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I've been tracking the availability of 6.8 Remington SPC, 6.5 Grendel and .300 Blackout for a while based on what Midway USA carries.
6.8 SPC
16 loadings from 7 manufacturers. 2 available, 5 temporarily unavailable, 5 out of stock - no backorder, 3 unavailable - limited production and 1 coming soon.
6.5 Grendel
13 loadings from 6 manufacturers. 5 available, 1 temporarily unavailable, 5 out of stock - no backorder, and 2 unavailable - limited production.
.300 Blackout
59 loadings from 19 manufacturers. 39 available, 2 out of stock - backorder OK, 11 temporarily unavailable, 8 out of stock - no backorder, 4 unavailable - limited production, and 2 coming soon.
Curious what your interest in currently obscure calibers? In the current use there is nothing the 300 Blackout does that the 7.62X39 round isn't already doing well. I've shot it in subsonic mode using a suppressed weapon and, in my opinion, unless you can lock the bolt the action is too noisy for the "suppressed" idea.
ReplyDeleteThe Grendel and SPC are perhaps high in cool factor but what rounds could they replace and actually be an improvement?
How about a Midway study on the availability of quality 7.62 NATO/308 Winchester (mild differences) and quality 7.62X39? I've used both often enough in the sandbox with far better results than 5.56 NATO.
What .300 Blackout does that 7.62x39mm doesn't is fit and feed from a normal magazine in an AR.
DeleteWhat got me started on 6.8 was wanting a bit more thump and reach. AT THE TIME it was poised to be the next great thing in the AR. Remington screwed up the SAAMI specs, and that hamstrung it hard. SPC II spec guns fixes the issue, but it hadn't gotten traction before .300 Blackout hit with the full court press marketing campaign of Freedom Group behind it. 6.8 needs a special magazine and bolt; .300 doesn't. That sold guns.
6.8 SPC II still has more thump and range than .300 Blk or 7.62x39mm, but it's fallen from grace.
I include 6.5 Grendel because it was the other almost made it round back when. It has about the same thump as 6.8 but will out range it in theory. A few people have put it in practice, but the rabid fan base turned a lot of people off.
Also! Hit the 6.8 tag and you'll get about a decade of me talking about it. There might be some history that's forgotten here.
DeleteWhat Angus says is right... .300 Blackout feeds from essentially the same mag as .223 Rem/5.56x45, sometimes dedicated mags have a slightly different follower. 7.62x39 really needs a banana shaped mag like an AK (for which it was designed) to feed nicely. That doesn't fit well in a standard dimensioned AR lower. Another thing is because of the much larger cartridge base than .223 Rem/5.56x45, the bolt has a lot less meat in it so I've heard of some cases of it failing.
DeleteI like 7.62x39... but in rifles designed for it. My Poly Tech AK has always performed flawlessly. The SKSs I have are also rock solid. However, neither platform will normally provide the same kind of accuracy that an AR does. I could probably hunt hogs with an SKS, but the AK, while loads of fun, is not something I'd pick for hunting.
I don't shoot suppressed (at least not yet), so for me .300 Blackout is interesting because it is a good choice for hogs in an AR platform. Not that I don't have a lot of other options for hogs... .308 Win... check, 7.5x54 MAS, etc... Lots of options. But .300 Blackout is fine out to the ranges I'd be taking hogs at which is 100 yards or less. Line of sight around here usually prevents longer shots than that anyway, too many hills and too much scrub brush, etc. AR platform is light and convenient and easily topped with optics, etc...
As for the sandbox... I'm too damned old to go over to some foreign land. I hope it doesn't get to the point where I need to worry about that here.
I do agree about 6.8 SPC and 6.5 Grendel. I wouldn't feel unarmed with either, but relative availability of ammo is a limiting factor. I wouldn't kick one out of my gun safe because of that... but I probably won't seek them out. I wouldn't say I wouldn't buy one if one dropped in my lap for an attractive price though.
6.5 Grendel shares a bolt-face with x39. Alexander Arms sold a tougher version that was less subject to failure than the normal 7.62x39 bolt.
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