Its more powerful, efficient, and lethal when fired out of short-barreled rifles than 5.56 ammo. Most bullets move faster than this speed, which is responsible for the loud crack a bullet makes as it travels through the air. Thanks for the help. If you spent a lot of time with your 300 BLK and couldnt get the precision you wanted out of it, maybe it wasnt you? If youre using subsonic bullets, then cut that range in half. On the plus side, though, it can also hold a heavier, wider bullet than the 5.56 and still work in an AR-15. The second a bullet leaves the muzzle of a gun, gravity begins pulling it toward the ground. You might think that a bullet approved by the military for killing peoplethe 5.56would be approved for killing deer and other wild game, but thats not the case everywhere. Ballistics data gives you a means of comparing one cartridge to another so that you can tease out their strengths and weaknesses and decide which one is the best choice for different jobs. PRESCRIPTION 3Bullet: 125-grain Nosler AccuBondPowder/Charge: Accurate 5744, 20.8 grains (compressed)Primer: Federal Small RifleCartridge Overall Length: 2.13 inchesMuzzle Velocity: 2,203 fps. Just like with the 190-grain VLD handload and most factory subsonic loads, bullet expansion was nonexistent and penetration was excessive. I was even able to switch back to heavy buffer and m16 spring. or do any combination of those things . There are five main reasons people use 300 Blackout ammo over 5.56 and other similar rifle cartridges: Lets cover each of these points briefly. Apparently not. 7.62x39mm is a respectable cartridge and so is .300 Blackout when it is loaded to supersonic velocity. The rounds cycle smoothly by hand so I don't think that is the issue. Group size was halved to a respectable measurement of around 2 inches. That's including two dismal groups caused by the inability to taper-crimp Nosler bullets. If you want to fire 300 Blackout through your AR-15, all you have to do is buy a 300 Blackout upper, slap it on your AR-15 lower, load up your AR-15 mags with 300 Blackout ammo, and start shooting. (L to R) 5.56 NATO, .300 BLK, .30 Carbine. Confusing 6ARC AR15 Gas Issue After Switching to Rifle +1 Barrel, Piston conversion and appropriate buffer and spring. You can find brands that make better ammo for certain applications, but its hard to match both the quality, quantity, and value of Hornady ammo. Solution for 300 AAC Blackout jamming! Surf around on Internet forums, and youll often see people saying they would never use a 300 Blackout for home defense because it will overpenetrate. The Hornady Full Metal Jacket Frontier 300 Blackout ammo is their value target practice cartridge, but since its Hornady its more than good enough for classes and competition. I dont have comments enabled on this site, to discuss this post, feel free to comment on it there. The alternative of using the correct magazine is beginning to sound more and more appealing. Well, firstly, the aluminum nose of this bullet allows it to penetrate relatively soft obstacles like drywall, glass, and plywood without falling apart like 5.56 would. . The bullet drops about 2 inches at 100 yards, 4 inches at 200 yards, 1 foot at 300 yards, 2.5 feet at 400 yards, and 5 feet at 500 yards. Well, someone did. If you live alone in a basement then this probably isnt much of a concern, since bullets that overpenetrate will just lodge in your collection of anime sex dolls. For example, you cant increase the weight of a 5.56 bullet to more than about 70-grains before it starts causing problems. Summary: The 300 Blackout is much better than the 5.56 at penetrating obstacles like rocks, walls, and trees, making it easier to hit targets hiding behind cover. For example, if you level your rifle at a target 100 yards away and fire, and the bullet hits 3 inches below where you aimed, then there were 3 inches of bullet drop. The 300 AAC Blackout was designed to achieve energies similar to the 7.6239mm Soviet in an AR-15 while using standard AR magazines at their full capacity. If youre going to use 300 Blackout ammo for hunting, though, its essential that you use hollow points, which are significantly more effective at killing big game than full metal jacketed bullets. Written By Michael Crites Licensed Concealed Carry Holder Reviewed by . Aero Precision M4E1 Complete Rifle. I recently finished a 300 blackout SBR build and I'm having some failure to extract issues. Although .30 Rem. Although theyre quieter, subs are also have significantly worse external and terminal ballistics and often dont have enough energy to make the gun operate properly. 10 mph wind coming at a right angle from the side of the shooter, 0.3 ballistics coefficient (about average for 300 Blackout). Hornady is known for being more or less the top dog of quality ammunition. 300 blackout uses very fast pistol powders and the pressure spikes optimum for cycling happens early. 