Finally got all of my parts, now the fun begins!

[MTboatguy]

Well as of today, I finally got all of my parts to complete my .300 AAC Blackout build, I think this is going to be fun a friend of mine has one and I was able to shoot it the other day and it is a nice shooting rifle, once I get the upper put together, then I get to machine the lower. But I can tell you what, unless you don't care about price, some of these AR parts are not easy to find!

 

[gm280]

Ha MT, pop up some pictures. We like pictures. :thumb:

I take it you have the die set to make those rounds as well. :noidea:

 

[southkogs]

MT, pop up some pictures. We like pictures. :thumb:

X2 please

 

[MTboatguy]

Ha MT, pop up some pictures. We like pictures. :thumb:

I take it you have the die set to make those rounds as well. :noidea:

I will take a few pics along the way and post them.

As far as rounds, I picked up 40 rounds at the big "C" the other day, but in the future will be making rounds from my 5.56/.223 brass, I ordered the sizing dies the other day, and am going to pick up cut off saw and jig. these rounds are way to expensive to purchase just to plink with, so loading your own is the only way to go.

I have been working on the shop the last couple of weeks reconfiguring it for working on guns and reloading, got the mill and the lathe mounted and set up, just have to tram the mill and I will be ready to mill the receivers I purchased. I was surprised, there ten's of thousands of companies that sell AR parts, but most of them always seem to be out of something, so it has been like a treasure hunt finding all of the parts I needed.

 

[gm280]

I will take a few pics along the way and post them.

As far as rounds, I picked up 40 rounds at the big "C" the other day, but in the future will be making rounds from my 5.56/.223 brass, I ordered the sizing dies the other day, and am going to pick up cut off saw and jig. these rounds are way to expensive to purchase just to plink with, so loading your own is the only way to go.

I have been working on the shop the last couple of weeks reconfiguring it for working on guns and reloading, got the mill and the lathe mounted and set up, just have to tram the mill and I will be ready to mill the receivers I purchased. I was surprised, there ten's of thousands of companies that sell AR parts, but most of them always seem to be out of something, so it has been like a treasure hunt finding all of the parts I needed.

Okay, I thought, by looking, that those rounds were made off a standard mouser type cartridge, not a .223 case. You will really have to be careful when opening up the mouths so not to split the case. Going from .223 diameter to .308 is stretching the neck brass a lot. But I do the same with making 7mmTCU rounds. Just not as far though. I go from .223 to .284 diameters. So annealing the necks may be needed.

Waiting for pictures. :thumb:

 

[MTboatguy]

No Title

Actually when you do a .300 AAC, you are not expanding the neck, the way the round is made, you cut the neck off the .223 round at the shoulder, then you check your length and size it down a small bit to the .30 caliber size, they are expensive to purchase, but pretty reasonable to reload once you have the tools to do them, Makes is nice that you can use the .223 brass and re purpose for a different round, it is actually a 7.62 X 35 in military terms, the Russians have a whole line of military rifles based on this same dimensions. What is nice is the wide variety of bullets that can be used, from 100 grain up to the 225 grain and you can load for supersonic or subsonic, with a suppressor, the subsonic stuff is almost impossible to hear, the bolt moving is actually putting out more noise than the bullet.

One thing I really like about the blackout, is the only difference is the barrel, all of the other parts are the same as the .223, same bolt, same upper, same buffers and most of all the same magazines, so you don't have to stock a different set of magazines to start shooting, just need to be real careful that you don't pick up the wrong magazine when gong shooting, they make tags to put on the magazines so you can identify the .300 from the .223 and don't make a big mistake!

 

[gm280]

Actually when you do a .300 AAC, you are not expanding the neck, the way the round is made, you cut the neck off the .223 round at the shoulder, then you check your length and size it down a small bit to the .30 caliber size, they are expensive to purchase, but pretty reasonable to reload once you have the tools to do them, Makes is nice that you can use the .223 brass and re purpose for a different round, it is actually a 7.62 X 35 in military terms, the Russians have a whole line of military rifles based on this same dimensions. What is nice is the wide variety of bullets that can be used, from 100 grain up to the 225 grain and you can load for supersonic or subsonic, with a suppressor, the subsonic stuff is almost impossible to hear, the bolt moving is actually putting out more noise than the bullet.

One thing I really like about the blackout, is the only difference is the barrel, all of the other parts are the same as the .223, same bolt, same upper, same buffers and most of all the same magazines, so you don't have to stock a different set of magazines to start shooting, just need to be real careful that you don't pick up the wrong magazine when gong shooting, they make tags to put on the magazines so you can identify the .300 from the .223 and don't make a big mistake!

Looks like the only difference between the 300 Whisper and the 300 AAC is about a few thousands in the starting point of the neck. Otherwise I don't see much difference. I initially though is was based on a mouser round and cut down. Now I see it is a .223 case.

 

[MTboatguy]

Looks like the only difference between the 300 Whisper and the 300 AAC is about a few thousands in the starting point of the neck. Otherwise I don't see much difference. I initially though is was based on a mouser round and cut down. Now I see it is a .223 case.

Very similar to the whisper, the AAC company has been working with the military to sell to them.

He is a link to a quick rundown from Adams Arms about the two.

http://blog.adamsarms.net/blog/300-whisper-vs-300-blackout

 

[thumpar]

Before the 300blk became so popular I bought a 6.8 barrel and mags then realized I would have to get a different bcg also and end up with something that is ballisticaly almost the same as a 223/5.56. I sold those parts off and want to do a 300blk now and maybe put a suppressor on it. It is nice to not have to wear ear protection.

