I take it that the case capacity is too big for lil-gun powder? Hogdon lists it for 300 aac, 2400 FPS with 125gr bullet, nothing else comes close.

In the "scheme of things" as my wife often says, 6.8s are slow sellers compared to 5.56/.223, 6.5CM, .300BLK, 300HAMR and .308. Due to the current unprecedented demand (especially after the events of Jan 5-6) we are soooo far behind that it makes no economic sense to build anything except the calibers in high demand. All of our machine shops are running two full 10 hour shifts 5 days a week and the gunsmiths are working a lot of 12 hour days. I can't really push my team any harder. The riggers are coming on Monday to position and level 14 new machines in our new machine shop #4. We're planning to have this machine shop up and running by mid-Feb which will help substantially with production. I just authorized the purchase of 2 more horizontal and 1 more vertical machining centers yesterday. Trust me, we're doing everything possible to deliver product.

When we tested LG we ran into some scary pressure spikes. I've tried every remotely suitable powder available to the commercial and OEM market and nothing beats CFEBLK with 125-150gr loads. Shooters World SOCOM does work well with 95-110gr loads though. Accurate 1680 will also work in a pinch, you will just give up 75fps or so compared to CFEBLK and have more muzzle blast.

I have played with lil-gun with 2 different bullets.

It will work, but there is no real advantage over CFE-BLK and there is a disadvantage. In my testing, it seems that CFE-BLK has a somewhat gradual pressure curve as you go up in charge weight and is relatively predictable. Lil-gun was fine going up incrementally and then once you reach a certain point it jumps dramatically in pressure.

If you are just loading "plinking" or practice reduced loads and that is all the powder you had then I think you would be fine. I would not recommend developing full pressure loads with it. CFE-BLK just works so much better and is easier to develop a load for. - my opinion.

EDIT - looks like Bill posted the same thing just as I did :-)

Thanks for the replies, I was offered a bunch of lil-gun for a great price. I was hoping I could use it in my 300 ham’rs, it’ll take me 50 years to shoot it up out of my .17 hornet with its 8 grain powder charge, lol. I figured it was too fast. Unfortunately CFE blk has finally dried up here so looking at options. Good to know I can use it in a pinch.

Use the lil-gun as trade bait to get what you need.

I might have to.

I switched over because it was available longer than everything else was, but they haven't had it on the shelf consistently for a while now. I guess that's to be expected due to all the craziness.

We're shipping backorders for ammo every few days, just hard to keep up with the demand.

I’m late to the party, but dang glad I found it!

I am assembling a WC upper receiver, 16” recon tactical 1/13 300 HAM’R barrel, WC gas block and tube, with a grendel hunter handguard (awesome product and it pretty much aligns itself). I’ve never tried a WC handguard which could be just as easy. My plan until this shortage is over, is to use my stag 15 lower and BCG. Has anyone done a similar upper setup and could you share what accuracy you’ve had with the same 16” 1/13 barrel. I’ll be shooting 130g hot core ammo. Thanks for any information y’all can provide.

The three 16" barrel assembled uppers and my buddy's 14.7" all print around 1" to 1.3" @ 100yds from a simple rest with the WC factory load 130gr HC.

As a side note the Velocity for 3 different WC factory loads was within 25fps average of that labeled on the box. 125gr ProHunter, 130gr HC, 135gr Bonded.

I don't think many modern handguards will be an issue if the barrel nut to sleeve fit is decent and the fasters on the handguard are designed to get to, and hold, the torque required to make the rail stable.

Speer TNT 125gr in stock for now..
https://redriverreloading.com/outdo...-125gr-TNT-HP-Bullets-100&r=ammoseek
TX tax for you guys. I Love RedRiver Reloading, great prices and no Tax for GA, fast shipping.

Brownells has them as well, more up front cheaper shipping, but $15 off with code SAE or TAG on $150+
https://www.brownells.com/reloading...t-100-box-sku100010340-54375-104773.aspx

Well those went pretty quick..

I know everyone has seen the insanity taking place on Gunbroker. But here's one for the record books.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/889820656

300 Rounds Ammo Wilson Combat .300 ham'r Ammo
(10) Boxes 125 gr. FMJ
(4) Boxes 125 gr. PH
(1) Box 150 gr. SST

Gunbroker started collecting sales tax for every state Jan. 1st, 2021. 3% card fee + shipping would put these 300rds at and above $940! I could personally never justify that sort of price per round expense. One of the reasons I got into the HAM'R is that it's currently more of a hand loaders cartridge (although I know we all wish to see a much larger commercial expansion) and by loading your own you can always save money or develop loads not offered Factory loaded. I also enjoy reloading about as much as shooting/hunting & firearms work

But then again components are scarce and therefore fetching astronomical prices. I think I could almost get ahold of the stuff to load 300rds of 338LM for the same price.

