Second thoughts about my 300BLK build

[shaneinhisroom]

I was planning on building a suppressed SBR in the very near future for home defense exclusively...but I was at a gun shop today and heard this:

"Shooting a suppressed 300BLK has the energy equivalent of shooting a suppressed .45, except with less mobility."

Sure, I can get on target faster, have a bigger magazine and can place shots on target a little quicker at home defense distances...but he has a point, and there's over a $1000 difference between a good canned .45 pistol and a good canned 330BLK rifle. Can someone reassure me?

[LTMattyL]

Are you going to use subsonic or supersonic ammo?

Looking at the different loads, the subsonic ammo is about the same as the 45ACP for muzzle energy. However if you go to supersonic, you will be ~3 times the muzzle energy of a 45ACP round.

I would build it and use supersonic rounds.

Just my .02.

[shaneinhisroom]

I was going to use subsonic, because of the noise factor if I have to use a firearm indoors. If I were going to use supersonic I would just use my suppressed AR

[chrismartin]

Don't forget about the ballistic coefficient of the bullet. A subsonic 300blk bullet will fly further, faster than a .45acp. You will also have a carbine platform to shoot it out of, which will have a longer sight radius and/or better optics than a pistol and (as mentioned) the ability to go supersonic

Now, if you are just looking for subsonic, suppressed blasting, go 9mm. It'll be more quiet, cheaper and you will have tons of pistol and carbine options.

[az doug]

For your single use, home defense, it may be the same as a .45 acp. A .45 handgun would win in the concealment department. However, the 300 blk carbine is much more versatile than a 1911.

It all depends on what you want it for.

[Packman73]

From the sounds of your intended purpose of home defense, I'd save the $ and get the .45 suppressed. But I'm weird like that (and I use a .45 for my bump-in-the-night gun.

[P2000]

What is wrong with supersonic suppressed in a 300 blk sbr? That is what I would consider darn near perfect for HD. I wouldn't go subsonic because you don't need to be that quiet and you don't want to sacrifice terminal performance.

[rob_s]

The question I've been asking lately, and haven't found an answer yet, is whether an expanding subsonic 9mm hollowpoint has better performance in soft targets than a non-expanding 300 BLK. I honestly don't know the answer or how to figure it out, but it's an interesting question.

[lowepg]

How about a 12ga and some ear plugs? ;-)

I think 45acp is just about the perfect choice for home defense (assuming you are staying INSIDE the house):

It's got plenty of power
It's much easier to keep safe (vs a long gun)
Unless you having training, A pistol is easier to navigate through tight corners, etc.
My glock21 holds 13rds - hard to imagine that isn't going to be enough for hom defense, but I keep a spare mag just in case.
great COMMERCIAL self defense loads are available.

[krichbaum]

I was, and I'm still, very excited about 300BLK. But I haven't bought in yet. My primary use initially would have been for fun at the range, and based on that I built a 9mm suppressed SBR instead. I don't regret that at all, it's a *really* fun setup and relatively cheap to shoot.

But, since I first heard about 300BLK I've been wondering the same thing Rob posted above. If you want to use it in an HD role with a subsonic round, is it any better or worse than the 9mm with quality expanding projectiles? I'd love to know the answer to that.

As was already mentioned, if I were to use 300BLK for HD, even suppressed, I'd probably want to use a supersonic load until I know more about the subsonic performance. That said, I'm sure there's some info out there and I haven't been looking for a while. I know there are people using subsonic 300BLK for hunting with success. For now I'm still using a short barrelled 5.56 AR loaded with barrier blind ammo for HD.