300 blackout vs 7 62x39

The price for brass cased ammo, which as a reloader is what I buy is almost the same for 300BLK vs 7.62x39. Not to mention if you look for factory subsonic loads in 7.62x39 vs 300blk, the x39 stuff is hard to find and as expensive if not more expensive than the 300BLK. If someone already has guns that shoot 7.62x39 & especially if shooting steel case cheap ammo is good enough for them, then that is probably a better option for them. If you don't own any AK's, SKS's or anything else in 7.62x39 but are looking at getting an upper for your AR to shoot 7.62x39, you'd probably be better off with the 300BLK. Uses the same bolt as well as mags which can be had for a lot less than the x39 mags that aren't as reliable. Also the AR bolts for the AK are thinner & aren't as rugged as the 5.56 bolts.

You can spend even more for an ARAK, mutant, or other versions of AR looking guns that take AK mags & shoot x39 ammo, but at that point, I'd rather just have an AK. Also the AR bolts for the x39 are thinner & aren't as rugged as the 5.56 bolts. When I first read the title of this thread I thought it was about 7.62x39 cartridge versus the .300 AAC. Looking at just the rounds the 300AAC may be slightly less powerful with 125 gr bullets at an usually advertized 2200 fps. This is close to what cheaper eastern european ammo will do. Better quality military ammo will be closer to 2400 fps such as the golden tiger.

It seems that at some quality factory loadings that the 7.62x39 has a slight edge to it relative to velocity. The advantages to using .308 barrels versus .310 plus is clear since one can take advantage of the highly developed diversity of .308 cal bullets. The analysis that I did not see was using both rounds in the AR. I am not an AR person, but I do know that ARs in 7.62x39 do exist. I know of two issues that involve more "money" for using the 7.62x39 in the AR.

Just machining out a standard 5.56 bolt results in eventual failure of the bolt or least so I have read. The other is the magazine in that many state that it is better to use a magazine designed for the 7.62x39. For use in the AR assuming you are willing to buy the special bolt and magazines is the lack of available bullets and that is the key thing. It is really in my mind 308 bullet choice versus .310 bullet choice.

I suspect that even the pie plate grouping tula ammo would shoot a lot better through a quality AR. Although the 7.62 NATO saw only limited use as a battle rifle caliber, it saw extensive use in the US Military's machine guns and sniper rifles. The 308 Winchester was designed to fire a 147 grain weight bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,800 fps and muzzle energy of 2,560 ft-lbs for a combat effective range of up to and beyond 800 yards. As such, it's ideal for engagements out to about 400 yards.

I have adopted the .357 lever rifle as my anybody-any situation rifle; woman-kid, whoever. I load it with hard cast RNFP led bullets, and I like nickel cases, as they process through the gun better than plain brass. Rifles typically hold 10 rounds-no magazines-top up any time, and have practically no recoil as compared to .44 mag lever guns that kick hard enough to induce flinch.

Companion revolvers in the same caliber are a good back up, and only one kind of interchangeable ammo is needed. Caution should be taken when loading these rounds, as a 16 inch barrel can increase velocity by as much as 40%. I prefer my earlier Winchester, but other reliable, reasonably priced alternatives are available. Only reason to go 300blk is if you hunt at night and have close neighbors and want to be very quiet. Subsonic 30 cal bullets with a suppressor is a great setup for this specific role. Otherwise the way cheaper and more available 7.62x39mm makes a lot more sense.

Of course then again 300blk supers give you 7.62x39 performance, but it uses standard 5.56 mags and bolts. Of course guns like the CMMG Mutant work pretty well using AK47 mags and a larger bolt group for 7.62x39 in an AR type platform. If you want only supersonic performance and don't mind spending more on ammo, then 6.8 SPC II would be my choice for hunting or home defense. The 7.62x39mm is what you want if you just want to shoot a lot for cheap. I was wondering how the recoil compared between the two calibers.

I have kicked the idea around of building one as trunk/HD/some hunting/camping gun. I do not reload and I wont have a suppressor or thermal in the next several years if not longer. How is the 300 recoil with a 7-8.5" barrel un-suppressed shooting super sonic? I assume they run reliably? I have a couple 10.5" 5.56 pistols now so I would probably just start out with an upper. I think it's great that we have all the choices we have. There are already many many cartridges that will likely cover what you need to do. Shooters would be far better served if the gun and ammo manufacturers would stop re-inventing new cartridges and continue developing and improving those we already have.

There have been very few new cartridges released for handguns in the last 10 years, but look at how ammunition has improved. 9mm ammunition today is vastly superior to what we had a decade ago, actually better than most .40 and .45 ammunition of that period. 9mm bullets can be made non-lethal after penetrating a sheet of drywall or made to completely pass through a full grown bear. Powders could be designed to improve short barrel rifle performance and make better subsonic ammunition.