300 Black Out Pistol Cycling Problem Fixed - YouTube Because velocity is critical to performance, this load should be a great match for an SBR. 2023 Springfield Armory. Copyright Ron Spomer Outdoors document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) Its light weight and high speed also causes it to fragment, which is great for tearing up soft targetslike peoplebut not so great when trying to penetrate hard targets like wood. The idea behind the .300 Blackout was to try to fix all these problems while retaining the format. I chose two Berger VLD bullets, the first of which was the company's 190-grain Hunting version. and 5.56 NATO loads. To increase bullet energy on target, increase the barrel length or the bullets ballistics coefficient. . This isnt an issue with 300 Blackout, which was designed so that it would properly cycle an AR-15 regardless of whether you use super- or subsonic ammo. Worth the price if your lifes on the line, though. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. While the cross-compatibility of our .300 BLK and 5.56 NATO rifles is highly desirable, it could be a potential risk if we do not check ourselves and make sure we are putting the right rounds into the right firearm. If you shoot one of these cartridges in a rifle with a 7-inch barrel, though, then youre only going to get about 900 fps in velocity. Typically, these bullets are the product of thousands of hours of computer-aided design and testing and are much more expensive to make than standard practice ammo, but theyre well worth the cost. You are using an out of date browser. This is particularly true at longer ranges, where bullets begin to drop faster and it becomes harder and harder to predict where they will land. If you also know a bullets ballistics coefficient, you can then use a ballistics calculator to estimate how much energy the bullet loses along its path to the target. We cannot show the process itself of resolving the problem due to YouTube TOS. We dive deep into the best of the .300 Blackout. Hornady 300 Blackout 125-grain Full Metal Jacket Frontier (Supersonic), Hornady 300 Blackout 125-grain Hollow Point American Gunner (Supersonic), Hornady 300 Blackout 208-grain A-MAX Hornady BLACK (Subsonic). With a bullet that isnt over stabilized, factors that can be detrimental to accuracy, such as a concentricity issue, can be mitigated. Another reason as to why a dedicated .300 BLK magazine would be beneficial is the markings on them. For bulk practice ammo I wet tumble all my 223 (5.56) / 300 blackout after resizing on the 650/RT1500. This is where a dedicated .300 BLK magazine can be tremendously useful. The bullet also weighs in at a hefty 188-grains, which gives it enough mass to keep pushing deep into the target after expanding. For example, a 55-grain 5.56 bullet bullet traveling just under the speed of sound1,050 fpsonly has 135 ft.lbf. A cartridge load for 7 to 11-inch barrels with slightly more gunpowder to increase the velocity out of short-barreled rifles. If you want to use subsonic ammo for classes, then go with their Hornady A-MAX Black subsonic ammo. There are many different theories on what makes the best hunting ammo. As deer ammo goes, thats slow, but only 200 fps slower than the old 30-30. At the time, the U.S. military was embroiled in multiple large scale urban battles across Iraq, and many special forces units had started using short-barreled rifles to make it easier to maneuver when fighting house-to-house. The gas tube is pinned. Why there are More Supply Chain Problem in our Future We dont need to get into the nitty gritty details right now, but the long story short is that the more you increase the length of a barrel, the more you increase the muzzle energy of the bullets you shoot through it. Its not uncommon for you to get a failure to eject or a failure to feed when using subsonic 5.56 ammo, which refers to any malfunction where the casing is pulled out of the chamber but not removed from the gun or when the next casing fails to enter the chamber. Imagine dumping a pile of money into a rifle and having it shoot some loads nearly 4 MOA!- I was that guy- something I seldon experience during the load development process. They do not detail the comprehensive training, procedures, techniques and safety precautions that are absolutely necessary to properly carry on similar activity. Magazines have a hard time feeding when you pack a mag . To learn more about the 7,62x40WT click here. I'm having a similar issue with a friends blackout pistol. A 300 Blackout bullet fired from a 10.5-inch barrel has almost the same muzzle energy as a 5.56 bullet fired from a 16-inch barrel. The 5.56 (pronounced five-five-six), also known as 5.5645 NATO or the 556, was designed in 1980 to work with the AR-15 rifle and is the standard rifle cartridge for all NATO forces, including the United States, England, Germany, and other countries. In the case of home defense, you want to incapacitate the