Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Wilson Combat 300 Hammer conversion

Browsing around and came across the Wilson conversion kit for Ruger American
Reading about it and the caliber sounds interesting.
I currently have a Ruger American in 300 aac and I really like it .
It is a deer thumper inside of 100 yds
Most shots around here usually aren’t much over 75 yds in the woods .
I’m trying to convince myself to go for it , but would like to hear from some one who has had experience with the kit or caliber
Kenneth

I love the caliber. A lot of this was just covered here.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/18777623/1

Thanks , that was an interesting read . Going to talk to the doc tomorrow, hopefully nothing serious going on with leg and can get back to work
Need money to play , like everything in life 😀
But I’m pretty sure I’m gonna go for it .
Got a 300 aac in AR , it shoots really well , 125gr sst’s and 120 Barnes tac shoots well under an inch setting on 1680 with magnum primers
So , giving up the 300aac in the Ruger kind of gets more acceptable
Kenneth

I have a Tikka T3X with a PreferredBarrel 18" threaded barrel.

Was shotting it today with the suppressor, very little recoil. I'm getting 2,500 fps with 125 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips.

I was reading on the WC website, "NOTE: Wilson Combat 300 HAM'R Conversion Kits will fit Ruger American models manufactured since 2018. Models manufactured prior to 2018 are not compatible with this kit."

Am I correct in assuming that the pre-2018 models use the original, Ruger rotary magazines? The 2018 (and later) use the AR mags?

Yes, I talked with them and it has to have ar mags. Unfortunately mine does not, but I can get 2400 FPS with 125 gr bullets and lilgun. Not much difference.

Yea , the more I look at load data , it doesn’t seem to have a clear wow factor to the 300 BO vs 300 Ham’r , a little edge , but no wow.

I just put together an AR in 300 hamr. I used a super light 16" Wilson barrel that only weighs about 19 ounces. It's on an aero m4e1 upper and lower with an S-one handguard, and a triggertech trigger.

I put a 5x vortex dot type sight on it. I worked up a few loads this week and they all shot well. Most were around 1.5" at 100 yards which is about as accurate as I can be with a dot type sight at that range.

It's been easy to load for and fun to shoot and gives me at least 200 fps more than my hottest 300 bo loads. My first loads were a 110g speer psp that went 2672 fps, a 125g tnt that went 2420 fos and some 135g gold dot type bonded boattails at 2360 fps all from a 16" barrel.

I just loaded up more of those 135g Speers and I'm going to let my 11 year use it on his deer hunt Tuesday. All the loads I tried so far have functioned perfectly with no jamming or other hang ups.

My boy and I took it out a couple of nights ago and had a lot of fun with it on the 50 yard range. I put 4 rounds close to touching at 50 with the dot sight in a fairly quickly fired string. It was just easy for me to hot whatever I wanted quickly at that range. I think it's going to work well at reasonable ranges like under 300 yards.

I found cfe black to be the only powder I really need for it for bullets from 110g to 150g. It dumps accurately from a powder measured. I just checked a few at first on the scale to dual it in and then just dropped the charges directly after that. The starline brass is great and not too expensive and some speer bullets that work well in it are reasonably priced.

It's just been one that seemed to work out easily with no hang ups or suprises. I think it would be an easy round to load on a progressive other than my cfe blk charge for the 110g load pretty much filled the case and may spill a bit on a progressive.

Bb

Haven’t tried the black , is it fine powder?
Asking because I often get better accuracy using fine powder setting on magnum primers .
1680 and 296 showed a definite improvement using magnum primers
Kenneth

It is about the best, if not the best, powder for the Ham'r.

1680 is another good one, but every load I've ever tried. CFE BLK topped it in velocity. All the loads I've tried have been pressure tested via Wilson Combat.

I had to get over compressing it like you have to.

I guess you could say "Once you go BLK, you'll never go BCK".

