25 October 2024

State Of The Alternates

Has it been a year already?

The availability of 6.8 Remington SPC, 6.5 Grendel and .300 Blackout based on what Midway USA carries.  Plus the ARCs!

6.8 SPC

14 loadings from 6 manufacturers.  2 available, 4 out of stock - backorder OK, 3 temporarily unavailable, 3 out of stock - no backorder, and 2 unavailable - limited production.

6.5 Grendel

17 loadings from 7 manufacturers.  7 available, 3 out of stock - backorder OK, 2 Coming Soon, 2 temporarily unavailable, 1 out of stock - no backorder, and 2 unavailable - limited production.

.300 Blackout

69 loadings from 20 manufacturers.  42 available, 9 out of stock - backorder OK, 2 temporarily unavailable, 9 out of stock - no backorder, 4 unavailable - limited production, and 3 coming soon.

22 ARC

2 loadings from 1 manufacturer.  2 coming soon.

6mm ARC

4 loadings from 1 manufacturer.  4 available. 

Update:

.30 AR

1 loading from 1 manufacturer.  1 temporarily unavailable.

6 comments:

  1. In terms of availability I guess I picked right with .300 Blackout. Mainy it was because I have plans on doing some hog hunting and .300 Blackout seems to be a pretty good choice for that. I have thought about 6.8 SPC and .458 SOCOM or .450 Bushmaster also but I have never pulled the trigger on any of those. Besides .300 Blackout I also have ARs in 9x19 and FN 5.7x28 and a dedicated .22LR.
    -swj

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    Replies
    1. 6.8 has snuffed a lot of pork.

      Just remember the clearly inferior .300 Blackout only gets 5d+1 pi. Average of just 18. Range is 500/3,00 instead of 6.8's 820/3,500.

      Ironically .300 is exactly what the Grendel people claimed 6.8 was: 7.62x39mm in an AR!

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    2. For people who are hand loaders, one advantage of 300 Blackout is it is possible to form cases from cut down .223 cases and use commodity .30 cal bullets or even case and powder coated for cheap shooting. .300 Blackout pretty much is 7.62x39 in a form factor that feeds well in an AR platform without a heavily cut out bolt face. And for a lot of things that's good enough. I do think that 6.8 would be better for longer shots, game like deer, etc. But for hogs relatively short shots are mostly what you're going to get anyway.

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    3. Your rational arguments will not sway my hipster man-bun!

      Also, you're not informing me of anything. I know what .300 Blackout is. Everything you said was touted by JD Jones about 300 Whisper. And .300 Blackout is just a non-proprietary 300 Whisper.

      6.8 isn't a heavily cut bolt face, more of a moderately cut bolt face. The x39 based rounds are heavily cut.

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    4. I kow you know, but others following the thread might not. I agree 6.8 bolt face does not look like it is cut nearly as much as the 7.62x39/5.45x39 one is. I've heard of a few cases of bolt failures on 7.62x39 but I don't know what ammo was used or what round counts were like before failure. It's been a long time since those were much of a thing. As you are well aware it never really worked out well because of feeding issues, etc. Anyway, I haven't heard any similar anecdotes about 6.8 bolt failures so I would guess it is more within the margin of reasonable safety.
      Anyway, I've been tempted to pull the trigger on a 6.8 upper but haven't yet. But I would of course never say never. My expenditures on firearms have been more limited lately due to the realities of facing Bidenomics and the resulting shitty job market and economy. I've mostly been stockpiling ammo and components like primers when they've been available.
      -swj

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    5. There were (are?) a lot of cheaply made 7.62x39 bolts out there. A lot of them died when they got applied to 6.5 Grendel builds; I watched several threads where some of the assholes of the 6.8 world cackled with glee about it. Alexander Arms made a bolt that held up, but they wanted paid for that extra care.

      Lots of people didn't pay for one that could take the pressure routinely and found out the hard way where their money would have gone.

      It was the 6.5 Grendel community and not the round, or the quality of the available parts that sent me away. I'm actually surprised they're not up in my GURPS stats because they don't show 6.5 outranging 6.8!

      The biggest worry I have about 300 Blackout is the far-too-often kabooms. A weak crimp and strong spring has shoved the bullet into the case in a 5.56 chamber and "hilarity" ensues. This is because the headspace datum for the 300 fits inside the .223 Rem chamber just fine! And it's nearly always someone who's been citing what you mentioned above. I don't reload, so I might be more safe from it than you. I do note that both 6.5 and 6.8 can't be chambered in a 5.56 accidentally like .300 Blackout has been.

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