My quest for quiet defense

[John A.]

OK, I know, that's sort of a strange title for a topic, but I have been on a mission to squeeze everything that I can out of my blackout.

I've shot it almost exclusively the last two months and have been doing a lot of loading and testing.

Let me start from the beginning.

My whole intention with the blackout was mainly for a good suppressed HD gun. I have a family that I have to protect and I take their well being very seriously. This includes that if God forbid I have to defend them within the walls of our home. So I want something that I believe will stop a violent attacker quickly and I don't want to burst small childrens eardrums in the process. Especially if barricaded in the same small room.

A secondary reason is for up close brush hunting medium game like whitetail and dangerous game like up to 600 pound black bears.

Lets' face it. Where I live, we deal with a lot of things that a lot of other places simply don't have to worry about. So, personal protection is of paramount importance. Whether inside or out.

OK, now with the back story out of the way, I was rather disappointed with how poorly the 300 blackout initially sounded despite all the internet hoop-la. Even with several different suppressors, it was still rather loud and down right disappointing with factory ammunition.

And trying a few of the most popular powders and reloading my own didn't fare much better either. They were still loud, and one of the most popular powders was not only loud, but was dirty as a cheap motel too.

Since those early experiences, I have been on a mission.

I've gotten a good and inexpensive round worked up from powder coated cast bullets, and while it was an improvement in cost for a plinking round, it still wasn't really all that great in the performance department. So, I'll keep loading them to plink with, but for HD, it was still lacking.

So, with the help of a buddy of mine who has barn-stormed up a load using a fast pistol powder, I have finally been able to tweak the load and my gun enough to get full function and it sounds great.

I'm getting in the upper 1080 fps territory with 240 gr bullets, the powder has full burn in about 6 inches (right near where the gas port is) and lends itself to less ejection port noise and gas, and essentially no first round pop due to being completely burned prior to any gas entering into the suppressor making it much more effective.

The load I worked up for my specific gun was using 240 gr Sierra Matchking HPBT, but I am going to try to do one up for Lehigh Defense 194 gr max expansion lead free bullets which would be the top performer in defense the gun will currently be capable of.

From what I have read and seen of the Lehigh controlled expansion, they get between .75 and 1.0" expansion while retaining all, or nearly all of their mass and up to about 17 inch penetration. And that is while being at subsonic velocities. If I can get it worked up with the #9 or Enforcer powder, should be most awesome.

I have some ramshot enforcer powder coming this week that my buddy said was marginally more quiet than the #9 accurate powder that I am so impressed with, so I'll get to experiment some with Sierra 190 gr bullets and lower the charge and be able to get a working load to experiment with before loading any of the 194 Lehighs because they're so dang expensive. But if I use a handful for testing and fill my freezer and have a mag left over for HD, I don't think I'll be complaining in hindsight.

Just wanted to let a few of you know where I'm at with it. At this point, the gun is a pleasure to shoot. Now if I can get the Lehighs worked up and fully functional, will probably be the end of the rainbow for this gun.

At least until I get the paperwork back and get to make my most intriguing design I have ever came up with that I will be using to make a dedicated suppressor for it when they ever send the paperwork back. But that is a subject for another day.

 

[Water Monkey]

Jelly. So Jelly.

 

[MikeD]

I'm liking this!!!

Sadly I have not been able to play with my 300BLK nearly as much as I would like.

 

[John A.]

This has actually been quite the undertaking.

I was expecting better sound suppression out of the gate and to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

I have came to understand with a lot of research why commercial ammo manufacturers are loading with the powders they are using is because it seems like half the barrel makers out there are using different gas port sizes, different twists, pistol gas placement on various length shorter barrels, carbine gas placement on16 inch barrels and some people are shooting both subs and supers which throws its' own challenges into the mix and the powders they are choosing powder that is reliable in all of them and won't be labeled as "junk" ammo because they have to ensure that it cycles in all guns.

But while suffering from "jack of all trades syndrome", they can do so much better at one or the other and the blk is being stretched to do more than it was ever meant to do.

The thing is, there are trade-offs to get it to do that. Powder choice being a huge one.

But this is proof positive that if you take the time to develop the load and are willing to think outside the box and tune the gun to the load, you can achieve so much better results. I owe my buddy a debt of gratitude for helping me get to this point because I really wore out his inbox while I was working it up and we bounced a lot of ideas off of each other.

Most every subsonic blackout video I see to date is ate up with first round pop. To the point that it's obnoxious. That was the main thing I was concentrating on when I first started really diving into it.

Again, that's largely in part due to powder choice.

Since I only plan to use this upper with subsonics, I chose to tune the load and the gun to be able to use the (better) pistol powders that I can get reliable function with. I am switching my h2 buffer out for a tac com lightweight buffer, I have already switched my Flat coil CS xtra power spring out for a Sprinco lightweight buffer spring and even went so far as to weighing each of my bolts and choosing to use the lightest (albeit ever so slightly). There are some manufacturers that are making lightweight buffers, but I'll eventually drill holes in my own bolt carrier for the cost of a few drill bits and will save the few hundred that a lightweight carrier costs.

