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I have a .30 can coming sometime before the end of the year (hopefully) and have been thinking about building a short upper to run it on. What kind of accuracy and range could I expect out of an 8-9 inch barrel using a subsonic reload? Also, anyone have any loads they would like to share and what projectile is going to work for HD and some general plinking?
Thanks in advance.
For plinking steel I've loading 220 Sierra MK with 10.7 grns of Accurate 5744..I havent chronographed it yet but should be around 1000 FPS. Pretty quiet through my can and can hit steel by holding over out to 200 yds.
I have an 8.2" Noveske and it is capable of 1 inch groups with both super and subsonic loads. The thing with the 300 BLK is you really have to work at it to get decent accuracy compared with other cartridges.
A1680 seems to be the king for subsonics, and my smallest group was with a Hornady 208 and 10.2 grs. of A1680. It's was little slow at 927 fps. that particular day, but it was under an inch. It needs to go faster, but I just haven't spent more time with it.
H110 or Lil Gun are likewise tops for supersonics. For HD, hunting or anything else where you want performance, the Barnes Tac-TX 110 gr. black tip is apparently the best it gets. Just work up your load for the most velocity you can get, while maintaining accuracy.
For general plinking on the cheap, use 147-150 mil-spec or surplus bullets. It made no sense but one of my smallest groups came with one of those.
The best internet site, in my opinion, for 300 BLK info. is 300blktalk.com
Great info guys, exactly what I was looking for. Gives me a general direction to start with. Thanks.
Darr3239 has summed up most of the great advice. There are other powders that are also suitable for supersonics - 300-MP is newer, and excellent, powder by Alliant. Others include IMR 4227 and VV N110.
AA1680 is the gold standard for sub loads as it provides the best reliability for cycling. I have used between 10.3 and 10.7 gr under a variety of bullets (190 Nosler, 210 SMK, 208 Amax) with good results out of my pistol-gas 16" Noveske while suppressed. Range is limited by the high ES that many subsonic loads suffer from as well as very high drop (12-18"+) over these ranges. Accurate ranging is critical past 100 yds.
If you are really enterprising, another neat combo is 168 SMK over 5.4 gr of Red Dot. Does not cycle the action, but INCREDIBLY quiet, as Red Dot is very fast burning and consumed completely by the end of the barrel. When I say quiet, I mean like a BB gun or less.
300blk talk is the best resource for you.