News of an FBI contract with Black Hills Ammunition has surfaced, but there’s more to the shopping than a single “impulse” buy last month.
When FedBizOpps.com announced Black Hills Ammunition was awarded a “sole source” contract to provide 201-grain subsonic .300 BLK ammo to the FBI’s famed Hostage Rescue Team on Feb. 27, 2017, the news didn’t exactly make front page headlines. The fact that one of law enforcement’s most elite branches is experimenting with the quiet cartridge—even in small quantities—certainly created a buzz among civilian shooters.
A March 6, 2017, announcement, however, naming Remington as the recipient of a “sole source” contract to provide 100-grain TAC-TX .300 BLK cartridges to the same agency, indicates the FBI is more than just dabbling with the chambering. Total value of this contract is $149,483, which isn’t much for an organization that allegedly has more than 60,000 firearms in total (both handguns and long arms). There’s no denying the combined purchases are enough for serious exterior and interior terminal ballistics work, both with and without suppressors, though.
The justification for the contract explains, “Blackout 110-grain TAC-TX round is the only commercially available supersonic round for HRT weapon platforms which satisfies minimum penetration requirements throughout FBI protocol gelatin tests along with satisfactory expansion of the projectile (terminal performance). Additionally, it is the ONLY round tested to meet functional reliability minimum standards in the same weapon platform. Testing of this round was performed by the FBI Ballistic Research facility in FY2016.”
Before .300 BLK fans declare supremacy, the agency apparently isn’t abandoning 5.56 NATO anytime soon. Also on March 6, 2017, it announced yet another “sole source” ammo contract to Black Hills worth $140,500. Under the terms, the company will deliver 120,000 rounds of its 62-grain Shoot House Ammunition loads for SWAT Team practice.
