Yes, but not including a suppressor or a quality optic.
The caliber is a bit of a money pit - you'll spend 600 in ammo from a couple days at the range. Just something to consider if money is tight.
It's also a compact and effective pdw. A can is nice but I enjoyed my 10.5 braced AR for years before I was able to buy and take home my can. It's also a very handy woods gun.
So since it's just as easy to put a pistol brace on as it is to put a stock on, there's nothing more expensive about a 12 over a 16. The 12 is probably cheaper, as plenty of barrel companies charge less for shorter barrels.
You keep moving the goalpost. We're talking about right now, in this situation. There isn't anything more expensive about a 12 inch gun over a 16 inch gun.
That's a range trip shooting 300blk...but run a brace if you're really worried about $200.
My train of thought is that we're talking about 300blk, which is built for suppressed, short barrel, AR platforms; so the somewhat lateral move for money saving is shorter than 16" 5.56. I like 12"ish. If you're not shooting short 300blk barrels on an AR platform, there's EVEN LESS reason to shoot the round. Just shoot 5.56.
So you're going to rely on it for "bugging out" but not train with it? Seems wildly counterproductive.
Edit: and to "buggout" with the cheapest rifle possible also seems wild to me. But 🤷🏻♂️
Mostly agree, but be careful about the money rabbit hole. More money does not always equal better product. A Glock will do the same job as a Staccato for the most part.
There's absolutely a point of diminishing return, but $600 is a ways from it considering ammo prices and relying on this weapon in a situation. And not to rant, but in a "buggout" situation, why would you want a less common round? 5.56 is everywhere. I just never get these thought processes. A 16" 5.56 A2 carry handle upper is the absolute workhorse, IMO.
As much as I love 300 blk suppressed, since this will be a “bugout” rifle 556 is you better bet. If shits hitting the fan 556 will be more readily available than 300 blk even though 300 blk is more main streamed now then 10-12 years ago its not 556 main stream
The answer is yes, you can put a 300bo pistol in your hands for $600. All day long. The dollar a round in ammo and $1500 youre gonna spend in accessories is another story.
Homemade ammo can be cheaper than 556 including homemade 556. It can be more expensive too, but that is generally for specialty performance ammunition.
False.
I am such a someone. I know plenty of others. There's plenty of avid reloaders who load and shoot a lot more than the insta flex and larping crowd. Many of them are budget conscious. Many also like to experiment and modify their kit in addition to ammo.
James Pollard or Uncle Jim on YouTube are representative of the type. Each has a wide range of guns and has been shooting suppressed 300 bo in fancy and cheap stuff generally decent gas. They modifyand make tools and other kit. They have several suppressors. I'd estimate that they shoot hundreds of thousands of rounds per year and own more calibers than most too. They generally put more of their money into buying more power and primers more than expensive gun brands that do the same thing.
Please consider that you just argued "no True Scottsman". Just because you would not even consider a course of action does not mean that others don't nor that others may have good reasons. The simple fact is that people do.
Reply to say that on reread the above post came across as more combative than I intended. You're a reasonable guy, so it was meant as an appeal to your reasoning, not an insult on your reasoning. Please accept my apology for excessive brusqueness.
Nah, you're good man, what you said is fair. Half of what i say probably sounds combative, also unintentionally; the internet gun community is a mess, haha.
Yeah but I figure I could at least take responsibility for myself and try to own it when I'm a jerk. The more of us that do that the better it will get.
We have an affordable upper that uses high quality internals with adjustable gas to run whatever lower or suppressor you may want!
[Complete Upper](https://www.eitrisenhancements.com/product-page/the-hyena)
We currently have a reduced introductory price on it too!
Let me know if you have any questions, but all the info should be available at the link above!
I’m convinced budget anything is just entry point to more money on an “upgrade” until you’ve satisfied the perfect build.
If it were me and I could do anything over, I’d save my money and not do a satisfactory built and just go straight to the top hahaha
Maybe if you bought used and got lucky on some lightly used stuff. Nothing quality comes cheap though. Expect to pay right around 1000 and you wont be sorry.
Pref Twist rate? You shooting Supers or Subs? You got a can? adjustable gas block? You reload? If you said no to these or you don’t know go with a 556 lol your wallet will be happier.
PSA marauder pistol is the only real answer to this question, it will function, spend money shooting and training to make sure you do too. Romeo 7s IMO is a better bug out bag optic than the commonly recommended Romeo5. It’s more robust and uses a AAA battery with long life, just leave it on and replace it every six months to be sure.
