8.6 Blackout...The New Kid in Town

 

We are constantly in awe of Kevin Brittingham and his wonderful ideas. You can thank him for the 300 Blackout. Be prepared to thank him again for then 8.6 Blackout...300 Blackout's big brother with an attitude. We'll focus on the 8.6 Blackout round in this post and maybe our next post will be about Kevin.

Q LLC is Kevin's brainchild and they never cease to amaze. Go to their website and see for yourself. But, alas, we veer off subject because each firearm and suppressor that Q manufactures is worthy of its own post...trust me, we'll get to them.

Straight from Wikipedia: 

8.6mm Blackout (8.6×43 mm), also sometimes referred to as 8.6 BLK,^[1] is a centerfire rifle cartridge developed by the firearms manufacturer Q, LLC.^[3] It utilizes a shortened case from the 6.5mm Creedmoor necked up to an 8.6 mm caliber (8.585 mm or 0.338 in diameter) projectile and designed for use in bolt action rifles or as a caliber conversion for AR10 and AR-308 rifles. The 8.6 Blackout has been designed for barrels using a 76 mm or 102 mm (1:3 in or 1:4 in) twist rate and bullet weights between 10.4–14.6 g (160–225 gr) for supersonic loads and 18.5–22.7 g (285–350 gr) for subsonic loads.^[4]

^{In layman's terms it's a .338 bullet in a 6.5 Creedmoor case. Yup. Wow. Typically, it's shot through a barrel with a 1:3 twist ratio. Again...another "Wow." That much twist makes supersonic ammo incredibly hard to manufacture so that it doesn't disintegrate mid flight. Maker's Bullets and Gorilla Ammunition are the only two makers that have rounds that can endure such a violent twist ratio in supersonic loads. Both companies also have the best subsonic bullets as well. Here's a video of ballistic gel tests by Gorilla and another by Maker's. 'Nuff said?}

^{The 8.6 is definitely not a precision round and it wasn't ever designed to be. It was designed to kill whatever it hits. And, big game test hunts worldwide leave no doubt to its power. The subsonic 8.6 has more energy transfer on impact at 300 meters than a .308 supersonic...all thanks to that 1:3 twist rate. Check out this short video. Shall we say, "Wow." Again, it's amazing round. Silencer Shop has a great blog post about it...just in case you'd like a bit more in-depth information.}

^{The rumor mill is certainly abuzz with whispers of semi-automatic platforms and various builds industry wide. It's certainly a round that's getting ready to...pardon the pun, but it's getting ready to explode. At High Caliber Guns and Optics in Florence, SC we are ready for it.}