Pros/cons of 7.62x25 vs 30 carbine vs 300 Blackout

[yellowfin]

I was thinking of the 200 grain Sierra 8mm bullet and cut down 8x57 or .30-06 cases reshaped with Hornady dies, but I'm a big fan of Firefly as well since you mention it. Meanwhile I'll be ordering a 300 AAC 16" upper for building my wife a rifle within the next month or two as a birthday present for her. Haven't decided between the ACE entry stock or a pinned M4 stock, as she has shorter arms than myself.

[jessmcquaid]

I have a 300 blackout upper and am having built a 7.62X25 TOK upper. They serve a different purpose. The obvious benefits of 300 blackout have all been stated and known well by this forum. The good reasons for the 7.62 Tok upper is one, cheap surplus ammo (for as long as it lasts) and two, the fact that it is a handgun round so can be used for subgun matches. I like it better than 9mm for subgun use because you can get a very reliable DI upper vs. blowback that hammers the lower. I don't have mine yet but a friend does and has put almost 5K round of polish surplus at $.07 per round. Oh the 35 round mags being $13 surplus is nice also.

[300Blk]

Well,

221 Fireball is a handgun ground. So that would be winning®.

But some matches specifically do not allow bottlenecked cartridges.

[jessmcquaid]

Very true 221 fireball is a pistol although I have never seen it loaded for 7 cents a round

Anyway I think the reason most matches allow 7.62 Tok is because it is standard in the PPSH type subguns. I know Knob Creek, etc. does allow it. There are some guys pushing right now for 300 whisper to be allowed for subgun matches I read on another forum. One even mentioned 300 Blackout being a commercial non-wildcat similar version. His argument was subsonic it is a 220 grain bullet around 1000 FPS like 230 grain .45 doing around 950 FPS, etc. They were not approved last time I checked.

[jlwilliams]

8mm Kurtz? Neat idea. The 300 blackout certainly has the edge, being a purpose designed cartridge for this sort of thing. I suppose if you were going to build for the fun of it and were going to reload anyway the 8mm Kurtz does have a certain flair. If you were going to build a steam punk SD rifle, it would be an obscure round for an obscure gun.

[300Blk]

If I wanted to be different I would do 9x39mm, though it seems pretty much subsonic only.

[yellowfin]

Hmm, I guess a 8mm Kurz "Steam Punk" rifle would be an AR with a wood forend and pistol grip and maybe an ACE stock with a wood tube over the stock tube, kinda making it look like a SVD. 20 round GI mags with some finish wear would complete the image.

[jlwilliams]

Don't forget to use plenty of brass