An aerial assault on West Texas crop-raiding feral hogs was a blast with a .300 AAC Blackout SBR.
It’s hard to keep track of the number of rounds I have fired of the recently-popular .300 AAC Blackout cartridge and its older twin, the .300 Whisper, over the last few years. Most of the rounds fired – easily 5,000 rounds — have been at targets, but the body counts for deer, feral hogs and coyotes is now well past the century mark.
Typically, killing more than 120 game animals with a single cartridge takes decades, but when I got invited to a Trijicon-sponsored airborne hunt in Texas last spring, I got the choice of using a 5.56 AR or one of my favorites, an Advanced Armament Corporation .300 Blackout SBR AR. Since I’m such a big fan of the “little .30,” it wasn’t too hard of a decision.
More than a year in the making, I wanted to match up one of Advanced Armament Corporation’s 9-inch .300 BLK AR uppers with a registered SBR lower to create one of my all-time favorite rigs. In this case, the lower receiver is a Bravo Company lower receiver that I’ve fitted with a Geissele two-stage trigger. Slide on a Molding Solutions collapsible butt stock, and this little rig is not only handy, but it packs a decent punch… a magazine full, to be precise.
Making Bacon
The setting for the Trijicon hunt was near the wind-swept plains and sand hills near Lubbock, Texas. Local farmers were preparing their fields to plant tens of thousands of acres of peanuts, and it was time to hammer the feral hog population so they would have a chance to make a decent crop.
By now, most hunters know that feral hogs are at near-plague numbers in many states across the nation. Texas seems to have a truly epic hog population, and welcome anyone with a porcine itch to scratch. Now, I love to hunt hogs like I do whitetails, with most any weapon from a blind or elevated stand. Spot-and-stalk hunts are fun, too. But, when the order of the day is to turn as many wild hogs into buzzard bait and coyote poop as possible, a helicopter is the most efficient method of assault.
It’s been more than a decade, but I’ve made airborne eradication flights in Texas before that last spring. Prior to the hunt/shoot, I got in touch with helicopter pilot Kyle Lange to learn more about his operation. Small world that it is, I pieced together the fact that I hunted with his father 15 years prior. A ranch near Abilene nearly had its whitetail population wiped out by coyotes. We cleaned up the 5,500-acre ranch, and I was able to hammer 18 coyotes in 75 minutes of flying time with a short-barreled 12 ga. turkey gun and buckshot. This time, we’d be using rifles to clean up coyotes and make a pile of .300 Blackout bacon.
On the first flight late in the afternoon, we flew for more than 30 minutes over an expanse of sand hills. Mule deer was about all we saw until we found an old over-grown house site. Cover was scarce, but a clump of tall grass merely 1/5th acre in size warranted a closer look. As we buzzed in a lone shoat stood in what had been the front yard of the abandoned sharecropper shack. Kyle keyed his mic and stated that if there was one little piggy, there had to be more. When the rotor wash hit the grass patch, out squirted one little piggy, two little piggys, three little piggys and so on until eight shoats lined out heading east. We nearly mashed the grass flat with the rotor wash when big momma and a girlfriend got in gear, too.
Helo Hog How-To
Eager to squeeze the trigger, Kyle told me to wait until we chased them into more open terrain and to shoot from the back of the herd to the front. That way, the hogs wouldn’t see their mates fall and keep running in a single-file line. The biggest sow was the rearmost of the herd, so it was an easy choice. Expecting to need to put several rounds through the lumbering 200-pound-plus hog, I was pleasantly surprised when a 110-grain Barnes hit her at about 2,200 fps in the spine right between the shoulders and she skidded to a quivering stop.
The first hog seemed too easy, so I aimed carefully and waited to match the chopper’s speed with that of the next hog before I broke the shot. Two shots and two dead hogs, and I was getting the big head. That didn’t last long, with the next three shots requiring more reverse lead than I allowed for as we zoomed over the wad of pork. Circling back, I found target after target, hitting more than I missed. Before we knew it, all 10 peanut-eaters were converted to fertilizer.
Over the next couple of days, I made four more successful flights in search of hogs and other vermin. I burned through about 220 rounds of ammo, which was much better than I had anticipated. One of the reasons that my hit ratio was good was some pre-hunt preparation and optic choice.
Trijicon Accupoint
I opted for a Trijicon 1-4x Accupoint scope. This optic sports a heavy post tipped with a solid amber triangle. When cranked down to 1x, it offers a wide field of view and shoots well with both eyes open for super-fast target acquisition. Typically, I sight this scope so that the point of the amber triangle reticle is dead on at 100 yards, but for this hunt I made some changes. I adjusted the reticle so that the center of the amber triangle covered the point of impact at 40 yards. That way, whenever I painted moving targets with the triangle that’s where the bullets struck… usually.
Whenever I had to adjust my lead based upon the helicopter’s speed and angle of approach, as well as the direction of a running quarry, leads could get kinda tricky. It didn’t take me long to get the hang of it. Most times I waited until I got the shot I wanted instead of spraying and praying. That helped keep my hit ratio hovering around 50 percent. All told, I killed just over 50 hogs with this setup before the hunt was over.
Gun Details
AAC’s 9-inch MPW .300 Blackout upper receiver is a gas impingement setup. The 16-inch AAC 300 BLK upper is designed for use with an adjustable carbine receiver extension, standard GI buffer spring, and a carbine buffer. AAC components rate at a premium level of quality, with the 1:7 twist barrel nitrite treated to provide extreme corrosion resistance and greater hardness for a long life.
