47 chambered for 7.62x39mm ( .300 AAC Blackout is 7.62x35mm metrically), but you have the popular American platform of an AR-15.

If we can make a round that is significantly better than the existing 5.56mm or 7.62mm ammunition, shouldn’t the military just bite the bullet and switch, to the benefit of the servicemen and women in harm’s way? What’s stopping the powers that be from making the incremental improvements that everyone knows are possible?

With the recent push for small arms ammunition with increased range, power and capability, are military customers in danger of being taken for a ride by industry marketeers working to sell rifles in new calibers? Is the primary driving force behind new infantry calibers not in fact a need to be addressed, but a desire to sell weapons in a stagnant small arms market?

What do you get when you take the venerable speedster 7.62 Tokarev, and load it with a muzzleloader-style sabot and 50gr .22 cal projectile? You get one of the most interesting pistol, submachine gun, and personal defense weapon ammunition concepts there is!

The .300 AAC Blackout has enjoyed wild popularity over the last few years. Its subsonic performance is a big part of the marketing appeal, but there is little practical need for subsonic ammunition for most users. Subsonic ammo, no matter how cool, is still subsonic. At least so far as terminal effect is concered, 220 gr subsonic .300 AAC is no better than .45 Auto. In some ways, .45 Auto is better since there are projectiles for it that will actually expand when fired through heavy clothing. Now, before someone accuses me of saying that subsonic .300 AAC is useless or pulls out the worn out rejoinder of “I dare you to let me shoot ya with it,” I need to point out that no, it isn’t totally useless. Some folks have found it particularly well suited to discrete pest control and hunting. And no, I don’t want to be shot with it. I don’t want to be shot with a slingshot, either, but that doesn’t make it suitable for defense. Hey, subsonic .300 AAC is still fun. It’s okay to like it. Just because it isn’t practical doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it.

You are probably well aware that even the very best soft armor is no help against rifle ammunition. Even relatively slow cartridges like 7.62x39mm and .300 AAC can still easily slice right through level IIIA armor. But what if several panels were layered on top of each other? Would it be enough to stop a rifle bullet? That is to say, obviously if you have enough layers of Kevlar you can stop any bullet but can you do it without looking like Ralphie’s brother in “A Christmas Story”? What if the shooter was far enough away? At some distance, it certainly could. At some distance, a cotton T-shirt could stop a bullet, but is it possible for a reasonable amount of soft armor to stop a rifle bullet at a speed that we can all agree is still truly a rifle bullet? To answer that question as definitively as is feasible, we shot a stack of four armor panels with a relatively slow .300 AAC load.

Honey badger doesn’t give a crap, it gets right back up like nothing happened.

Russian company, Lobaev Arms, has developed a fully suppressed sniper rifle called the DVL Lobaev 10 Saboteur. The rifle is designed for short ranges (0 – 650 yards) but optimized for the lowest possible sound signature. To achieve this they also designed a brand new cartridge called the .40 Lobaev Whisper.

This post was written as a companion to an upcoming Gun Guy Radio podcast, hosted by Ryan Michad. The discussion below will be expanded upon in the show when it’s released later this month, but for now, read on to learn more about the past, present, and future of infantry weapon calibers!

Finnish ammunition maker Lapua is introducing three new cases to its ammunition components line: The .300 AAC Blackout, the 7mm-08 Remington, and the 8×57 JS (8mm Mauser). From the press release: