Wilson Combat 300 HAM R 130gr Hot-Core – Superb 20 Round Box

Description

The 300 HAM R exists because Bill Wilson wanted a 30 caliber AR-15 cartridge that would take deer and hogs cleanly out to 300 yards without the compromises of the 300 Blackout. The Wilson Combat 300 HAM R 130gr Hot-Core is the load that best demonstrates why the cartridge caught on.

• What the 300 HAM R Does That Blackout Cannot
• Wilson Combat 300 HAM R 130gr Hot-Core Specifications
• Honest Notes on This Cartridge

What the 300 HAM R Does That Blackout Cannot

The 300 Blackout was built around suppressed subsonic performance, and its supersonic loads are a compromise made to fit a very short case. The 300 HAM R starts from a 6.8 SPC case instead, which gives it substantially more powder capacity while still working in a standard AR-15 lower with a magazine change. That extra capacity is the whole argument.

Concretely, a 130 grain bullet at 2510 feet per second carries roughly 1804 foot-pounds at the muzzle. A 300 Blackout with the same weight bullet manages a few hundred feet per second less and correspondingly less energy, and the gap widens downrange. The Wilson Combat 300 HAM R 130gr Hot-Core holds enough velocity at 300 yards to expand a conventional soft point reliably, which is the practical threshold that matters for hunting.

Wilson Combat developed the cartridge and loads the ammunition in Berryville, Arkansas. Because the company also builds the barrels and uppers, the published velocity figures come from the same 18 inch barrels most owners are actually shooting, rather than from a 24 inch test barrel nobody owns.

Wilson Combat 300 HAM R 130gr Hot-Core Specifications

The Speer HAM R Hot-Core is a conventional jacketed soft point designed specifically for this cartridge velocity window. Speer builds Hot-Core bullets by pouring the lead core into the jacket rather than swaging a separate core, which keeps the core and jacket together without the cost of true bonding. The result is a bullet that expands readily at 300 HAM R velocities but still holds enough weight to reach vitals on a quartering hog.

The G1 ballistic coefficient is 0.248, which is unremarkable and honest. This is a short, blunt 30 caliber bullet, not a long-range projectile, and the cartridge is not pretending to be a 6.5 Creedmoor. Inside 300 yards the trajectory is manageable with a simple two-hundred-yard zero; past that you are holding a lot of elevation.

Cases are reloadable boxer-primed brass. That matters for the 300 HAM R more than for common cartridges, since factory ammunition selection is limited and handloading is how most serious users tune the round to their barrel.

• Cartridge: 300 HAM R
• Bullet weight: 130 grain
• Bullet type: Speer HAM R Hot-Core jacketed soft point
• Muzzle velocity: 2510 feet per second from an 18 inch barrel
• Muzzle energy: approximately 1804 foot-pounds
• G1 ballistic coefficient: 0.248
• Case: brass, boxer primed, reloadable
• Platform: AR-15 with 300 HAM R barrel and bolt
• Rounds per box: 20
• Boxes per case: 10
• UPC: 811826026729

Honest Notes on This Cartridge

Buy the Wilson Combat 300 HAM R 130gr Hot-Core if you own a 300 HAM R upper and hunt deer or hogs from an AR-15. This is the bread-and-butter hunting load for the cartridge and the one most owners settle on after trying the rest.

Skip it if you shoot suppressed and want quiet. The 300 HAM R is a supersonic cartridge by design and has no meaningful subsonic offering. If suppression is the priority, the 300 Blackout is the correct choice and this cartridge is the wrong tool.

Understand before buying that 300 HAM R requires a dedicated barrel and bolt. It is not a drop-in change from 5.56 or 300 Blackout, and ammunition availability is narrower than for either. That is the real cost of the performance.

Comparing HAM R loads? The 300 HAM R 135gr Speer Bonded gives deeper penetration on heavy hogs, and the 300 HAM R 135gr Hornady FTX is the flatter-shooting option. Wilson Combat publishes complete 300 HAM R load data on its own site.

MAG5 Firearms stocks 300 HAM R ammunition and the barrels and bolts needed to run it. If you are considering the conversion, ask us what your existing upper will and will not accept.