.30 AP effective from an AAC 300 BLK?

[DMGunn]

I have started on a 300 BLACKOUT rifle - in fact, I have everything gathered but the tax stamp and barrel... I am quite excited about this cartridge for a fun toy. But is it safe to assume if I were to load up some of the old 165gr M-2 projectiles that I would be disappointed in their performance?

Short version of the question is, what is the minimum velocity for which these bullets were designed to be effective, and can the 300BLK reach the needed speed?

[tpd223]

Effective for what?


At slower speeds they will be less of an AP than when launched from a 30-06.

[SethB]

Depends on what you are trying to get through.

Sometimes velocity is bad.

[Thomas M-4]

Ap is dependent on velocity going to a sub-sonic will decrease its performance.

[DMGunn]

Common sense would tell me that AP bullets are dependent on some amount of speed to function as designed......I am guessing from the responses that there is no table or rule of thumb that would demonstrate the loss of performance at specific fps against specific materials? Surely this has been researched at length by some entity? Or no....

[strambo]

Well, do up a ballistics table for 30.06 with that bullet weight, then research some data on what M2 AP will penetrate at various distances. Then...correlate the distance to the ballistics table to get the impact velocity, that will tell you what the 300BK can do based on its velocity.

I have some of those projectiles that I load in my 300WM at 3200 fps!

[DocGKR]

Seth B,

When is more velocity bad for a true AP projectile?

[tpd223]

I always thought AP + more velocity = more gooder

There is a reason why APDSFS rounds from the main gun on an M1 are going like 6000+ fps.

[Todd.K]

Ap is dependent on velocity going to a sub-sonic will decrease its performance.

A 165gr bullet is not limited to subsonic in 300 BLK but it probably won't have enough velocity to make it very AP.

[SethB]

Seth B,

When is more velocity bad for a true AP projectile?

Depends on which projectile you are talking about. But a lot of the steel core stuff will fragment if you drive it fast enough.

But you already knew that.