First Impressions: Puff-Lon for .300 Blackout

[alamo5000]

Here are some pics that I found online of puff lon in the wild. These are not my pics but you get the idea. My puff lon though does seem to be a lot finer of a grain than these photos indicate but it might just be the close up view they took to show the stuff. Like I said, mine is kind of slightly more coarse than baby powder but with a unique texture to it.




So far I have been doing a lot of various tests at my own chaotic and random pace. I am trying out cast bullets (see the other thread) as well as a few jacketed bullets. So far other than my cast bullets I have tested 180 grain jacketed bullets and a very few 190 grain jacketed bullets.

So far the 180's...I would call a resounding success. I have gotten consistent subsonic velocity with full function of the gun with those rounds. With that one round I did a 10 shot string and my single shot extreme low velocity was 1028 and my single shot extreme high velocity was 1107. All the rest of the shots were consistently 1036 to 1085 in range. In that case I was using a soft point jacketed boat tail bullet.

I am going to keep on trying various bullet weights too.

I have been experimenting with much faster than normal powders. On my burn rate chart Accurate 1680 is #84 on the list. Some of the powders I am aware of and/or am currently testing range from #62 on my burn rate chart down to the very low 70's on that chart. One of the ones I tested already (a little) is 7 or 8 spaces faster than H110. I also have some of the 'regular powder' for 300 BLK as well but I haven't opened those up yet.

It's definitely an advanced reloading thing to work with non published data, but I took my suppressor off afterwards and I was AMAZED at how clean it was. I mean there was ZERO carbon. It seemed like my suppressor was cleaner AFTER I shot with those powders than it did before. My muzzle device was spotless.

For the most part, and I think it varies powder to powder, but for the most part the puff-lon pretty much evaporates upon shooting. I have seen with a few loads a few specs here or there on my muzzle device and in the blast chamber but they blew away with a puff of breath. It's definitely not leaving any big granules of heavy material in the suppressor.

I will need to run more test to check on accuracy of the stuff I am working up, but my goal is for quiet, clean, and accurate all three. Cheap too. Cheap is good. The primary reason for wanting to try 180 and 190 grain bullets (or maybe even lighter) is sheerly cost of shooting. I want to be able to shoot more for less. Over 40 cents per projectile for heavier grain bullets is crazy expensive when you add it all up.

If I can make it quieter too, that's all the better.