person as quickly as possible, which basically means causing as much damage as possible. So, having a dedicated .300 BLK magazine will not only help safeguardagainst such risks, it will also guarantee more reliable functioning and feeding for your firearm. This was the case with the Nosler Ballistic Tip, which showed almost no expansion through the first 8 inches of penetration. The basis of their argument is that you want your rifle to have a barrel thats just long enough for all of the gunpowder to burn, and no longer. Jones envisioned with the cartridge's predecessor, the .300 Whisper. Summary: The 300 Blackout has significantly more muzzle energy than the 5.56, and this is particularly true when youre shooting these cartridges through shorter-than-average barrels. This presents little problem if you do not already own a 5.56mm rifle, but it seems fair to wager that the majority of prospective .300 Blackout owners also own AR-15 type rifles chambered in 5.56mm. This high velocity gives the bullet a muzzle energy of 1,358 ft/lbs, which is also about three times higher than most subsonic 220-grain 300 Blackout ammo and almost the same as supersonic 115-grain 300 Blackout ammo. As you can see, the 300 Blackout has about 100 (ftlbf) more energy than the 5.56 at almost every distance. Bullet trajectory is the path of a bullet as it makes its way to the target. Re: 300 blackout cycling issue???? The speed of sound is not a constant. Although more difficult, you can even adjust for the 2 feet of drop at 300 yards. Lehigh Defense 300 AAC Blackout 78-grain High Velocity Close Quarters. When youre blasting rotten fruit, rubber balls, and reinforced steel plates without any other goal than to see and hear things go splat and ping, then youre plinking. The 7.62x40WT is a nifty little cartridge for the modern hunter who wants to stalk game with a standard sized AR-15 M16/M4. The VLD Hunting bullet is designed to expand, but not at subsonic velocities. .300 AAC Blackout - Wikipedia Never miss a post! By utilizing a fast twist to stabilize the long heavy subsonic bullets, I suspect accuracy suffers on the lighter loads. Increase the amount of energy the bullet retains. To be honest I will probably shoot the gun suppressed 90% of the time anyway. Summary: Subsonic 300 Blackout is significantly more powerful than subsonic 5.56, 9mm, and even .308, which makes a 300 Blackout rifle one of the most powerful nearly Hollywood quiet rifles you can have. If you want a cartridge thats nearly Hollywood quiet, but still powerful enough to excel at home defense, hunting, target practice, and combat, you want to try the 300 Blackout. Like the 125-grain Nosler AccuBond, this bullet delivered sub-par accuracy in the AAC carbine. certified instructor prior to handling any firearm and be sure to read your owners manual. The ability to shoot 30 caliber bullets from a standard AR-15 M16/M4 style rifle bysimply changing the barrel and ammunition has made the 300 AAC Blackout (300 BLK) a popular choice for AR shooters looking for an alternative to 223 Remington/5.56 NATO. I just built a .300 blackout pistol and took it to the range for the very first time today and had some failure to feed issues. Youll need to practice with the right optic, but with training you could learn to hit a man-sized target on your first shot at that range. Do you have a 300 BLK that hammers (say, five 5 shot groups under 1 MOA in a row)? In the case of 300 Blackout, you either . Next, I tested terminal performance by firing each load into blocks of 10-percent ordnance gelatin. Perhaps its wishful thinking to have the gun reliably feed both subs and supers in both suppressed and unsuppressed. Terminal-performance testing yielded some interesting results, which are detailed in the accompanying sidebars, and so did the handloading exercise. This load was very accurate, besting the most accurate factory load I fired from the AAC MPW carbine by more than .50 inch. Years later, I headed out the range with a custom Remington Model 7 chambered in 300 BLK. Visit his YouTube Channel for more great shooting information. I loaded an additional 10 rounds using the original data and fired them through a CVA Scout with a 16-inch barrel. The bullet drops about 4 inches at 100 yards, 2.5 feet at 200 yards, 8 feet at 300 yards, 18 feet at 400 yards, and 30 feet at 500 yards. JavaScript is disabled. Born in the early 2010s when a few unnamed military special operators needed a specialized close-combat round, the .300 AAC Blackout is no passing fad -- the BLK has become one of the most popular AR cartridges around. To be fair, .300 Blackout is not actually terrible in its own right, it is just that the primary purpose for having one is to shoot subsonic ammunition and subsonic ammunition really is terrible for defense. Two reasons, case capacity and barrel twist. Frangible bullets are a little different. Wish someone told you this before? On the other hand, if you