Shot Show 2022 range interview / first look: booth-side talk with Pat from Faxon Firearms about Q’s then-new 8.6 Blackout, plus initial shooting impressions on tape (~10 min). This is not a multi-month SlavGuns T&E of my own 8.6 rifle. Prices, launch timing, SAAMI status, and ammo brands are as taped (upload May 2022) and may have moved — verify current Faxon / ammo listings and your state law before you buy.
Squat Squad — if you’ve been living in .300 Blackout land and wondering what the big-brother cartridge for AR-10s is supposed to feel like, this tape is the quick dive. Here’s my Shot Show 2022 sit-down with Pat from Faxon Firearms on 8.6 Blackout (~10 min): what it is, why the twist rate is wild, what Faxon was bringing to barrels, and who the early ammo players were.
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What 8.6 Blackout is (as taped)
Pat’s simplest framing: think of it as the big brother to .300 Blackout, but for the AR-10 world. Same idea as .300 BLK on an AR-15 — you’re looking at a barrel swap path rather than a whole new gun culture. On the tape:
- Swap the barrel on an AR-10-pattern rifle and you’re in 8.6
- Magazines: any .308-based mag (SR-25 / AI / DPMS-style called out) — no mag mods, full capacity
- Developed around a short barrel; the 12″ length is what performance was measured off of as the “standard” for the cartridge talk
Q designed it and, per Pat, was treating it as open source — not a locked proprietary cartridge — so more companies could adopt it. Goal of the concept: bring super and subsonic performance to the AR-10 platform, which had gotten less love on the subsonic side than the AR-15/.300 BLK world.
The 1:3 twist (why everyone says “insane”)
The standout engineering note on the tape is twist rate: 1:3. That’s absurdly fast next to the “pretty fast” 1:7 world a lot of us are used to. Pat’s explanation of what that buys you:
- Better stabilization on long, heavy subsonic bullets
- It “robs” some of the energy you’d otherwise see as flash/sound and puts more of that energy on target
- On expanding bullets, the petals can look twisted / shifted after impact because of how much rotational energy is in play at impact speed
Faxon pointed viewers to gel comparison work (same barrel length, same ammo, only twist changed — 1:7 vs 1:3) on faxonfirearms.com, with Discrete Ballistics in the mix on that graphic talk. I’m not reprinting dB or cavity numbers I didn’t measure myself — watch the tape and check Faxon’s current site if you want the visuals.
Faxon’s role: barrels (AR-10 + Rem 700-style)
Faxon’s involvement on the tape is barrels — that’s their lane. Big manufacturing claim: they figured out how to button-rifle a 1:3, which matters for consumers because button-rifled tubes can stay more economical than single-point cut barrels.
Launch expectations as of Shot Show 2022 (verify today):
- AR-10-pattern barrels expected first half of the year (2022 calendar on the tape)
- Base barrel pricing talked as roughly $200–$300 (fluting / special coatings could push higher)
- Pitched as in line with other Faxon AR-10 pricing — “Q caliber, not a Q price tag”
- Email list on Faxon’s site called out as the reliable update path (social posts get buried)
Also teased as Faxon’s first branded bolt-action barrels under their own name (they’d done OEM Remington-pattern work for years): 8″, 12″, and 16″ at launch, nitrided, with more offerings later. Cool DIY detail: Remington-style barrel / nut system set up so you tighten with an AR-15 armorer’s wrench instead of a Savage-style barrel-nut wrench — Pat’s point being it lowers the intimidation for AR guys who haven’t built a bolt gun. He even clocked a first-time Remington-platform parts-kit build in the shop at about 15 minutes.
Ammo, cans, and who it’s for
SAAMI: not SAAMI yet on the tape; they expected it would get there. Confirm current status before you plan a “standard” chambering story.
Early ammo names on tape: Q, Gorilla, and Discrete Ballistics as the big three at launch. Availability and SKUs have had years to change — check who actually loads 8.6 now.
Suppressors: Pat had only run it on .338 cans at that point. Nine-mil / pistol cans for 8.6 subsonics? He wouldn’t sign off without testing. Subsonic suppressed was described as a bit louder than a .22 on the range chat — still a proud “quiet-ish” claim in that moment, not a meter reading from me. Form 4 eFile hope on the tape was roughly 45–90 days turnaround for a .338 can so more people could actually shoot the subsonic side of the cartridge. NFA rules and wait times move — always follow federal, state, and local law; suppressors ship to eligible buyers only.
Use case Pat pitched: hunting mid-to-large game especially from a short barrel (terminal performance talk), plus anyone who already likes Rem 700 / AR-10 platforms and wants real subsonic capability. Effective range expectation on tape for subsonic: about 450–600 meters.
Bottom line
8.6 Blackout, as Faxon explained it at Shot Show 2022, is the AR-10-world answer to what .300 Blackout did for AR-15s: barrel-swap energy, .308 mags, short-barrel-first design, and a 1:3 twist built to stabilize heavy subs and dump energy on target. Faxon’s play was economical button-rifled 1:3 barrels for AR-10s plus their first Faxon-branded Remington-pattern bolt tubes — with Q / Gorilla / Discrete Ballistics named as the early ammo stack. Treat this as a 2022 interview + first impressions tape, not my long-term reliability or chronograph T&E, and verify barrels, ammo, and NFA reality before you build.
Keep squatting.
Are you team short-barrel 8.6 for hunting, or are you still perfectly happy living in .300 Blackout?
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