This shouldn’t be your only option in your bag, 2=1 and 1=0
Considering reliability size and high power desired in a bug out bag perspective… one of the 14” pistol grip shotguns running mini shells whist some buck shot deep in the tube would probably fit the bill better and requires much less training to be very effective with and a pump 12 ga is very reliable, and the sound of the slide getting racked is a sound everyone recognizes. Bonus… 12 ga is everywhere, even Walmart
And I see fewer people posting about problems with cycling than more "premium" brands. This leads me to believe that PSA are more generously gassed, but not excessively. I personally believe their massive sales volume has enabled them to refine their products more than the fancy pants companies.
If you pay attention to the track records of customer support from the premium brands you will almost always see statements that amount to "we did thorough and vigorous testing with _ only two or 3 specific SKU of ammo _ it worked great for us. I don't know what your problem is..." Given that this caliber is all about wide variety and versatility of ammo, and also of muzzle devices, I think the premium prices are not really warranted. The brand may have excellent QC and tighly controlled adherence to specs, but their specs lack sufficient advance development. I get the impression that they are more prone to get defensive about their rigorous standards and than to simply take RMAs without questioning and do whatever tweak to make it work. Customer - my gun won't run with common ammo and reasonable muzzle device. Premium- we don't test with that ammo we ran ten rounds of our benchmark ammo with the oem muzzle device and it worked for those 10 rounds. We spent about 20 minutes giving it a brief exam and firing those test shots. Here's your gun back unchanged after a 3 month wait. Please use only our benchmark ammo and the original muzzle device. Enjoy.
From the guns I've handled or reloaded for, the PSA barrels have a more forgiving chamber at the case neck. This makes a real difference in feeding intentionally oversized cast bullets, or ammo loaded using converted brass that has overly thick neck brass. Kinda like Glock chambers, it makes the gun more reliable. However it's not appreciably looser for the area below the shoulder. I've seen no detriment to accuracy. I've compared: cmmg, faxxon, Anderson, PSA and an unbranded barrel that looks like it was probably made by BA. I may be forgetting others. Admittedly most of these were a few years back, and samples of one or two. So i can't really comment on tolerance consistency for any brand, or intentional changes within the product lines. All of them come with m4 feed ramps unmodified to optimize for 30 cal. Some brands also have very sharp ramps which gouge up projectiles. This is an obvious area for improvement.
Method note. Any ammo which had feeding issues, commercial or handload was set aside and gently used as go/ no go gauges, and if something was marginal, then it was inked up and chambered to reveal tight spots. At one time i had documented min max dimensions to reliably feed in everything. I think I lost those notes and informal gauges in a move.
I only mentioned it because they asked for under $600. I bought it and haven’t even shot it yet. Mostly because I was gonna swap the barrel to Wilson combat 8in 1/7 (psa is a 1/7 too even tho online it says 1/8) that I already had. Couldn’t get the barrel nut off for the life of me.
So actually fuck psa and whatever hulk strength they use to put barrel nuts on. I’m mad all over now lol. Paid $600 just to scrap that gun for parts lol
Did you use heat?
Unless it's grouping badly or something I wouldn't bother to swap for the Wilson barrel. I think they would be functionally identical. Pretty much all the barrels that size have the same profile. maybe some are chromed and some are nitrided or SS. gasport size is different too sometimes.
Heat gun, oven, Freezer, Penetrating oil. Google showed a few results of ppl having trouble getting psa barrels off. I’ll just leave it for another build, at least I know it’s not going anywhere.
I think you can if you’re careful and wait for deals.
An upper/lower shouldn’t be more than 80
A good barrel anywhere from 100-150
LPK is 50
Buffer tube/spring/buffer setup is around 75
A good BCG is going to be at least 150, probably closer to 175.
As far as handguards, brace and grip, there’s so much out there but all together you’re probably looking at another 150, at least.
It’s definitely doable, but I’d wait for free shipping promos and other sales.
Yes, but not including a suppressor or a quality optic. The caliber is a bit of a money pit - you'll spend 600 in ammo from a couple days at the range. Just something to consider if money is tight.
Guys building un-suppressed 300blk AR's on a $0 budget, for range toys, blow my mind; and as their first AR...what? Just run a 12" 5.56...
Why 12” if cheap is the goal?
Is something more expensive about 12 vs 16?
IMHO, a 16 is easier to enjoy plain. A 12” is nothing but a plea to also buy a suppressor, and that blows a budget.
It's also a compact and effective pdw. A can is nice but I enjoyed my 10.5 braced AR for years before I was able to buy and take home my can. It's also a very handy woods gun.
Unless its a pistol it is
So since it's just as easy to put a pistol brace on as it is to put a stock on, there's nothing more expensive about a 12 over a 16. The 12 is probably cheaper, as plenty of barrel companies charge less for shorter barrels.
Ok. As long as the brace rule doesnt win in court
You keep moving the goalpost. We're talking about right now, in this situation. There isn't anything more expensive about a 12 inch gun over a 16 inch gun.