are looking for a high-performance, supersonic cartridge that will run in an AR, there are better options in a variety of calibers. If you are looking for a cartridge that can run with subsonic and supersonic ammunition in your AR, it is a great choice. The only problem I ran into while handloading the .300 Blackout was with bullet set-out when the cartridge was chambered. After testing 11 currently available .300 AAC Blackout factory loads, I came to a couple conclusions. Both average 1000-1050 fps. That person was Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat with his 7.62x40WT. Crooks are wearing body armor more frequently when committing home invasions and soft armor can be found in many pawn shops or online for less than you might think. Beyond the upgrade in bullet diameter, the 300 BLK offers the versatility of heavy 220 grain plus subsonic projectiles as well as lighter supersonic offerings. ALWAYS CONSULT COMPREHENSIVE REFERENCE MANUALS AND BULLETINS OF PROPER TRAINING REQUIREMENTS, PROCEDURES, TECHNIQUES AND SAFETY PRECAUTIONS BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY SIMILAR ACTIVITIES. The copper base of the bullet is weakened in key spots so that when its forced to expand by the aluminum nose of the bullet, it flies apart into several sharp copper shards. +1 on trying a standard carbine buffer. So if you enjoyed this, would you share it on Facebook and Twitter? A cartridge with a higher-pressure load contains more gunpowder, and a cartridge with a lower-pressure load contains less gunpowder. Just for kicks, I also assembled subsonic loads with two heavyweight bullets. The 5.56 bullet disintegrated after penetrating only a few boards, whereas the 300 Blackout stayed intact as it sliced through every single board in this test. by Eddy Coleman, Gilmer, Texas Eddy's Reloads 5.57K subscribers Subscribe 21K views 6 years ago Repairing reloaded bullets that made a 300 blackouts. Sign up for the ARFCOM weekly newsletter and be entered to win a free ARFCOM membership. Copyright 2023 National Rifle Association, Women On Target Instructional Shooting Clinics, Volunteer At The Great American Outdoor Show, Marion P. Hammer Women Of Distinction Award, Women's Wildlife Management / Conservation Scholarship, National Youth Shooting Sports Cooperative Program, 11 currently available .300 AAC Blackout factory loads, SilencerCo Launches Harvester Subsonic Ammunition Line, HPR Introduces the New .300 AAC Blackout in 110-Grain Barnes TTSX Configuration, Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rifle Now Available in 300 AAC Blackout, Lessons Learned From a Ballistician | An Official Journal Of The NRA, New: Fiocchi 5.7x28 mm Subsonic Ammunition | An NRA Shooting Sports Journal, New: Browning Ammunition SUB22 Subsonic Rimfire | An NRA Shooting Sports Journal, Feeding The Ishy Low-Pressure 7.62 mm NATO For Indias Enfield | An NRA Shooting Sports Journal, First Look: Mission First Tactical Multi Mount, Is It Right For You? When a bullet hits a target, the energy from the bullet is imparted to the material it hits, causing it to break apart. The 300 Blackout is a rifle cartridge thats more powerful than the 5.56 when fired out of a barrel thats less than 16 inches long. Sounds like the case sticking in the chamber is the root of your problem. . Buy a new 300 Blackout upper, slap it on your AR-15, buy some 300 Blackout ammo, and suddenly your good ol black rifle is ready to slot ungulates. Having a high muzzle energy is nice, but it wont matter if the bullet loses most of this energy before it hits your target. As you learned a moment ago, the 300 Blackout was custom designed to be fired through the AR-15. I will try some other loads and see if I can keep sub and still cycle. Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter to receive firearm news, product discounts from your favorite Industry Partners, and more. This issue isnt unique to 300 Blackout bullets, though. Some bullets are designed to be fired through longer barrels, and some are designed to be fired through shorter barrels. Shooters who join the .300 BLK bandwagon may attribute issues they experience in failure-to-feed (FTF) or failure-to-eject (FTE) to their rifle when in fact, they should take a more discerning look at the magazines they are using. Using a Magpul magazine again as our example, they deploy a distinct rib design and smoother upper-half texture this provides the shooter a distinct visual and tactile difference from any other PMAG to mitigate dangerous cross-loading issues.. CONS: A little short in the stock and I'm no fan of super soft recoil pads. However, you'll only have to do it once. Subsonic ammo is lower-powered ammo that only propels bullets to just below the speed of sound. | An Official Journal Of The NRA, Should You Carry Your Gun With an Empty Chamber? You might be able to hit something further than that, but dont count on it. by rjacobs Sun Dec 29, 2013 12:09 pm, Post