 

[gm280]

MT since you reload, I am sure you know about reloading military once fired brass. But for those that don't, military brass has a crimped in primer. And if you reload those cases, you have to remove that crimp. I use a special swaging primer pocket tool for that effort. Not really huge problem. However, military brass is usually a thicker brass then commercially formed brass. However that doesn't make it better, only thicker. But that also reduces the case volume as well.

So when reloading military brass, you have to be really watchful for high pressures even with standard loads. Usually reduce loads by 10% to be safe. Also because of the thicker brass, you may have to ream the necks for proper bullet seating and some times even turn the necks down with a neck cutter. Just a heads up.

Commercial brass is my favorite because of the differences between lot to lot of military brass. And contrary to what most folks like, I like R-P brass the best. For some reason I seem to always achieve my best shot to shot groupings and velocities with R-P brass. :noidea:

One last issue I have noticed as well. There are subtle differences with the type primers available. WW and R-P and most every primer available is basically the same diameter...with CCI being the exception. If you use CCI primers in a case, other primers will not fit the same after wards, especially 209 type primers for AA shot shells. Seems CCI is a mere .0005" bigger then others and that does make a difference. Just my observations.

 

[thumpar]

Gm280 is spot on about mil brass, especially with 5.56 since it already has a small volume. I use commercial 223 pmc brass since I was able to get around 1200. With 223 I like to stick with the same brand so there is no inconsistency.

 

[MTboatguy]

Actually all of the .223 I have purchased is commercial brass, and do not have crimped primer pockets, but I am aware of the differences in Military over commercial brass, also found out a long time ago about the CCI primers being different in its specifications. Thanks for the reminder, it is really easy to find commercial brass for the .223 because the round is so popular these days..

 

[MTboatguy]

Well was able to get the mill leveled and the table trammed on it today, so should be able to start milling a couple of lowers real quick here and see how I do with chipping metal, will be fun learning how to figure this out, I want to do a couple of AR guns, then I am going to try my hand at doing a couple of 1911 pistols.

 

[gm280]

MT sounds great. But if I were you, I would certainly play around for a while with some sample aluminum before working on an 80% lower. If you make a mistake on one of them, it becomes a paper weight. Just saying.

 

[Limited-Time]

GM, I have to question your size differential. If it is infact .0005 larger that's only 1/2 of one thousand difference. Even with electronic micrometers that's difficult to measure consistently between highly skilled machinest.

 

[gm280]

GM, I have to question your size differential. If it is infact .0005 larger that's only 1/2 of one thousand difference. Even with electronic micrometers that's difficult to measure consistently between highly skilled machinest.

LT, I realize it is a very small amount, but if you ever reloaded ammo before, that little difference does make a real difference when seating primers. You can surely feel the difficult seating CCI primers verses any other brand. I use to reload a lot of WW AA 12 gauge shot shells. If I used CCI 209 size primers in those hulls, other primers will actually fall out after that. And seating CCI primers takes a lot more effort to accomplish that. Ask any reloader about it. CCI even states their primers are larger in diameter. Why? I have no idea.

 

[Limited-Time]

LT, I realize it is a very small amount, but if you ever reloaded ammo before, that little difference does make a real difference when seating primers. You can surely feel the difficult seating CCI primers verses any other brand. I use to reload a lot of WW AA 12 gauge shot shells. If I used CCI 209 size primers in those hulls, other primers will actually fall out after that. And seating CCI primers takes a lot more effort to accomplish that. Ask any reloader about it. CCI even states their primers are larger in diameter. Why? I have no idea.

Understood gm. I thought the .0005 (five ten thousands) was a typo and you meant .005 (5 thousands), that I can see being a noticeable difference.

 

[gm280]

Understood gm. I thought the .0005 (five ten thousands) was a typo and you meant .005 (5 thousands), that I can see being a noticeable difference.

LT reloading ammo is a game of very small increments. Most folks don't even know what a "grain" of measurement is, unless they reload. There are 7,000 (yes that is 7 thousand) grains in one pound of powder. And every reloading manual I ever read, specifies reload charges in grains. Bullet weights are given in grains. And when you start to load a cartridge with 13.5 grains of powder, you better have some seriously quality scales. Reloaders have such scales.

I can actually weigh a fly with reloading scales. And then there is the cartridge lengths as well. Again, you better understand micrometers and extremely small increments of length. because if the case is too long, it will not chamber. So once you start reloading, the capability of reading small amounts of length and weight and even volume, it takes on another world of precision.

If you ever tries to reload very precision long range bench rest rifle shells, it can take hours to get the best. It is not just getting all the same manufacturing of cartridges, but weighting every cartridge to verify all are the same weight as well. Then do a capacity volume check. Then standardize the primer pockets and flash holes as well. Then deburr the inside of the flash holes to be centered and the exact same hole diameters. Then trim all the cases to the exact same length. Check the neck wall thicknesses. Seat the primers to the exact same anvil directions and depths. Trickle charge every round with powder, measure and seat only the absolutely exact same weight bullets. Measure OAL after all the is finished. Discard any cartridge that has too much run-out from center. Bench rest shooting is involved, not just reloaded. JMHO!

 

[MTboatguy]

;Wow, this thread a little different direction than I thought it would?

 

[wilkboater]

Blackout is awesome with a suppressor. Hearing Protection Act of 2015(if it passes) should make them easier for the average law abiding to citizen to afford.