Nice! It really is a modern 30/30 with better bullets. There are a lot of good reasons why the 30/30 was one of the most popular rounds in America for decades on end. It's enough without being too much.
The velocity posted for 125 and 130 grain bullets appear almost identical to the 6.5 Grendel, how would a 300 be an advantage?
If you are looking for flat trajectory, it's not.
If you are looking for something that can consume pistol powder & still shoot like a rifle, it's THE game. If you have a bunch of light .30s laying around from days of reduced loads for HP, it's the ticket. I seem to see more good deals on small .30 bullets than on 6.5 bullets. Maybe it's just because I look at .30s more. The brass is free. You can pick up good .223 brass at any range. I have my trimmer chucked to a drill & it only takes a few seconds to trim & then size the brass. Bill Wilson seems to think it's a better round than the Grendel out of SBRs due to the faster powder it can use. True? I don't know. I wasn't interested in an SBR.
You gotta remember your audience here. Finding brass on the ground IS justification for buying a new rifle! Oh, and thanks for bringing up the Grendel. You may be the one that FORCED me to buy one!
after watching some of the wilson vids, it appears he felt the real advantage to the hamr was using the same bolt and mag as the 5.56. yea.. it functions better with actual blackout mags, but you get the idea. if you are considering converting a 223 to a blkout, 6.5 or 6.8, then a hamr barrel is worth looking into. if you're buying a new rifle bigger than a 223 for medium sized game, it's still worth a look. if you already have a 6.whatever, you may not justify a hamr.. if people still do that
i still have a 6.8 that i shot a few hogs with over the last two to three years. i was handloading 130s in the hamr quite a bit faster than i was able to load 120s in the 6.8. i think i've settled on 125gr tnt. here are a few lucky shots with them...
All of my ARs are of the normal 5.56/.223 variety. I've got some 50gr GMXs and 53gr TSXs to work up some loads for an upcoming hog hunt, in April.
The upcoming hunt seems like a great excuse to build a bigger-bore AR, and after some Internet searching, I stumbled on this thread about the .300 Ham'r. The pig-whacking videos proved to be too much, so I ordered up an 18" .300 Ham'r barrel from Wilson Combat.
I'm planning to order up some Starline brass, just for simplicity sake, and start off with Speer's 125gr TNT and 130gr Hot-Cor bullets. The Barnes 110gr TAC-TX looks interesting, as well.
I found some AA1680, locally, but I haven't located a can of CFE-BLK yet. Does anyone have any input on either of these powders, one versus the other? Are there other powder options I should consider?
The velocity posted for 125 and 130 grain bullets appear almost identical to the 6.5 Grendel, how would a 300 be an advantage?
Sometimes things that just shouldn't be better are. That said I'd still like to play the DJones game with a good 223, I think I could get more hits but I could be wrong. Dont' much care if they go aways after the hit.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
I’d bet those velocities for most Grendel factory stuff are out of 20-24” barrels. Wilson’s stuff is generally 16-18”, and stated so, when it comes to his stuff. I’m tempted to try the HAMR, just because. I don’t know that it’ll impress me more than my 6.8 stuff, but I don’t have time these days to load for my semis.....just certain of my oddball stuff. It’s a time vs benefit analysis. I like to roll my own, but I love to shoot and hunt. Reading the tea leaves, factory offerings in the HAMR seem on an uptic and are fairly reasonable. Factory Grendel offerings have surpassed the 6.8 in price and a good choice of hunting loads. Back when I used a Grendel some, I wasn’t gonna load for it, and 6.8 factory loads were better in regards to bullet/velocity combos, and just (anecdotally) seemed to kill quicker for me. The best 6.8 loads have been fubar’d since Nosler bought SSA. I don’t need my semis to be 350+ yard lasers. I need 0-200 emphasis, and 200-300ish capability in a pinch. The Grendel would tempt me to stretch that, just because of bullets, but the HAMR might be more useful for my purposes and shorter hunting barrels, and the BLK won’t cut it much past 100, IMO. I just have reservations about it’s longevity and availability at this point, after their 7.62x40. Down the road, if I get the time and $ to load for my ARs, then it won’t matter as much.
The hammer mirrors the 30-30... and does it extremely well.
The 6.8 SPC is a bit faster and very effective as well, it’s what I went with because I coyote hunt and want to reach out to 300 with running shots if I needed too.
Now If Kansas would allow Night optics I’d be all set.
