The AAC Model 7 300 Blackout rifle is breaking my heart. It reminds me of the hot new girl in town that everyone is after who turned out to be hard to live with.
The AAC Model is essentially a Remington Model 7 fitted with the AAC .30 caliber barrel. It is a short, lightweight, cool little gun that I really want to like (a lot). Specifications:
- Remington Model 7
- AAC threaded barrel
- 5R 1:7 twist for stabilizing 200gr subsonic bullets
- X-Mark Pro trigger factory set at 3.5 pounds
- Hinged floor plate
- Scope rail
- Nitride finish
- Synthetic stock with adjustable cheek
Trigger pull was acceptable (for general hunting) but heavy. Out comes the trigger scale – 4.5 pounds. Advertised as factory set at 3.5 lbs. OK, no problem, supposed to be 2 pounds of adjustment, I will just adjust it down to about 3 lbs. Uh oh, the external adjustment screw came all the way out! Worse, the pull was still 4.5 lbs even without the adjustment screw. After some further investigation it appears that the trigger is indeed adjustable – from 6.5 lbs all the way down to 4.5 lbs.
First call to AAC:
“My new Model 7 300 Blackout X-Mark Pro trigger will not adjust lower than 4.5 lbs.”
“Call Remington, they made it.”
“But I got it from you guys, it came in an AAC box. Is there not a known fix?”
“Call Remington.”
First call to Remington:
“My new Model 7 300 Blackout X-Mark Pro trigger will not adjust lower than 4.5 lbs.”
“What is the serial number? I show that to be a bolt .223.”
“Yes, it is a bolt .223 that AAC installs their .30 caliber barrel on.”
“Huh. Trigger must be out of spec. You have to send the rifle in.”
“Can’t you just ship me a new trigger?”
“No sir! That is a safety issue!”
OK, getting nowhere here. Let’s take it out to the range. We mounted a Templar Tactical Ark30 7.5″ titanium suppressor on it and headed to the range with Barnes VOR-TX TTX 110gr and Hornady 208 gr A-MAX.
Vortex PST 1-4 TMCQ MRAD. Awesome optics for this rifle’s intended purpose – whacking hogs under 100 yards in poor light. The Viper PST has a cool illumination system that is easy to bracket a hog with.
Initial impressions were positive. We fired some preliminary rounds at 50 yards to get a group on paper and then moved out to 100 yards for accuracy testing.
This is where things started to go wrong (again).
We were having trouble getting a decent grouping with the subsonic Hornady 208 gr AMAX and switched over to the Barnes VORT-TX 110gr. After a few shots the bolt gets hard to close and then we can’t close the bolt with a round in the chamber at all. Try different ammunition. No luck. Tried several times and no amount of (reasonable) pressure could cause the bolt to lock battery with a round in the chamber. In fact, the cartridge became tightly stuck and I had to knock it out with a cleaning rod and hammer.
AAC Model 7 back in the case.
Once home, I proceeded to carefully examine and clean the bolt and chamber. No obvious burring. Bolt cycles freely, closes, and locks with no cartridge in the chamber. Try various makes of cartridges and bolt will not come even close to closing. Maybe it is a bad extractor. Second call to Remington:
“I am calling about my AAC Model 7 .300 Blackout. It is a Remington Model 7 .223 that you ship to AAC and they install their .30 caliber barrel. The bolt cycles freely with an empty chamber but won’t close with a cartridge. I think it is a bad extractor.”
“Do you have the serial number? That serial number is a .223 bolt. You are shooting .300 Blackout rounds through it?”
“Yes.”
“Please hold.”
“OK, I spoke to one of our techs. I didn’t know we made that rifle! The tech said it was probably a bad extractor. Would you like for me to mail you a new one to install? You can try that first before shipping the rifle in.”
Remington then sent me the wrong extractor. I guess the .30 caliber barrel with a .223 caliber bolt threw them off and they sent the larger extractor. I ordered the correct one from Brownells and installed it – same problem persists so it isn’t the extractor after all. The ejector seems to press all the way flush to the bolt face. I don’t see any sign of burrs or obstructions.