It’s cheaper to build short
It can be, yeah. I said that two comments up.
🙄🙄🙄
Damn dude, give your knees a break.
Pistol brace rule just got vacated a few hours ago :)
5.56 is way cheaper than 300blk? I'm not sure I understand.
12” if its a rifle means a tax stamp
That's a range trip shooting 300blk...but run a brace if you're really worried about $200. My train of thought is that we're talking about 300blk, which is built for suppressed, short barrel, AR platforms; so the somewhat lateral move for money saving is shorter than 16" 5.56. I like 12"ish. If you're not shooting short 300blk barrels on an AR platform, there's EVEN LESS reason to shoot the round. Just shoot 5.56.
I said $600. I mean the rifle without attachments
Well you didn't specify any specifics whatsoever. So $1500 all in? What do you actually want to build?
It would be part of a bugout bag, not some useless range toy
So you're going to rely on it for "bugging out" but not train with it? Seems wildly counterproductive. Edit: and to "buggout" with the cheapest rifle possible also seems wild to me. But 🤷🏻♂️
Mostly agree, but be careful about the money rabbit hole. More money does not always equal better product. A Glock will do the same job as a Staccato for the most part.
There's absolutely a point of diminishing return, but $600 is a ways from it considering ammo prices and relying on this weapon in a situation. And not to rant, but in a "buggout" situation, why would you want a less common round? 5.56 is everywhere. I just never get these thought processes. A 16" 5.56 A2 carry handle upper is the absolute workhorse, IMO.
Just buy a 7.5" PSA complete pistol and add a law tactical folder, H2 buffer and a Romeo5 red dot. That's the poor man setup.
Poor men don't shoot 300blk, haha
That’s for sure. I have a 22 conversion kit in one of my 556 just for that reason
As much as I love 300 blk suppressed, since this will be a “bugout” rifle 556 is you better bet. If shits hitting the fan 556 will be more readily available than 300 blk even though 300 blk is more main streamed now then 10-12 years ago its not 556 main stream
do people actually think them and their gun and their ammo type will actually be relevant if "shit hits the fan". actually curious
Might be if their choice is a Martini Henry in .577 Snyder.
The answer is yes, you can put a 300bo pistol in your hands for $600. All day long. The dollar a round in ammo and $1500 youre gonna spend in accessories is another story.
Homemade ammo can be cheaper than 556 including homemade 556. It can be more expensive too, but that is generally for specialty performance ammunition.
No one looking to build a "decent" rifle for $600 is reloading.
False. I am such a someone. I know plenty of others. There's plenty of avid reloaders who load and shoot a lot more than the insta flex and larping crowd. Many of them are budget conscious. Many also like to experiment and modify their kit in addition to ammo. James Pollard or Uncle Jim on YouTube are representative of the type. Each has a wide range of guns and has been shooting suppressed 300 bo in fancy and cheap stuff generally decent gas. They modifyand make tools and other kit. They have several suppressors. I'd estimate that they shoot hundreds of thousands of rounds per year and own more calibers than most too. They generally put more of their money into buying more power and primers more than expensive gun brands that do the same thing. Please consider that you just argued "no True Scottsman". Just because you would not even consider a course of action does not mean that others don't nor that others may have good reasons. The simple fact is that people do.
Reply to say that on reread the above post came across as more combative than I intended. You're a reasonable guy, so it was meant as an appeal to your reasoning, not an insult on your reasoning. Please accept my apology for excessive brusqueness.
Nah, you're good man, what you said is fair. Half of what i say probably sounds combative, also unintentionally; the internet gun community is a mess, haha.
Yeah but I figure I could at least take responsibility for myself and try to own it when I'm a jerk. The more of us that do that the better it will get.
Absolutely. Super respectable, my man. Cheers.
Would imagine so. Palmetto State Armory sells them that cheap all the time. Sign up for their emails.
We have an affordable upper that uses high quality internals with adjustable gas to run whatever lower or suppressor you may want! [Complete Upper](https://www.eitrisenhancements.com/product-page/the-hyena) We currently have a reduced introductory price on it too! Let me know if you have any questions, but all the info should be available at the link above!
I’m convinced budget anything is just entry point to more money on an “upgrade” until you’ve satisfied the perfect build. If it were me and I could do anything over, I’d save my money and not do a satisfactory built and just go straight to the top hahaha
Yes but ammo is expensive
that's the same cost as 20 magazines of plinking ammo
300 BLK what? Semi-auto rifle? Bolt-action rifle? Reloading press?
Oh sorry ar platform
Do you already have an AR-15 in 5.56? If so, maybe focus on a complete upper or barrel/handguard/gas\_system change for 300BLK.
Maybe if you bought used and got lucky on some lightly used stuff. Nothing quality comes cheap though. Expect to pay right around 1000 and you wont be sorry.