Finally got the rest of the parts today..
I swing a Hammer for a living and Love .30cal so this seemed fitting!
Ranger 16.2" 1:13" heat fit on a lapped Anderson Slick Side uppers riding on top of KE Arms KP-15's Monolithic Polymer Receiver

7lbs 1.8oz with 26oz for the SwampFox Arrowhead 1-10x24 Red MOA on UTG Accu-Sync 50mm Medium Height 5 Sling QDs 3 Pic Rails Hand-stop, Ultradyne Comp
I'd say it's a little lighter than the Wilson Combat Ultralight Hunter Probably 5lb without small doodads
Total: $2679.88 FOR BOTH (Everything but mags) $1339.94 Each W/O OPTICS $851.94 Each FFL Transfer & Batteries included

9lb 1.8oz Bipod, Sling, XH-35 Light (batteries inc), Empty 30rd ASC STS Mag

18 - ASC 30rd Stainless Steel Magazines,No Ribs, Anti-tilt, Durable as heck, and best of all 2.306" Overall Length Fits
I was able to score them for $11.39ea. shipped. With the current political climate I thought I should get a few more

1,011 Sorted, SSM Tumbled, Swaged/swage gauged, chopped, Tumbled to De-burr, converted, case head sized, trimmed, and dry tumbled Winchester HAM`R
I haven't found much Nickel to convert and I lost 3 of the ones I did, total broke necks - 16
1k Speer TNT on the way, also otw 525 - 120gr Federal Powershock Copper HP (From 300blk pull downs), have another 2,500 Speer 2023's, 6k 147gr BT FMJ's, Also have several .30cal moulds (A literal TON of Lead), and working on designing the perfect 300 HAM`R Boolit

Pictured above in the bottom right. That's right, 350 Legend converted to HAM`R, because I can. Same internal H2O capacity as LC, Win, FC .223/5.56 Un-Fired

Thank you Bill for the barrels and triggers (AR TTK, are those made in house?) and bringing the HAM`R to fruition/market
Thank you to all of the members that have contributed and helped provide so much info and experiences with this awesome cartridge!

Now to find more Small Rifle Magnums, & CFE BLK (LGS has a 1lb/wk limit) or Shooters World.
And here's to getting these things to run on W296.. I think I have some special sauce worked out.

Nickel plated Winchester .223 casings are garbage FYI, The rims are prone to cracking and breaking off during sizing and sticking a case in the die. It happened so often I finally threw out all the remaining nickel Winchester cases I had.

I’ve found you have to cut the raw cases down before forming the ham’r cases or you will get lots of cracked necks. It’s a super easy conversion. I just secured another 8lb jug of CFE blk and a large supply of 125 tnts, to make my favorite bulk load. It’s a great combo!

My favorite magazine for the ham’r by far is the 300 aac version pmag. They work flawlessly, don’t scratch up the receiver like steel mags do, are cheap and readily available.

Good to know on the WIN Nickel. I just doubled checked the nickel that split were Speer, FC, and RP. I most certainly chop beforehand and convert in a 2 step process using a .228 NOE Bullet Molds Case Neck Expander plug, for the Lee Universal Expander. Then just double run it through the Lee FL Die twice with a 90° rotation thrown in for fun. I use a Lanolin & Heet lube (6.5 guys recipe) But I'm about out of Lanolin after processing a few buckets of rifle brass this year.. I think I'm going to switch to RCBS Case Lube-2 & Heet, I heard it wasn't ask tacky/sticky. I figure if I buy a gallon it should last me the rest of my life.

I Love my Magpul SR25 LR118 25rd mags for my AR10's, but most certainly wanted the added OAL to expand on what projectiles I could possible run. Not to worried about scratching the polymer lowers (Black all the way through), besides they've got the Famous KE-Arms Flared mag-wells.

I've never tried the TNT's in any of my .308's but after reading all that I have on here I'm kicking myself for not stacking deep in those. 2 years ago with the Speer promo spend $500 get a $100 prepaid visa card, could have got 4,600 for $405.54 8.8¢ a bullet! Those days are gone, and may never come back. Hence the work on a cast boolit design.

I've got an MP-Molds .311-410 but the shape of it isn't the greatest for the HAM`R. OAL is crazy short like 2.070" to stay of the throat/lead..

Those are the Large HP versions next to the Federal 130gr OTM SOST's
Powder coated and gas checked they should be right at 129.7gr or less with the Small HP, measuring .814" Still pretty stoked on them and can't wait to try them. Hopefully soon.

Casting bullets might become a necessity in the future, it’s a good tool to have in the box. I have been buying the tnts in the 500 round packs for $80-$90 lately, pretty reasonable by today’s standards but now they are popping up less and less frequently. They have been very accurate in my 3 ham’r s, I also used to use them for low recoil loads out of my M-1 match rifle, very accurate.

I might have to take up golf they way things are going lol.

I was checking the Wilson Combat site for 18 inch complete uppers in 300 Hamr but they were not listed. Is that not an option at this time?

Star line 300 ham’r brass is in stock at midway if any of y’all need some.

The 18" Tac Hunter bbl is still an active SKU, but we're busy running 16" now due to qty of backorders on them

Powder Valley CFE BLK 8#'ers OUT OF STOCK
https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/product/hodgdon-cfe-blk/

150gr SST dropped this boar in his tracks.

Has anyone had any personal experience with the temperature stability of CFEBLK in these heavier projectile loads in the HAM'R?

It was 23degrees F yesterday & I shot my test loads for Speer 2022 150gr BTSP.

25.6gr @ 2.245" * +- .004
25.8gr @ 2.255" +- .002
(Die was set up with first 25.8gr load & no seat die changes were made so I'm assuming the varying OAL is due to some effect of compressed loads?)

I had good ES & SD numbers with two loads. I chorono'd two separate 5 shot groups & averaged them coming up with ES in the t & SD in single digits.
Velocity was 2248 fps avg with the lighter load.
No evident signs of excessive pressures on the brass & the velocity was still climbing with increased charge weight.

The question is being the temp was only 23f, is CFEBLK temp stable enough that it won't develop pressure signs when I take this down south for a workout in 65-95f temps?

CFE-BLK is rather temp tolerant. No real difference shown between ambient temp. on a April day and loads that were in my refrige for a couple of hours. OK, not the most scientific test. But it told me what I wanted to know.

Nice hog! Life is good when they "just drop!"