obvious that we have been well behind the curve in this area until lately. By staying with the M-16 platform,
the cost savings are massive in terms of basic new assault gun development. The Blackout round in any of its current configurations is effective and flexible when specialized tasks surface among special ops units. We have the basic mother cartridge in house at Reming- ton, and uploading the cartridge is about as simple as it gets. I do know that Remington engineers in the bal- listic department are very high on this design, and I would not be at all shocked to learn down the road that this system is already doing some “hands on, real time” events work in the sand box across the big pond. The question will come up as to
The author ran a full magazine of ammo through the 300 Blackout at full auto. Note the lack of recoil and smooth control offered by the small, lighter weight cartridge.
when the range officer called FIRE, and I went through three-round short bursts from the gun. Shooting ful l auto with the
123-grain bullets allowed complete con- trol on the target, which was about 40 yards downrange. Putting everything center mass would have been quite easy
in a real world shoot situation. With a move to the 220-grain bullets, however, I did experience an increased rate of climb because of additional recoil. How- ever, everything experienced in this test shoot was very manageable, and the only thing lacking was enough time on the gun to completely master its ability to lay down lead in an orderly and very quiet fashion. Make no mistake about it, this gun
The author with an AAC upper and Bushmaster lower, suppressed, in the 300 Blackout chambering (auto fire selective). Compact and very effective.
Page 108 Spring 2013
system is well-suited when special oper- ations units are required to make entry into buildings under cover of darkness, or advance against open country posi- tions requiring medium range ballistic effectiveness. Currently, and for the last decade (1987 introduction), the Russian military special operations units and police have fielded variants of the AK- 47 in an OTS-14 ( Thunder). Also within the Russian inventory there have been several additional variants in design around this suppressed and modified rifle. This gun is a 7.62x39 blown out to 9x39 suppressed, and has a heavy bullet 9mm (260 and 247 grains). The gun has been very well received by troops of the Russian Spetsnaz and specialized KGB units. If the Russian cartridge design program looks a good deal like the Blackout projects taking on suppressed machine gun tactical rounds, you are not imagining things. Someone was reading Russian military advancements in small arms development. Also, it is
why this development has special sig- nificance in the varmint cartridge and associated firearms field. The point here is simple. What hits the military and police market will, over time, almost always end up on a bench rest range or prairie dog field. New rounds make for new wildcat development, as in editor John Anderson’s research and develop- ment of the bottleneck 17 caliber round (17 VHA [Varmint Hunters Associa- tion]) that outperforms most other cur- rent small varmint cartridges. This new round’s parent cartridge came directly from a law enforcement and military based submachine gun round, with the past several years of its development by The VARMINT HUNTER Magazine® and associates. Since writing this article, I have
been issued a complete personal use upper receiver in 300 Blackout and a number of new rounds by Remington designed for full house velocities with the new system. By the time I evaluate the gun as a complete AR package it also will house a GemTech suppressor for field use and testing here in South Dakota. The lower on this new gun will be the very well-made Rock River M-4 base taken from my latest RR-LAR-15 (Coyote Special).
Ballistics Research & Development P.O. Box 529
Piedmont, SD 57769 605-787-6321
www.metrogun.com
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