AAC testing revealed that nitride treated barrels outperform chrome-lined barrels for longevity without some of the potential accuracy bugs associated with chrome lining. The muzzle is threaded 5/8-24 threads per inch, but an AAC 51-tooth Blackout flash suppressor is attached with Rockset from the factory, so it’s nearly a moot point that the barrel is threaded 5/8-24. A Knight’s Armament URX III free-float handguard helps accuracy, works well with accessories and keeps your weak hand from getting fried during short-term, high round counts.
The 9-inch MPW’s bolt carrier group is nickel boron (Ni-B) UCT EXO coated, and has a very high hardness and lower friction than either chrome or nickel Teflon. There is also a base layer of high-phosphorous electroless nickel that ensures the extreme corrosion protection that is absent from other Nickel Boron carriers that use a single, thinner layer.
The bolt is Carpenter 158 phosphated shot-peened steel to ensure precise dimensions with no concerns for getting brittle in the critical lug area. A special green O-ring that is tested to not bind even at -40 degrees Fahrenheit comes standard. The extractor spring is made from premium ultra-strong wire and is a low fatigue design to ensure the longest possible life. The extractor pin made from 300 ksi S2 tool steel. Finally, the carrier key is staked and sealed with Permatex gasket seal compound to ensure against gas leakage. These features aren’t just marketing hype; they help keep it running under the added strains and fouling present when a weapon is suppressed.
Another nifty accessory I added to this SBR is a Law Tactical stock folder.
Silence is Deadly
The recommended optional sound suppressor is AAC’s 762-SDN6, and that’s just what I had mounted.
The AAC 7.62-SDN-6 is a compact fast-attach sound and flash suppressor for 7.62x51mm and 300 AAC BLACKOUT (7.62x35mm) weapons. It is 1 ¼ inches shorter than the 762-SD and features a fully welded all-Inconel baffle stack and front end cap to maximize durability on select fire 7.62mm SBRs. The 762-SDN-6 also functions as a superb multi-caliber suppressor for multiple hosts, providing excellent performance on 7.62 NATO, 300 AAC, 6.8 SPC, 6.5, and 5.56mm NATO. When employed on a 300 AAC BLACKOUT, the overall SPL of 126 dB with subsonic ammo is quieter than the 9mm HK MP5-SD.
The Blackout is an efficient, proprietary flash suppressor that eliminates muzzle flash, even on CQB-length barrels. The 300 AAC Blackout’s three-prong design is inherently stronger and more impact resistant than other four prong designs, while not being subject to the rapid erosion of closed-ended units. A high strength corrosion-resistant aerospace alloy, and ultra-hard SCARmor finish provide the highest level of durability. Military tested and selected. The unit adds 4.35 ounces of weight, 2 ½ inches of length to your rifle.
Down range
Experience aplenty on game, I knew that every load was a stopper. I didn’t have time to chronograph and shoot many groups prior to makin’ bacon, but I made up for it a couple weeks later. At the same time I was hunting and testing this 9-inch SBR, I was also testing the same rifle and caliber with a 16-inch barrel. I was curious about the loss in velocity from a barrel 7 inches shorter.
Testing two factory loads and four handloads for the 300 AAC Blackout, I got a good basis for comparison and found a favorite load that I’ll use later on fall whitetails.
Subs vs. Supers
Remington’s subsonic 220-grain load averaged 1,031 fps, yielding a standard deviation of 29 fps and an extreme spread of 85 fps. In comparison, this load from a 16-inch barrel produced an average of 1,079 fps. When I stepped up in velocity to Hornady’s 110-grain VMax .300 Whisper, the SBR drove the load a 2,158 fps. An SD of 45 fps and ES of 154 fps seemed rather erratic. Fired from the 16-inch model, this load averaged 2,373 fps.
Scrounging for projectiles in my effort to load up quantity rather than quality, I dug through a lot of old bullets. One was a box of 180-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips that dated back to one of the earliest runs ever manufactured. I was able to push this load to 1,538 fps. Even at this relatively slow velocity, game shot with this load expired quickly.
Remington’s 125-grain pink polymer-tipped spire points driven by 19.0 grains of AA1680 were clocked at an average of 1,901 fps from the 9-inch SBR barrel. This compares to the same load from a 16-inch barrel, which averaged 2,139 fps. To save you the math, that’s 240 fps slower from the shorter barrel.
When I loaded up Hornady’s 208-grain AMax, I picked H110. That load was 12.2 grains, and averaged 1,398 fps. A 16-inch barrel averaged 1,456 fps. This was a stable load that posted an extreme spread of 12 fps and a standard deviation of 4 fps.
The final handload was Barnes’ 125-grain TSX driven by 17.7 grains of H110. Driven from a 16-inch barrel, this one averaged 2,373 fps. Launched from this SBR, it slowed to 2,137 fps.
Basically, you’ll sacrifice about 240 fps with a 9-inch-barreled SBR with the 300 AAC Blackout cartridge shooting 125-grain bullets when compared to a minimum non-NFA AR in .300 Blackout. Even though this rig is slower, it’s got plenty of knock-down power on animals as tough as a 225-pound boar. This is currently one of my favorite rigs, owing to its handiness in tight quarters. Although more powerful cartridges exist, this little piggy puncher will give them a dirt nap in a hurry.
You Might Also Like:
Easy Reloading: 300 Blackout AR-Style Rifle
AAC’s 16-Inch 300 Blackout Hammers Coyotes from the Air
300 Blackout Bolt Gun
Deep Sixing Coyotes with Hornady’s 6mm ARC
More About Jay Langston