No, I am not referring to the California power grid.
I am talking about the two Blackout cartridges: 300Blackout and 8.6Blackout.
I was re-configuring my 8.6Blackout boltgun and that got me thinking about the niche that these cartridges occupy.
Both are appealing if you are looking for something that works in both supersonic and subsonic guises. If you take subsonic out of the equation, they still have appeal, but a lot less of it.
For me, both subsonic and supersonic performance is important.
Subsonic use is for night time pig hunting at moderate distances and home defense applications. I also enjoy subsonic long distance shooting.
Supersonic performance, for me, is all about hunting.
Both Blackout cartridges are underbore designs which makes them nicely efficient with short barrels and imminently suitable for suppressed use.
At the moment, I have one 8.6Blackout rifle and three 300Blackout guns.
The 8.6 was configured with ATF's potential shenanigans in mind, so it is built around a 16" barrel. I am at the moment experimenting with what would be an ideal scope for it. In the attached picture it has Vortex' excellent Razor Gen3 1-10x24, but I think I will go with something that has a larger objective soon enough.
All three of my 300Blackouts are set up as pistols with shorter barrels (7", 8" and 10.5" ) and pistol braces. I am in the process of getting all three of these re-configured to be compliant with ATF's new rules. As retarded as I find these regulations, I make it a point to be compliant with the laws and regulations of the land. There is a philosophical point in play here, but that's a discussion for another day.
The question that is coming up in my mind is whether now that I have to re-work these guns, I should keep them in the same 300Blackout chambering or do something else with them.
For hunting, I think 8.6 has completely superseded 300Blackout for my purposes. Between the larger bullets and 1-3" twist, the 8.6" is a notably superior hunting cartridge with both subsonic and supersonic loads.
I have some subsonic expanding bullets heading my way.
Once they get here the 8.6 is it for hunting almost everything inside of 350-400 yards or so for me. I'd probably go with something flatter shooting for sheep. Maybe something a little more powerful for larger animals if I ever get to hunt them. For most of what I do, 8.6 is just right.
For home defense, my Honey Badger has been an ideal gun, but once I have to get the barrel up to 16", it looses some of its handiness. In the short term, I'll just take the pistol brace off and shoot it pressing forward into a tight sling. It is not ideal, but it works well enough.
With Honey Badger's 7" barrel, permanently mounting a suppressor is not a viable option. However, with 10.5" barrel on my other semi-auto 300BO, Griffin's GP7 can be pinned and welded to make it into a single stamp gun.
Eventually, I'll get my hands onto a semi-auto 8.6BO (like Q's upcoming Boom Box) and I do not yet know if it will fully replace my semi-auto 300BO or not. I can pin/weld a suppressor onto the BoomBox to make it into a single stamp gun as well.
Now, knowing me and given how much 300Blackout ammo I have, I am sure I will retain at least one gun chambered for it.
300BO obviously has a huge advantage in terms of standardization and component availability. As a supersonic hunting cartridge, it is also a very nice choice for recoil sensitive shooters. Ammo is cheaper as well.
Outside of that, I can't think of anything that 300BO does for me, that 8.6 does not do better.
Another quirk that makes it harder to justify 300BO is that Hornady just introduced subsonic 7.62x39 ammo with expanding 255gr bullets. I've got a few boxes to play with, but that will likely get its subsonic performance somewhere half way between 300BO and 8.6BO.
If it cycles in my AKs (as I suspect it will), that will be another nail in the coffin of my 300BO.
I am probably exaggerating a bit, but it sure looks like everything is conspiring against 300BO.
What do you think, gentlemen? Which way would you go in my place?
