Not looking to get one, but just became aware of it.

Sort of, but not exactly.

I have an AR I built up in .30HRT, which basically takes 6.8SPC brass, run into a .30 Herret die, then trimmed a smidge. You end up with a rimless .30 Herrett which has approximately the same case capacity as a 7.62x39, but feeds much better through the AR platform. This round is also known in some slight variations, but the HRT seems to be the most common. The only barrel maker I’m aware of that is currently chambering barrels for it is X-Caliber, and their stuff is muy bueno. My barrel was made by AR15 Performance, who seem to be constantly on the verge of quitting the business. It is 16” long, but I really wanted an 18” or 20”. Odin adjustable gas block for the win.

The barrel was screwed into a Bear Creek Arsenal side charging upper receiver. The lower is a Nodak Spud NDS-1815, which they made to mate up with the Brownells AR180 uppers. It is pretty different in appearance, but at the end of the day it is still an AR lower.

I used a Magpul fixed buttstock, a Tango Down grip, and a fluted, tubular aluminum handguard. If you squint when you look at it has a vaguely AR180ish sort of profile. I’m running it with 5 round magazines because it was built to be a “cheat” rifle for hunting deer here in Washington (we aren’t allowed to use 5.56/.223 on big game). To that end it has a Hi-Lux Professional 1.5-6x scope in B-SQ rings, no iron sights. It has a stainless steel Chinesium flash hider I found on eBay, that is machined so freaking well I wish I had bought a dozen of them, it’s that nice.

All the small parts (trigger, hammer, safety, mag release, etc) are nickel boron because of a reason I’ve forgotten. It looks pretty against the black receivers, so that might have been it.

What will it do? Ballistically it is not really different from a 7.62x39. It uses .30 bullets. It runs everything anywhere from 200 to 400fps faster than a .300 Blackout. It ain’t subsonic by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a semi-auto .30-30 LITE.

Honestly, it was an exercise in FU because our local Fish & Game guy has a stick up his @ss about ARs for hunting. It won’t do anything better than a .30-30, and neither will the .300 Ham’r. Oh, you can get all righteous about pointed bullets and ballistic slipperiness, and drop at various yardages. Blah-blah, woof-woof. It’s all an excuse to spend money and cry out “Look what I can do”, ala Stuart.

A few months back I bought a Uberti 1885 Highwall with a custom barrel in .30 Herrett. I screwed on an old Lyman All American 20x recently, and am casting lots of different .30 boolits to try breech seating. I probably play with and fondle it a hundred times for every time I touch the AR. If that says anything, which is that I’m an old fashioned, curmudgeonly, old bastige who has more fun grumbling over paper targets than trying to hunt. Worst of all, once we make our move to Oregon, hey presto, hunting deer with 5.56/.223 is perfectly kosher, so my FU exercise becomes an example of How I Wasted Money One Summer.

Otony

THX!

…..and I don’t want to sound like I’m bitter about it, though it probably sounds like that a bit. I had fun, it works, and it is truly everything I wanted and expected.

It is just that with two fine single shot rifles in .30-30, and two nice Marlin 336 rifles in .30-30, and the aforementioned single shot rifle in .30 Herrett, it seems like another foray down the rabbit hole of duplicating that which I really already have. I hunt, but I’m not what you would call an avid hunter, so it could have been money spent to my advantage elsewhere.

Now that I’ve retired for the second time, spending my ducats willy-nilly becomes a little less likely to happen, although I manage.

Otony