Dam it , now there’s another expense.
Kenneth

I have a 18" barrel on mine, but I'm thinking of building a second one with a 16" barrel. Their fluted Recon and plain Ranger barrel both weigh about 25oz. I like the idea of saving some weight with the Ultralight barrel, but I wonder how well it will work with a 12oz. suppressor hanging off the end of it?

Right now, I'm leaning towards the fluted Recon for added stiffness. Thoughts?

I love my 18inch Wilson AR. Great do it all rifle.

I don't have a suppressor on mine but I just added a fairly big muzzle brake because my 11 year old wanted to see if we could reduce the recoil a bit for his hunts. I need to take it out today and see it it shifted at all with the extra 3-4 ounces hanging off the end. I really like the supper light contour. It's shot well so far and both the 125g tnt load and the 135 bonded loads shoot to the same poi. It's a thin barrel but it's also short enough that it doesn't get as whippy as a longer thin contour would.

Someone above asked if cfe black was a fine powder. It's a very fine ball powder that drops perfectly from my rcbs and my hornady powder mesurer. It's a little too fine for my cheap old Lee because it can get between things and gum up. It has shot well with each load I've tried and the velocity has been on with Wilson's data once you adjust for my 16" barrel. Their 135g load said 2400fps from an 18" and I get 2360 with very little deviation from a 16".

The only issue I had with blk was with 110g loads you start getting to the top of the case. They seat and compress ok it's just easier to spill if you're not carefull. I bought a bunch of speer 110g hc spire points on close out for half price a few years back so I may look for another powder for those to run on my progressive.

For everything else I'll likely stick with cfe blk and a cci450. The starline brass is great as always and I bought the 3 die set from Lee on clearance directly from Lee for about $20.

Bb

Sounds like you got things wrapped up pretty good
You might want to consider W-296 or lil gun for the 110’s
Both work really good and are also fine and semi fine
Kenneth

Looks like a fun round, and the ability to use .223 brass makes it almost a no brainer.

I recently picked up a bunch of brass in trade, which included just over 200pcs of .308 Arrow brass. Based on my research, looks to be nothing more than a 6.5 Grendel case necked to .30 cal. Its hard to find any reloading data, but looks like it will push a 125gr bullet around 2700fps. I thought it would be a great round for a 16" T/C Contender carbine with 125gr BT's or 130gr SPP bullets.

Sounds like a nice cartridge and a great excuse to build another AR!

I wouldn't have any interest in it out of an AR, but I do think it would be a lot of fun out of a G2 Contender.

My 11 year old flattened a Whitetail doe with the 300 hammer the other day. He hit it right on the shoulder in the middle of the ridge on the blade. It had about 2" holes through both sides of the rib cage and exited.

The deer went about 20 yards and collapsed. It was about 150- 200 yards. It happened so fast I didn't range it I just knew it was in range so I told him to put the dot on the shoulder and squeeze the triggertech. It has a 5x spitfire on it. It is a nicest up for an 11 year old. Light with an adjustable stock and enough power without much recoil. I need to weigh it but I think the rifle and optic are under 6 pounds.

Bb

I shot a mule deer buck with our little 300 hamr ar yesterday. It was only about 80 yards and I could just see it's head and rack as it was running through the brush so I put down my proof elevation and grabbed the 300 hamr from my 11 year old son. It was the right tool for a moving closer shot in this tall sage.

The 135g speer bonded at 2360 fps did the job with a large silver dollar size entrance where it hit a rib, an exploded heart, and a golf ball sized exit. It was very handy having that light rifle and 5x dot for off hand shooting in brush.

I'm liking the 300 hamr in an AR. Its been reliable with every load I've tried and the load data from wilson is pretty right on. Just use cfe black and most bullets between 125 to 150g. CFE BLK works well with 110s too but the case is almost completely full so I have to br careful not to spill. I'm going to work up some 110g grain loads with accurate no 11fs in the spring for varmints and defense. This little 300 hamr may become one of my truck guns. The little 5x vortex dot has a reticle so it works even when the battery is dead. The eye relied and optics aren't great but they work well enough. My 11 year old flattened his doe first shot at about 200 yards with it.

Bb