A buddy at work was asking me about it, he was going to switch out an M4 ... it was slow so we googled it, it’s like the 300 Blackout except it uses a full length 223 case and the heaviest bullet it can use a 150 ... I think a 125 would only do a little over 2200 FPS.

We decided it was the answer to an unasked question

Edit to add, it’s an 18” barrel barrel so the hand guard and gas tube would have been too short to fit as M4 was an older carbine ... I’m not sure if it was set up to be a mid or rifle length gas system

Your post confused me because I know a 30/223 won't fit in an AR/M16 mag, so I had to look too.

The Ham'r has the shoulder pushed back, so it is a shorter case.

quote:

Originally posted by kimberkid:
We decided it was the answer to an unasked question

People are always asking how they can get better ballistic performance from existing guns. Sometimes the answer (such as the 357 SIG) isn’t to many shooters’ taste and it never goes anywhere, but the 300 Ham’r delivers more kinetic energy than other cartridges suitable for shooting from unmodified ARs (except for the barrel, of course). I wouldn’t bet my house or even my 308 AR-type rifle that it will excite many people and become the next 6.5 Creedmoor, but if one is looking for a specific set of criteria to satisfy, it could do it.

A good discussion here.

I've seen articles stating that Bill Wilson is an avid feral hog hunter in Texas. He has done a fair share of tweaking AR-15 calibers, so the AR-15 will become more effective hog rifle. His 7.62x40 WT is an earlier variation -- and where has it gone....

I regularly visit the Wilson Combat website, as I have my share of Wilson AR uppers, lowers, and components. And I have reviewed the HAM'Rs -- that's right, there are two of them. IMO the published numbers for the 300 Ham'r must be verified independently. Although I respect Wilson, I think there's some healthy sales pitch going on. They quote MVs with 18" barrels on the Ham'r, but hint to velocities from 16" barrels on other calibers. I hate to say it, but it sounds a bit too similar to what certain people at AAC touted when 300 blackout hit the market.

Kinetic energy comes down to a combination of powder capacity, chamber design, powder type, and barrel length. These are well known concepts to many. If someone truly wants to build the most energetic .30 cal in an AR-15, they need to start with a bigger case -- like a Grendel or SPC

It appears that Wilson tweaked the 300 Ham'r for a little more energy. Emphasis on little. I doubt the cartridge will go anywhere, as it's just not enough better than 300 blackout to warrant more than niche support from rifle manufacturers or ammo manufacturers.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
Emphasis on little.

Thanks for the reminder that it’s necessary to evaluate any new product from toothpaste to a firearms cartridge on the basis of what it actually is and does, not what someone claims it is and does. When I first read that article I wasn’t doing that myself.

As fritz and one of the comments to the article I linked above point out, it’s especially important to examine things like barrel length when comparing cartridges. If it’s absolutely imperative to have maximum power (whatever that might be) from an 223 AR-sized gun, then little tweaks here and there might be worth the various disadvantages of choosing an oddball round, but we must be careful to compare oranges to oranges when making such decisions.