There’s news today that Staff Sergeant Daniel Horner of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit has won the 2011 Multigun National competition in Las Vegas, Nevada using a rifle chambered in .300 AAC Blackout. The short case allowed him to use a standard AR-15 bolt, magazine and receiver to cut down on space and the .30 cal round gave him enough muzzle energy to make “major” power factor for the competition. Two weeks ago we saw an article about Bushmaster and Remington coming out with new rifles for 2012 chambered in .300 BLK from the factory, and more options for ammunition coming down the pipe. Does this mean that .300 BLK is reaching that tipping point of widespread adoption? Is it “the” caliber for 3-gun? Will it get cheaper? I sure hope so.
On a more personal note, I’ll be competing in the FNH USA 3-Gun Championship match in West Virginia in a few weeks. I still haven’t decided if I want to run 5.56 or .300 BLK, but due to the remarkably high price of factory .300 BLK I’m leaning the other way. If this ammo takes off and gets cheaper I definitely see potential for widespread adoption in the 3-gun community. But until then us cheap bastards will have to settle for running “minor.”
One thing to keep in mind is that major power factor only matters for USPSA sanctioned 3 gun events. For the other “outlaw” events (most of which pre-date USPSA’s involvement in 3 gun), there’s just He-Man/Heavy Metal (cue Sammy Hagar in 3…2…1…) which mandates .308 (-ish), 12 gauge and .45’s. Everyone else can be shot with .233, 20 gauge and 9mm.
How cool would it be to work at AMU? I’d probably sleep in my car every night just to get to work faster every day and they would have to taze me every night to get me to leave.
Everyone knows that a man only needs three calibers: 12 gauge, 45 acp and .308 Winchester.
Anything else is just plain heresy.
Daniel Horner is a stud. I’d be in heaven if I could shoot even half as good.
With the news the 6.5 Grendel is now a SAAMI approved (AA finally released the trademark) and now we-ll see more manufacturers making ammo/rifles perhaps that will become a popular option. Heck Wolf finally commited to making steel-cased ammo in Jan ’12!
I wonder if the .300 will have the same beer belly trajectory as the AK-47 as compared to the 5.56mm. Not that I am the biggest fan of 5.56mm. I am politically incorrect and always thought the .243 win would make a great assault rifle round. Of course I am not much of an AR fan either.
It would be strange if the .300 BLK became a big deal and 6.8SPC, the military’s one time rising star, went nowhere. There’s just no predicting the market.
It’s agonizing to see all these contortions and convolusions and evolutions when the finest battle round in existence has been around since the 1950s. I’m referring, of course, to the 7.62mm NATO. We wouldn’t even be discussing this if the military hadn’t stupidly changed over to a piddling varmint round as our main battle round, all because Robert McNamara had friends at Colt. And, no, I wouldn’t want to get shot with one.
You’re not very well versed in history of military small arms are you?
McNamara & his “whiz kids” were only part of the puzzle when it comes to fiasco that was the early adopted M16/5.56×45. There were a lot of stubborn people on all sides involved with weapon choice that made things worse. McNamara had accomplished some good when he told all branches of the service that they had to use the same rifle.
This video covers covers a lot of it.
http://youtu.be/cKBNcq6oAzE
The 7.62×51 was not an optimal cartridge for how war was being fought in the 60’s & is still not an optimal cartridge for how war is fought today. Really the only time it would have been a good cartridge to use in all rifles would have been during WW1, a war characterized by slow static warfare, with big killing fields, the kind of scenario where the down sides of full power cartridges aren’t that much of a hindrance.