I've had three AR uppers chambered for 5.45x39, and soon will be getting an AK-74 in the same caliber, for the reason you mentioned - the milsurp ammo is cheap. Just keep in mind it's also corrosive and quite dirty, which is why it's cheap, so you'll need to be careful to clean your rifle ASAP after a range session. The bullet is essentially a jacketed steel rod with a hollow pocket in the tip, so the bullet tends to yaw when it hits a solid object.

Ballistically, it's somewhat like the 5.56 round; at close range, it might have more penetrating power, as there's a YouTube video showing a test between an AR15 and an AK74. In the test, they fired a single round from each rifle at a series of spaced wood boards held in a frame; I don't recall the exact distance, but it was probably no more than 10 yards. The 5.56 round penetrated eight or nine boards before being stopped; the 5.45 round went through 12 boards while yawing, and it chipped the 13th board on its way out of the frame. On the other hand, it might not be as effective at the max ranges of the 5.56 round. I had trouble knocking over steel silhouettes at 300 yards, and found I really could do that only if I hit the upper part of the targets.

With a 5.56 M4gery, I generally had no trouble knocking over the same targets no matter where I hit them. The 300 Blackout round is also designed to be effective when fired from a short barreled rifle. In fact, it maximizes its velocity in a barrel as short as 9 inches. A 5.56 round out of a 9-inch barrel loses a massive amount of velocity and energy. 300 Blackout ammo is the most expensive out of the three alternative calibers, but the price has been dropping.

The 7.62x39 was adopted for the semi-automatic SKS and Mikhail Kalashnikov's famous battle rifle, the AK-47. The Ak-47 became the most mass-produced military rifle in existence and the 7.62x39 has shared in its success. 7.62x39 ammo fires a 123 grain weight fmj bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,350 fps for a combat effective range of 400 yards. I have 2 magazines that will run 7.62x39 in an ar %, and 2 that after a little work are 100%. I still have the mags even though I don't have a 7.62x39 upper. I ran about 6k rounds of steal case crap ammo through the first upper.

The second I worked up some loads with brass cases and 125 and 150 Sierra and Hornady .311 bullets and WC844. It shot pretty well, about 200 rounds in the bolt I bought for the new upper broke, and I sold the barrel. I figured in a lightweight deer gun AR-15, the 6x45 might do anything the 7.62x39 did for me. There's definitely a better bullet selection in the .308 diam vs .310 diam. Having said that the price of ammo if you don't load and even if you do, I'm not sure you really could load for the 7.62x39 any cheaper than you can buy ammo for it, it's still very cheap !

There's just enough of a bullet selection though for the 7.62x39 round to cover what you might want to do, there's PP's SP's FMJ's Hornady Vmax, SST's and FMJ's. Barnes has TSX, Tac-X, and RRLP's for it, Remington and Winchester have bullets for it, Speer Hot-Cor and Hunter Supply has a 130gr Hard Cast bullet for it. You can get a lot heavier bullet for the 300 Blk and match bullets along with the heavy subsonic loads.

The 7.62x39mm round is designed to be used at a max range of 300 yards. The round has slightly more recoil than the 5.56 but it is still quite comfortable, and easy shooting. An AR chambered in this caliber does require a specialized magazine. These specialized magazines are curved much more than a standard 5.56 magazine. This curve is caused by the severe taper of the 7.62x39mm round. These magazines are quite easy to find online and average just a little more in cost than standard AR mags.

These magazines will function fine with a standard AR 15 lower receiver. The ammunition is affordable and incredibly common. There are many options for magazines, and most are affordable and common. A pistol caliber carbine can even be fired at almost all indoor ranges. They have very little recoil, concussion, and are quite quiet.

Not hearing safe quiet, but you won't blow your eardrums at an indoor range or if you use the weapon for home defense. Running a suppressor is easier because subsonic ammo is common and affordable. I think a big reason for the success of the 300bo is compatibility with standard AR-15 stuff, but it is still more of a novelty in my opinion. If you have an AR and a 30 caliber suppressor then for the cost of an upper you can have a pretty cool subsonic setup while retaining good supersonic performance with only a mag change. It won't and shouldn't replace the 5.56, or the 6.5s, or a dedicated pistol cartridge, but it's dead quiet and cheap to get into, so there's the draw.