Yes, that's more work than many people are willing to do, but if you could hear the difference in the pleasant thoomp tone rather than the gun sounding like you're banging two garbage can lids together when you fire it, trust me, it's worth the effort to get there. If I use the registered lower with another upper, it's not that hard to swap out buffers and springs if I go to a 9mm upper or 223 upper or whatever. I have to do that anyway. If that's too much effort for anyone to do, working up a load will prove to be too challanging for them too.

I know this may come across as a little preachy, but I have never been one to sugar coat anything either. And that's just the brutal truth of the matter.

Within the next few weeks, I expect that I will be able to post a video up showing the befores' and afters of everything back to back. It is very noticeable and I believe many of you may even be somewhat surprised. I can say that I have been.

 

[Water Monkey]

looking forward to the video

 

[CaddmannQ]

ditto

I don't re-load at all, so this is all fascinating to me.

 

[ripjack13]

I'm soooo jealous. But this is sooo cool....

 

[oli700]

the man

 

[John A.]

Since I was getting low on brass, I took the time to convert, size and prime some once fired 223 cases in anticipation of getting some time to test them out soon.

 

[John A.]

Had some time to load up a few of the newest loads.

I think the #9 and Enforcer powders are really close in performance and sound.

Splitting hairs, I think the Enforcer is more tedious to load due to the fine granular texture and I was having to dump a few overages from my Hornady Lock N Load auto charge because it was like measuring pepper and it wouldn't had hurt to slow down the trickler some if I were loading a lot of them in one sitting, but it may get the nod to being slightly more quiet.

Maybe.

I shot a few back to back and had a hard time deciding if one was more quiet than the other. I think that only a db meter would be able to really tell the difference in all fairness.

Grain for Grain, I believe the enforcer keeps the velocity lower and maintains function so there is less risk of a supersonic crack because the #9 was starting to really get up there just under 1100 fps territory at the lowest charge that would cycle my bolt.

I may use the #9 for loading up my hunting bullets just because the little extra velocity at longer distances wouldn't hurt. The Lehigh bullets are supposedly expandable from 850-1200 fps anyway so at HD ranges should still be fine regardless of which powder I was using.

So, overall, I have to give the Enforcer powder a slight nod over the #9, which wasn't really bad by any stretch, but the velocities were just easier to work with the Enforcer.

On the burn rate charts I have seen, the #9 is a little slower burning but barely. Which probably lends why I was getting more velocity from it than I was the Enforcer being able to build a little more pressure over the length of the barrel.

I was able to get both powders to fully function and can fall back on either powder so I cannot say I could pick a clear winner between the two now that they're worked up. Just something to make a note of.

I fired 240 grain Sierra Matchking HPBT at the same charge with both powders and also fired 190 gr Nosler 308 match at the end of the video with a slightly reduced charge so I could get it worked up so I could start loading some of the 194 Lehigh max expansion bullets. I'm going to change the seat depth on the 190's to see if I can find one that my gun likes the best because they are so much cheaper than the Lehighs so I won't have to shoot through all of those to get in the right ballpark of something I can use.

Just to make note of, the beginning of the video shows just how loud and poorly the factory loads sounded in comparison to the loads I have finally settled on.

The video was taken with 2 different cameras. One being a Fujifilm Finepix HD, and the onboard camera was my ATN X sight scope. I think in person, it sounds pretty close to how it turned out on film because it's usually hard to judge sound by youtube videos, but this is the best I could come up with.

 

[MikeD]

Nice, sounds like a .22

 

[Pawpaw]

John - Slightly off topic, but you might want to look at a Brass Magnet to use with that PVC stand, instead of the tarp. www.brassmagnet.com

It's kinda spendy, but at 100" x 144", not only would you have the vertical, but you would have some on the ground and you would never have to search the weeds for your brass. It's a mesh & weighted, so it won't blow in the wind as much.

Just and idea.

 

[Water Monkey]

Thats soo damnnn cooooool

 

[John A.]

Lot more quiet than it was when I first started. That's for sure

 

[John A.]

Testing out a few different seating depths. Looks like the 2.140" is where I'll stay with the 190 gr Noslers. Plenty good enough for the distances I'll be using it at. These were done at 50 yards with subsonic loads using the enforcer powder I mentioned above.

 

[John A.]

While I have settled on using the Lehigh maximum expansion bullets this deer season, I recently found a few more companies offering expanding heavy bullet for the blackout if anyone else is interested.

Here are the Lehigh 194 gr.

Unfortunately, I didn't save any of the photos to my computer of the email I got from autopsy pics while cleaning deer. I'll just say the effects reminded me of how a Rage arrowhead performs.

http://www.lehighdefense.com/pages/maximum-expansion-bullets-and-ammunition

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http://www.outlawstatebullets.com/2.html

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http://www.blackoutbullets.com/

 

[oli700]

Savage