While each vendor at the Silencers Are Legal shoot had their own specific offerings, there was one AAC invention that could be found at almost every single booth: the .300 AAC Blackout round. Whether it was an existing silencer being shown off on a 300 BLK gun or a completely new one designed around the cartridge, everyone at the shoot was jumping on the bandwagon. The reasons are obvious — the cartridge was designed specifically with silencers in mind, so its performance is unbeatable when it comes to quieting things down. One situation stuck out in my mind, though…
I was stopping by the Innovative Arms booth to check out some of their stuff (more on that later) and overheard the owner talking to a man about his hog problem. The man was interested in an M1A rifle with a silencer to start culling the herds. I was about to chime in with my usual 300 BLK evangelizing when, to my surprise, the IA guy brings it up first as the better solution. I stood there and listened as he described the benefits of the round to this man (who had never heard of it before), and each time I was about to speak up and add something he missed the IA guy went right on and did it for me.
The look on this man’s face as he heard the round described to him was one of pure joy. It was a round that did exactly what he wanted, exceeded his needs and expectations, and was readily available on the market. He was sold on the round by the time he left the booth.
Similar things happened all day along the firing line. People who had never heard of the round would sidle up to a 300 BLK gun suspicious of its claims of awesomeness, fire a couple rounds and instantly be hooked. There’s no doubt that silenced 300 BLK guns are some of the most fun you can have with your pants on (pants optional in some locations), and it seemed like everyone there came away with the same opinion.
Silencer manufacturers seem to have a standard minimum of offerings — .22lr, 9mm, .308 and 5.56 silencers — and 300 AAC Blackout appears to have inserted itself as another one of those standard calibers that companies design their silencers around. If this shoot was any indication, at least among the silencer owning public 300 AAC Blackout is here to stay.