As a firearm enthusiast I like the SKS, M1 Carbine, pistol caliber rifles, MBR's and most other types, fun to study, learn and shoot. IMO they are not the right choice for novice shooter for self defense use? NEED safe, effective, reliable, easy to manipulate, easy to maintain, easy to scope or RDS, easy to use rifle for non enthusiast learning and possible defense use. ANSWER AR based MSR in 5.56 or 300 Blackout with caveats.

The 7.62x39mm flies faster, which usually translates to a greater maximum effective range. This 123-grain Fusion load from Federal exits the barrel at 2,300 fps and requires a velocity of 1,600 fps to reliably expand. The bullet remains above that velocity out to 275 yards but by that time has dropped about 20 inches. Your ability to take game confidently depends on your rifle's accuracy, but that's a big drop for that distance, so we recommend keeping shots within 200 yards. I bought a .300 Blackout upper after hunting whitetail deer with my 5.56 rifle. I wasn't able to drop a medium sized deer with the .223 ammo I was using and decided not use that caliber again for whitetails.

After a year switching my uppers with my lower, I decided to build a lower and now I have a dedicated .300 Blackout deer slayer with a 4x illuminated scope. I use Winchester Deer Season XP 125 gr ammo which is an excellent deer round in .30 caliber. I also use a 10 rd Magpul magazine so I don't look like I'm going out on a search and destroy mission. Now, I'm very happy with my Colt M4 in 5.56 for home defense and my .300 Blackout Anderson AM15 rifle for Whitetail deer hunting. The consensus among hunters is that the lowest acceptable muzzle energy a bullet should have to ethically claim a whitetail or other medium-sized game animal is 1000 ft-lbs.

The 7.62x39 is well below this threshold at 200 yards. That's a pretty short effective range for hunting deer. As previously mentioned, a guy at the local 'rod and gun club' was looking to unload a x39 barrel. I tried to set up a test BEFORE he dissasembled it using a D&H magazine. (Thank you KLYDE.) Long story-short we worked out a horse trade. 5.56 DPMS barrel, extension, bolt and regular firing pin, ammo and STANMAGs for Olympic Arms x39 versions of same.

Got an extra long firing pin in the trade, but I think I will try the regular one first. Not sure what I am going to do with four really ugly magazine shaped paperweights, or the five boxes of Russia's finest ammo. The difference between the unmarked mags (yeah, I wouldn't want my name on them either) and the D&H one is stark. The Wisconsinite is about twice as heavy and ten times as rigid.

Once I build the rifle, and see how it handles good quality PMC factory and my favorite 155-2R handloads I will post results. From what I have seen is the 300 AAC Blackout being loaded with H110 pistol powder gives it the advantage that most of the powder burns before exiting the muzzle on a shorter barrel. From my limited experiences with this, it also provides reloaders with a great platform.

Trimming and forming from 223 brass can yield inexpensive 300AAC brass. Unlike 6.8, this round feeds fine with standard AR mags and requires no special bolt, firing pin, or other non-standard parts aside from a barrel. You did say however that you would be reloading, so I think you might have a slight advantage with the 300 BLK in terms of sourcing brass more cheaply than 7.62x39. Most of the x39 ammo being shot is steel cased, so not as big of a market for brassed case stuff.

Most people can buy steel cased as cheap as they can reload the brass cased x39 ammo. So with 300 BLK you get the ability to use 223 brass that is plentiful and cheap and cut it down and reform the 300 BLK brass. No need to search for or buy 300 BLK brass, just find you some 223 and go to work. Its main attribute is that it is so easily adaptable to the AR platform.

As a supersonic platform, you have the advantage over the 7.62X39 of better and a larger choice of projectiles. If you shoot one of these cartridges in a rifle with a 7-inch barrel, though, then you're only going to get about 900 fps in velocity. That's enough of a drop to seriously affect your accuracy when shooting at a target 100 yards away. If you're looking to really shoot long distance and hunt medium to big game, then the 308 Winchester is the clear choice. Its long range ballistics are vastly superior to the 7.62x39 as the 308 has higher muzzle velocity, muzzle energy, a flatter trajectory, and an effective range well past 500 yards.

When you add these things together, it is cheaper to buy factory new 7.62x39 ammo than handloading it. Having shot all versions of the Dead Air Nomad I am definitely a fan. The baffle design is tuned for both supersonic and subsonic ammo. While the Nomad-30 and the Nomad-T are top notch performers, shooters looking for ultimate suppression should opt for either of the longer versions. However, it's sweet spot is bolt guns up to 300 Norma Magnum. I have a 12.5 inch Faxon and a 16 inch ARP 7.62x39mm Russian upper.

Both are very reliable and the ARP is very accurate. I had teething issues with the Faxon, but that was it. I also have a 12.5 inch CMMG .300 Blackout upper.