necked out 223's

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dobroman

New member
So my son mentioned that the 300 blackout and the 300 whisper are necked out 223's, use the same magazines and all. So my next dumb question is, what's a 300 Fireball??? Are all of those the same??
 
You can make them all out of the .223 but they are alll necked up .221 Fireball. JD Jones developed the Whisper, guys who didn't buy his product got to call them a .300 Fireball. The .300 AAC Blackout is just another version of the same old cartridge.
 
The 300 Whisper was based on the 221 Fireball case as a subsonic round using a heavy 30 caliber bullet. With a heavy bullet and the shorter Fireball case, the COL will fit and function in a .223 AR magazine.
 
Thanks for the response guys. I know more now than before, enough to probably stay away form all of them, until and if, it becomes a more widely accepted round for the upper on an AR platform. Somebody mentioned bringing in a whipser or a blackout upper for the next gun show, but it doesn't really sound like something I should jump into. Again, I appreciate the response. The older I get, it seems the less I know!
 
I haven't seen a Blackout rifle yet but the local Sportsmans Warehouse has the ammunition in stock on the shelf. They usually have both HSM and Remington factory stuff on the shelf. I'm sure there are more companies making it and as long as you can order off the internet I'd still get on if you are seriously interested in the cartridge.
 
from what my understanding is, all three are made by necking out 223 casings and are so similar that many people don'd even know there's a difference. IIRC the 300 blackout is a hot loaded version of the 300 whisper and both semi interchangeable(kindof like 5.56 and .223) but the 300 fireball has a slightly different length so it isn't interchangeable with either.
 
from what my understanding is, all three are made by necking out 223 casings and are so similar that many people don'd even know there's a difference. IIRC the 300 blackout is a hot loaded version of the 300 whisper and both semi interchangeable(kindof like 5.56 and .223) but the 300 fireball has a slightly different length so it isn't interchangeable with either.
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The parent case is the .221 Fireball case which can be made from .223 but it will require trimming, as the .221 Fireball case is around 10mm shorter than the .223 case. They do share a similar Case Overall Lenght (COAL) as they can be made to work in AR magazines. .300 Whisper, .300-221 Fireball and .300 BLK all share similar dimensions.

The .300 BLK isn't loaded any hotter it just offers supersonic as well as subsonic loads in commercial ammunition. All of this can be acheived by any handloader with a .300 Whisper or .300-221 Fireball. Yes there will be some slight variations in the .300 BLK and .300-221 Fireball as no one wants to pay royalties to JD Jones by using the same exact specs as his .300 Whisper basiclly all three are the same cartridge.

Interchangeability will depend on several things. I wouldn't do it just to be on the safe side of things.
 
The "renewed" interest in 30 caliber bullets in shortened .223 or .221 brass is driven by the fact that AAC has sought and been granted SAAMI approval for the 300 BLACKOUT.

It's a fun round, that feeds and cycles in the AR platform with only a barrel swap. The Magazines and Bolt are all still the same size as the 5.56 or .223.

You will find as this matures that more companies will offer more selection as far as ammunition goes.

Weather or not this is for YOU, depends really on what you want to do with it.
 
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