I finally find the right guy at AAC to help me out! Ship the rifle off to him and he promises to personally handle it all. He takes care of shipping the rifle to Remington and they install a new trigger that is in spec. He then discovers, “The extractor spring would not allow the case to seat all the way against the bolt.” Extractor spring? Ejector spring?
In any case, the rifle is finally back in my hands and operational and I will be heading back to the ranch and range next week. Stay tuned for Part Three of The Blackout Quest.
Mike Coker
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So what happened? I need a hog/deer rifle for my slim teen daughter and was thinking subsonic 300 blackout with a can. Originally would have gone handy rifle but they are now nearly 400 if you can find them, I hate Ruger in general, Savage and Mossberg don’t make 300 blackout that left AAC/Remington and CZ. I have a recent 700 Custom Shop .308 which I love. I was hoping this would be the same, does not seem to be. What was the outcome?
any update on this? I couldn’t find a newer post. thanks
Chapter 3 has taken a back seat to other projects. I just don’t shoot it. I will add some brief comments though.
The main reason I bought it was to shoot subsonic ammo. I don’t really see much point in 300 Blackout Supersonic – seems like the answer to a question no one asked. Full disclosure – I routinely hunt with a custom 6.8 SPC – Wilson Combat 11.3″ stainless match barrel – and 6.8 is a way better hunting round than 33 BLK.
I experienced some good groups with Hornady. Can’t recall exact results but was punching holes in the black bullseye at 100 yards. Sub-MOA.
Now that deer season is over and we turn our attention to hog control, I will take the AAC Model 7 300 Blackout on a hunt or two and report back.
I haven’t experienced any more failures. AAC fixed the bolt problem. As to the infamous Remy trigger? Solution: Installed a Timney!!!!
I will add this. The Nitride finish is tough and cleans up easy. I’m actually thinking about making this into a beater gun to carry most everywhere. The synthetic stock and Nitride finish make it tough to take a beating. Loaded with supersonic ammo and with the illuminated Vortex 1-4 it would make a handy little rifle to always have available for a variety of purposes.
+1 on the nitride. That process is definitely worth the money on barrels and bolts. Longer life barrels, easier cleaning, smoother cycling, looks nice and hard as heck. Additionally you have no flaking or dimensional changes like you can have with for example chrome. It can’t flake as its not a coating. Love Nitride.
I had Failure to Fire and Failure to Extract. Called AAC, zero help. Called Remington, faxed Remington, emailed Remington, x5! Literally! Ultimately, after 12 months, they only fixed the trigger recall problem and even though they swore, promised, said they’d also fix the FTF FTE. They didnt. They yanked my chain. I couldn’t but probably should’ve dogged them in this because I was overseas. I finally gave up trying while in Iraq (again) over the summer. I was really disappointed with Remington. I have several Remington products and am now gun shy which is pretty ironic for me of Remington guns. I was hoping to avoid costly repairs on a rifle I put maybe 10 rounds through. Thanks for the vent opportunity.
Understand your frustration! Interestingly, AAC no longer lists the Model 7 product for sale on their website.
Wow, right you are Mike. I notice that the H&R Handi Rifle in 300 BLK is not listed either. I was thinking of getting one of those but it was triple the price of a standard H&R and I think I could’ve Duracoated it black myself and added a rail for a lot less. Interestingly, the Micro 7 is over $900 on Buds. I had seen it for 700 or so a while back when people were actively dissing this bit of “workmanship”. So now Jeff at USTactical is working on it for me. I dropped it off today and he inspected it. He pointed out that you can see where Remington stuck it in a vice or maybe a crocodile’s jaw and gnawed on tne plastic stock to do the trigger recall work. Its really not bench worthy work. Just very low budget, low skill stuff Fortunately, my smith is highly skilled and I hope to have a decent gun later on. Good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise with a nor’easter and Hurricane Joachin blowing in this weekend.
Thanks for the interest guys. I will try to get the full follow up written soon. Short version is that I ended up dropping a Timney trigger in it and have it cutting one ragged hole at 100 yards with subsonic Hornady 208 gr A-Max.
Yeah what he said
Where’s the rest of the review and follow-up?