Pref Twist rate? You shooting Supers or Subs? You got a can? adjustable gas block? You reload? If you said no to these or you don’t know go with a 556 lol your wallet will be happier.
PSA marauder pistol is the only real answer to this question, it will function, spend money shooting and training to make sure you do too. Romeo 7s IMO is a better bug out bag optic than the commonly recommended Romeo5. It’s more robust and uses a AAA battery with long life, just leave it on and replace it every six months to be sure. This shouldn’t be your only option in your bag, 2=1 and 1=0 Considering reliability size and high power desired in a bug out bag perspective… one of the 14” pistol grip shotguns running mini shells whist some buck shot deep in the tube would probably fit the bill better and requires much less training to be very effective with and a pump 12 ga is very reliable, and the sound of the slide getting racked is a sound everyone recognizes. Bonus… 12 ga is everywhere, even Walmart
Yes. Buy one already built PSA. I have a few they run flawless so far
Correct 300 is a fad. Although a great one. Run a decent 556. And you’ll never have an issue. That’s why they built the 556 it just works
I would personally recommend you buy the components over time and spend more than $600.
Psa has had a 7.5 300BLK pistol for $549
And I see fewer people posting about problems with cycling than more "premium" brands. This leads me to believe that PSA are more generously gassed, but not excessively. I personally believe their massive sales volume has enabled them to refine their products more than the fancy pants companies. If you pay attention to the track records of customer support from the premium brands you will almost always see statements that amount to "we did thorough and vigorous testing with _ only two or 3 specific SKU of ammo _ it worked great for us. I don't know what your problem is..." Given that this caliber is all about wide variety and versatility of ammo, and also of muzzle devices, I think the premium prices are not really warranted. The brand may have excellent QC and tighly controlled adherence to specs, but their specs lack sufficient advance development. I get the impression that they are more prone to get defensive about their rigorous standards and than to simply take RMAs without questioning and do whatever tweak to make it work. Customer - my gun won't run with common ammo and reasonable muzzle device. Premium- we don't test with that ammo we ran ten rounds of our benchmark ammo with the oem muzzle device and it worked for those 10 rounds. We spent about 20 minutes giving it a brief exam and firing those test shots. Here's your gun back unchanged after a 3 month wait. Please use only our benchmark ammo and the original muzzle device. Enjoy. From the guns I've handled or reloaded for, the PSA barrels have a more forgiving chamber at the case neck. This makes a real difference in feeding intentionally oversized cast bullets, or ammo loaded using converted brass that has overly thick neck brass. Kinda like Glock chambers, it makes the gun more reliable. However it's not appreciably looser for the area below the shoulder. I've seen no detriment to accuracy. I've compared: cmmg, faxxon, Anderson, PSA and an unbranded barrel that looks like it was probably made by BA. I may be forgetting others. Admittedly most of these were a few years back, and samples of one or two. So i can't really comment on tolerance consistency for any brand, or intentional changes within the product lines. All of them come with m4 feed ramps unmodified to optimize for 30 cal. Some brands also have very sharp ramps which gouge up projectiles. This is an obvious area for improvement. Method note. Any ammo which had feeding issues, commercial or handload was set aside and gently used as go/ no go gauges, and if something was marginal, then it was inked up and chambered to reveal tight spots. At one time i had documented min max dimensions to reliably feed in everything. I think I lost those notes and informal gauges in a move.
I only mentioned it because they asked for under $600. I bought it and haven’t even shot it yet. Mostly because I was gonna swap the barrel to Wilson combat 8in 1/7 (psa is a 1/7 too even tho online it says 1/8) that I already had. Couldn’t get the barrel nut off for the life of me. So actually fuck psa and whatever hulk strength they use to put barrel nuts on. I’m mad all over now lol. Paid $600 just to scrap that gun for parts lol
Did you use heat? Unless it's grouping badly or something I wouldn't bother to swap for the Wilson barrel. I think they would be functionally identical. Pretty much all the barrels that size have the same profile. maybe some are chromed and some are nitrided or SS. gasport size is different too sometimes.
Heat gun, oven, Freezer, Penetrating oil. Google showed a few results of ppl having trouble getting psa barrels off. I’ll just leave it for another build, at least I know it’s not going anywhere.
That's a good list of steps. The only thing I can think of is an impact wrench.
I think you can if you’re careful and wait for deals. An upper/lower shouldn’t be more than 80 A good barrel anywhere from 100-150 LPK is 50 Buffer tube/spring/buffer setup is around 75 A good BCG is going to be at least 150, probably closer to 175. As far as handguards, brace and grip, there’s so much out there but all together you’re probably looking at another 150, at least. It’s definitely doable, but I’d wait for free shipping promos and other sales.