by jFlacoS Sun Dec 29, 2013 12:50 pm, Post If you do decide to join the dark side and try 300 Blackout, make sure you come back here and let me know what you think of it! You can easily adjust for the 8 inches of drop at 200 yards by aiming slightly above the target. Longer barrels will produce more muzzle energy, of course, but not substantially so. For example, shooting 208g Amax with 10.7g of Hodgdon 4198, it functions great and keeps the bolt open on the last round. Not only does subsonic ammunition perform far more poorly in tissue, it also gives up one of the other primary advantages of a rifle: the ability to penetrate soft body armor. Editors Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. In short, the 300 Blackout is definitely worth investigating. Are you running a can with your subsonic and are the subs factory or handloads? You only need to buy one AR-15 lower, but you can fire many different cartridges through it if you buy multiple uppers. One of the benefits of 300 Blackout ammo is that there are umpteen different bullet designs to choose from. The vast majority of states, though, including my native Virginia, dont allow you to shoot deer with 5.56 ammo, which presents a problem: How can you use your beloved AR-15 to go deer hunting? The muzzle is threaded 5/8"-24 to accept muzzle brakes, flash hiders, or a suppressor. The reason the cases of the 5.56 and 300 Blackout are so similar is because both cartridges need to fit in the same gun. The latest content straight to your inbox plus an automatic entry to each of our monthly gungiveaways! At 500 yards, the bullet has dropped almost 9 feet, making it more or less impossible to hit your target. *Must have a registered ARFCOM account to win. If this interplay between barrel length, bullet energy, and ballistics coefficient seems confusing, I dont blame you. . ) Much like the 300 BLK, the 7.62x40WT only requires a new barrel and ammunition to switch calibers. This is due to the 300 Blackouts bullet and case design, which allow the gunpowder to be more quickly and efficiently burned in a shorter barrel. For example, a 220-grain 300 Blackout bullet moving at 1,050 fps has 539 ft.lbffar more than both the 5.56 and the 9mm. Even with vertical stringing apparenta result of the supersonic/subsonic velocity mixthe 190-grain VLD load was more accurate than any of the subsonic factory loads I tested. I have used multiple mags with no success. The 5.56 is more or less the opposite of the .50 BMGits half as wide and 10 times lightermaking it pretty worthless for penetrating through barriers. When the tip came off, the bullet slightly opened up and began tumbling, which caused the core to separate from the jacket. As youll learn later in this article, while this does make rifles much easier to use in confined spaces, it also neuters the power of the 5.56 cartridge. Both supersonic 300 Blackout and 223 loads run at the same operating pressures as well. The data has not otherwise been tested or verified by the NRA. Not only do hollow points create much larger holes, they also cause the bullet to slow down much faster after entering the target, reducing the chances that itll pop out the other side. One cartridge that has taken ahold of the modern sporting rifle industry and appears to have strong staying power is the .300 AAC Blackout round. Blackout ammo is loaded with a surprising variety of bullets from 78-grains to 220-grains with 110-grains quite popular at 2,300 fps to 2,400 fps. Whether you're using a 7.5-inch, 10.5-inch, or even 16-inch barrel, sub-sonic .300 BLK vastly outperforms 5.56 NATO when fired from a suppressed rifle. If you're going to taper-crimp, trimming cases to the same length will take care of half the problem. All else being equal, bigger, heavier bullets are usually more effective at penetrating targets than lighter, smaller ones. Second, theres the fact that this bullet causes a lot more damage than a hollow point 5.56. In lieu of any formal testing, we can look at some of the videos floating around showcasing the effectiveness of these Lehigh Bullets, like this one: As you can see, the bullet penetrates several inches into the ballistics gel and basically explodes into sharp metal fragments. when loaded with fairly standard 220gr subsonic rounds, that guide presses into the projectile of the subs inside the 5.56 magazine. Why not call it the 30 Blackout, then, since it fires a .30-caliber bullet? This had a horrible effect on accuracy. What's the problem with the caliber based on this thread? In this article, youre going to learn . ***Fixed! And they do this by burning about 10 to 12 grains less powder than the 30-30. This process provides substantially more neck tension, and when employing the technique with the .30 Rem. I have tried a lighter spring and heavy lubrication with no success. Penetration indicates the point in the gel block where the largest piece of the bullet came to rest in inches. While