I just have reservations about it’s longevity and availability at this point, after their 7.62x40. Down the road, if I get the time and $ to load for my ARs, then it won’t matter as much.
I wouldn't worry about it. Brass is soooo easy to form, just trim a range pick-up .223 case and run it through the sizing die.
I found some AA1680, locally, but I haven't located a can of CFE-BLK yet. Does anyone have any input on either of these powders, one versus the other? Are there other powder options I should consider?
They are very close. Another one to consider is Shooter's World Blackout. The initial numbers made it look like a 1680 beater, but real world, it seems very close to 1680 as well. Maybe lot-to-lot variation?
These cartridges are right on the edge for usefulness with W296 & H110 as well. I doubt you can get the velocity of 1680 with them and they can be iffy depending upon your gas system, but if you have a cheap source of them you might want to fool with them. You can try surplus carbine powder too - WC820. It's a 296 type powder.
a probably dumb question, with PSA making an AR that shoots the 7.62 x 39 why are we reinventing the wheel again and again and again, practice ammo dirt cheap vs BO, Winchester and Hornady provide hunting ammunition, 303 caliber 125 grain pro hunter bullets are 4 cents a shot...I know the novelty and marketing makes the HAMR more desirable. I think Jeff was shooting pigs at a pretty good distance with a model 1 sales x39 if he still posts here maybe he could chime in.
Sorry for the intrusion, I normally just lurk around here but you are talking about my two favorite cartridges.
I have had a 7.62x40WT since 2011 and it has been my constant companion, and handled everything from beavers to bears. Then Bill Wilson started working on the 300 HAM'R! Knowing how I felt about the 7.62x40, he allowed me to follow along from day one and it has been an interesting adventure.
Please allow me to answer a few questions that have popped up. AA1680 worked well in several loadings and Shooter's World Blackout is almost identical. However, CFE-BLK had shown more versatility with lower pressure levels. Shooter's World SOCOM has also worked well in some loadings. Forming brass is similar to the 7.62x40 process and is easy enough to do. In fact, I just finished a batch of 5,000 rounds (all Lake City) a few weeks ago. If you don't want to go through the process, Starline and SIG have both produced brass. To date, more than 30 bullets ranging from 110 to 150 grains have been tested for the 300 HAM'R.
I always found the 7.62x40WT an accurate round and the 300 HAM'R has given me the same (and better in some cases) accuracy.
If you want to shoot sub-sonic you can stay with the 300 BO but for pure power, the 300 HAM'R is the ticket. The best thing I can say about the Blackout is magazines designed it will work great with the 300 HAM'R.
The bottom line is, all you need to change on an AR to convert to the 300 HAM'R is a new barrel. You can convert 5.56 cases and maintain the standard capacity that you would have with a 5.56. I have fired thousands of rounds during the testing process and have not had a single problem. (OK, I did have one primer inserted upside down but that was my fault.)
If you are wondering about "longevity and availability" just hang around for a while. I promised to keep my mouth shut but 2020 is going to be an interesting year. I have no ties to Wilson Combat other than friendship, but I have reviewed the 300 HAM'R in several magazines. Today I can say that there is no "hype" in Wilson Combat's statements about the 300 HAM'R, it is the real deal!
a probably dumb question, with PSA making an AR that shoots the 7.62 x 39 why are we reinventing the wheel again and again and again, practice ammo dirt cheap vs BO, Winchester and Hornady provide hunting ammunition, 303 caliber 125 grain pro hunter bullets are 4 cents a shot.
Personally, I don't want to screw with weird bore sizes. I also don't want to deal with bolts that possibly shear lugs just when you are squeezing some juice out of the cartridge. Plus I don't care for the taper on the 7.62. I'd prefer a .30 Grendel.
I know, this all probably doesn't make any difference.
Tyrone, your right not much makes any difference! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes people do things that others say cannot be done, for instance I have to wonder how many deer have been shot dead with the Mini 30 in x39 caliber? Why I myself never knew the Russian sucked so badly until the 300 BO marketing BS compared it! Suddenly we learned as we are still learning daily that only the latest and greatest will work! I have a BO and it kills deer at $2.00 a round Barnes 110 grain Vor-TX. Looking at 1000 rounds of cheap ammunition for 18 cents a round. Sometimes I wonder if the pig hunters would better off to shoot them with FMJ and let them run off to die somewhere else, but that is cruel isn’t it.
You may be the one that FORCED me to buy one! 
