[The Reaper]

I like the .300 AAC Blackout for its flexibility and ability to shoot everything from 110 gr. to 250 gr. .30 bullets and the ability to shoot suppressed.

I liked it when JD Jones was loading it as the .300 Whisper.

The heavy subsonic .300 Blackout rounds are basically very improved .45 ACP rounds, with a high BC 240 gr. bullet at 1000 fps. If you think it is ballistically inefficient, compare it to the 6.5 gr. bullets at the same subsonic velocity.

With the lighter bullets, like the 110s and 120s, it roughly 90% of a .30-30 or a 7.62x39. The Barnes TSX bullets are great hunting rounds.

It is not bad with 147 gr. surplus M80 ball bullets, which are easy to find and very inexpensive.

I can resize and make .300 BO cases out of 5.56 or .223 cases, which are relatively cheap as well.

.300 BO is expensive to buy reloaded, but if you make / reload your own brass and use the inexpensive plinking bullets, you can shoot it for less than 40 cents per round.

Overall, it is a great way to fit a .30 round into an AR-15 action.

I also like the 6.5 Grendel (and the .260, the 6.5 Creedmore, and the original 6.5x55), but as my gunsmith says, the Grendel will not do what most people expect it to. He says that there is inadequate room in the case for the powder it needs to run. He also said it is almost impossible to get the velocities that most people think it will give, and the effective range then suffers, leading to disappointment

FWIW, I have shot the Grendel, the 6.8, and the .300 Whisper and Blackout.

As far as scopes go, you usually get pretty much what you paid for. Buy a cheap scope, don't expect it to shoot well, or for every long. As a general rule of thumb, the scope should cost at least as much as the rifle under it.

Just my .02, YMMV.

TR