this makes sense at first glance, its not entirely accurate. If you don't want to complete a build, however, Aero Precision also sells completed rifles. I am using Lil'gun powder. This test is a good example of the penetrating power of 300 Blackout: In the video, a 300 Blackout bullet penetrates 24 inches of pinewood whereas a 5.56 bullet only penetrates 16 inches of pinewood. If it is mixed brass of 223/5.56 brass that was converted to 300 Blackout I have read in a couple of Forums that NATO 5.56 wall thickness creates issue when trimming or cutting it to make 300 blackout brass. The .300 Blackout has had a few years to grow now. Like the same mid-length gas that's on a 5.56/223 rifle? Now if only theyd chamber it in a lever action rifle! So, the final word on the 300 Blackout is that if you want to use a suppressor and subsonic ammo to fire the most powerful quiet bullet possible . My conclusion is the 125-grain AccuBond needs a crimping groove. Their higher B.C. Terminal ballistics is the study of how the bullet behaves after it hits the target. It's probably just the block shifted out of place. This New Hampshire-based company is unique in that they focus solely on making subsonic cartridges (hence the name), so its no surprise that 300 Blackout is right up their alley. Most people rarely shoot at targets more than 300 yards away with either 5.56 or 300 Blackout. The 300 Blackout is a rifle cartridge thats more powerful than 5.56/.223 (AR-15 ammo) when fired out of a barrel thats less than 16 inches long and works reliably with both super- and subsonic ammo. This load should also work well in a self-defense role where over-penetration is a concern. . Its also moving considerably slower from the get-go, though, and experiences more bullet drop as a result. Instead of being made of solid lead and copper, like most bullets, frangible bullets are made of a mixture of compressed metal powders. That way, you can practice on the cheap while maintaining your skill with home defense cartridges. If you plug these stats into a ballistics calculator, like this one, then you can estimate how much energy each bullet will have at different distances: 300 Blackout vs. 5.56 Bullet Energy (ftlbf). You may discover published data will generate supersonic loads, and you may need to reduce powder charges to ensure each bullet remains subsonic. 300BLK sizing issues! Need help - Rifle/Shotgun - Forums That is probably the most succinct way to sum up what .300 Blackout is. If that sounds like a rather small case to be necking up to 30-caliber, consider that the Fireball itself was made by shortening the 222 Remington, itself one of our smallest 22 centerfires. by jFlacoS Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:42 am, Post Summary: The sweet spot between maneuverability and muzzle energy for a 300 Blackout barrel is around 7 to 9 inches, although you can get slightly higher muzzle energies with longer barrels. You see, just because all of the gunpowder in a cartridge is burned doesnt mean that increasing the barrel length doesnt offer any benefits. All of these companies have a reputation for making good but inexpensive ammo thats ideal for practice, plinking, and recreational destruction. Performance varies significantly depending on bullet type and weight, but perhaps the easiest way to understand it as a hunting cartridge is to compare it to the 30-30 Winchester. 547 Share 33K views 6 years ago You don't need special 300 Blackout springs or buffers or bolt carrier groups to get your 300 Blackout to cycle. All three of the rifles tested in this group had trouble feeding the stubby 300 Blackout cartridges if we just dropped the rounds into the opening of actions generally designed for longer cases. Imagine that your cars engine has died and you need to push it down the road. The bullet almost exploded inside the gel block, shredding the first 8 inches. The best way to understand bullet drop is to visualize it, which is easy if you use a ballistics calculator. Thus, the 300 Blackout cartridge refers to a particular bullet and case combination. Thats not a bad tradeoff when you consider the terminal ballistics of 300 Blackout vs 5.56 (which youll learn next). External ballistics is the study of how a bullet behaves as it flies to the target. The two primary kinds of ballistics you need to worry about are external ballistics and terminal ballistics: So, with this model in mind, lets look at the 300 Blackouts external and terminal ballistics. Worth it to buy dedicated .300 blackout mags? : r/300BLK - Reddit (Have any suggestions for ammo that should be on this list? Product prices mentioned in articles and videos are current as of the date of publication. Hence, .30-caliber is about one third of an inch. This added weight also gives the bullet enough momentum to continue spinning several times after entering the target, creating an effect thats akin to a flying blender blade slicing through your prey.