I took advantage of a recent sale and bought 300 rounds of Winchester 200-grain .300 blackout subsonic rounds for $12.99 per box of 20. Because this is the first time I have purchased that specific load, I loaded ten in a magazine and tested them for accuracy and to see how quiet they are through my suppressor. The good news is they are quiet and hearing safe. The bang of a bullet hitting a steel target is far louder than the bang of the gun firing. They also shot to point of aim. The bad news is that four of the ten bullets didn’t feed. On closer examination, the bullets were hitting the front of the magazine case rather than feeding into the chamber. When I examined them, they were short as the projectile was getting rammed into the brass case.
I tried two other magazines, and the rounds fed just fine through them. So the problem was not with the ammo, but with the mag spring or follower. I covered the magazine in masking tape and wrote “Bad Mag – Feeding Issues” on it. It went into a box of retired magazines as a potential source of spare parts.
The downside of subsonic ammo is the slow bullet doesn’t travel very far. A shot that is on target at 100 yards will be a foot low at 150 and three feet low at 200 yards. It seems to have a battlesight zero out to 125 yards, making it a good load for close shots, like in my house or down the driveway. Beyond 125 yards, I should swap to a 110 or 125 grain load moving at closer to 2,300 feet-per-second. Those will reach 300 yards before dropping a foot.
SBR-ing an AR pistol
Once January rolls around and the government is no longer charging $200 to register a suppressor or short-barreled rifle (SBR), I am giving serious consideration to turning at least one of my AR pistols into an SBR. Because I already own NFA items, and I know the BATFE has my photo, fingerprints, and other personal data, so I am not worried that I’m telling them anything they don’t already know.
The primary advantages of doing so are that I can put on any stock instead of an arm brace, shoulder the weapon, and not worry that someone will claim I am turning a pistol into an illegal SBR. I will be in compliance with the law at no cost other than a delay as I wait for paperwork.
The disadvantage is an SBR will not be covered under my concealed carry permit since it is no longer a pistol. This will make it more difficult to travel across state lines with it. Plus, I will need to carry my paperwork with me, although I am unclear if I will get a tax stamp since the tax is no longer collected.
Right now, I am leaning towards turning the 5.56 AR pistol into an SBR and leaving my 9mm AR pistol as a pistol. (Turning a 9mm gun with a 5-inch barrel into a “rifle” just doesn’t sit well with me.) I have not decided which way to go with the .300 blackout pistol.
Gun Upgrades Continue
I am a believer in updating my existing guns rather than selling old ones and buying updated models. Updating is less expensive, especially since many changes are incremental. Some of my upgrades include:
- Better buttstocks for ARs. I like the Magpul ACS a great deal. It is sturdy, doesn’t rattle, and has storage space that will hold a couple of AA or CR123 batteries.
- Pistol grips that hold gear. In one or two cases, I have swapped out pistol grips I didn’t like, but I found I could buy A2 grip plugs for less than $4.50 each. These stick right into the generic A2 pistol grips and give you secure storage for your 2032 coin batteries required for optics and other small gear.
- Optics. All my ARs and most of my .308s now have optics. Some are just red dots, some are fixed 3X or 5X sights, and a few are LVPOs or other scopes with zoom.
- Weapon lights. I now have lights on two shotguns, two rifles, and two AR pistols.
My next upgrade may be a bipod or two as only one of my 5.56 guns and one of my .308 platforms has them. The bipods I have are high-end models. I am thinking of something less expensive, such as the Magpul bipod for MLOK rails.
Somewhere, I have an old Harris bipod that attaches to a sling swivel. I need to find it and then get a mount that will allow this bipod to attach to a Picatinny rail.
Ammo Inventory
I did a comprehensive ammo inventory on one of the rainy days last week. That entailed pulling out every ammo can I own, opening them up, checking and recording the contents, and then re-arranging my storage areas. I then transferred all my inventory data to a spreadsheet.
This was the first time I had done an inventory check since my friend Karl had brought over all my old ammo that had been stored in his barn since 2013. We had unloaded it into a closet, but I had never looked at it in detail. Among the cans he brought me were:
- More than 8,000 rounds of .22LR which fit in just two .50 caliber ammo cans.
- Two cans with 900 rounds of 5.56 tracers in each.
- A few thousand rounds of 7.62×51. I believe Karl opened up wooden crates these came in and repacked the ammo in cans of 500 rounds each.
- 1,400 rounds of .40S&W. Most of it is Winchester white box.
Sadly, there was no 9mm or .300 Blackout as I had stored the ammo away before I owned those calibers. Back then, a 40 S&W Glock was my primary handgun.
My takeaway from the inventory is I should practice with my .308 rifles and keep an eye out for a sale on suppressed .300 Blackout and .22LR ammo. Except for those two calibers, I don’t need to buy any ammo unless I do quite a bit of shooting.
If you own guns for self defense or prepping purposes, don’t forget to train!
