Sig Rattler Chrono and Accuracy-ish Data
Not many would consider the Sig Rattler a gun in which accuracy would be the main priority, but I decided to find out just how accurate this 5.5” barreled .300 Blackout could be. I thought it would also be a good time to run the chrono and see what type of velocities we could get from some of the more popular loads on the market. Some of the results seemed par for the course considering the weapon system, and some were surprising.
The gun normally rides around swallowing up a Sandman K or Nomad suppressor. Of note, the gun is shorter, folded and suppressed with the Dead Air Nomad, than the Q Honey Badger is without a suppressor. Of course, the Q is about 1lb lighter, but if you value your ears over an extra 16 ounces or so, I would heavily consider the Rattler if you want to keep the overall package as concealable as possible.
Just a little over 21” overall when folded.
Getting a good cheek weld on that stock while prone is nearly impossible, unless of course, you make one from t-shirts and duct tape. Only issue with that is that it is so large you can't run the charging handle and its still too big to even fold completely out of the way. I quickly realized I was going to have to shoot 5 rounds unsuppressed, remove the stock, shoot 5 rounds suppressed, remove the stock to clean the gun, and repeat....22 times. The gun is so short, and so light, that you really do need a good cheek weld to keep it from moving around, even at 50 yards. Up against a bit of a time constraint, I decided to only test unsuppressed. Regardless, here it is in the "Accuracy testing" configuration with an EOTech Vudu 5-25 and Atlas bipod helping the cause:
Things are getting weird.
The ammo used for this test was a combination of subs and supers. The black cartridge ammo in the images above are Sig’s new SBR ammo specifically designed for use in guns like the Rattler. I also picked up a super cheap box of Magtech 123 grain as well as all of the ammo pictured below.
These 9 loads plus Magetch 123 and Sig’s new SBR ammo were tested.
I had no idea the point of impacts would be so far off of each other. Subs vs Supers are obvious, but you would think the super rounds would shoot "close enough" to each other. Not a chance. This gun is PICKY. I attempted to get a zero with the 123 Mag Tech ammo first. I thought my scope was broken. We are talking 3-4+ MOA at 50 yards. I finally gave up and told myself to just try something else. I pulled out the Barnes 110 TAC-TX with the same zero and it shot inside of 1". I tried a couple other rounds and every single cartridge had a mind of its own as far as POI.
Given that I had limited time, and the stock removal/cheekweld situation in front of me, I decided to mostly make the day about the chronograph. Rather than worrying about the stock and cleaning between each cartridge, and half-arsed shooting groups because I had no decent solution for a cheek weld, I decided to just lay down all the chrono numbers up front since the weather was stable. I shot 5 rounds each, in fairly quick succession. I did attempt accuracy the best I could, just so I could get a preliminary look, but I just wasn't stable enough to comfortably post concrete numbers for accuracy.
Here are the chrono results, unsuppressed, *Denotes best standard deviation:
Subs
Hornady Black 208g AMAX: 984, 978, 980, 966, 959 (Avg:973) SD: 10.47
*Remington 220g OTFB: 905, 924, 928, 930, 920 (Avg: 921) SD: 9.93*
Sig 220g Match: 883, 904, 925, 908, 933 (Avg:910) SD: 19.50
Lehigh 194g Maximum Expansion: 934, 916, 938, 942, 945 (Avg:935) SD: 11.40
Winchester WB 200g: 924, 913, 931, 881, 938 (Avg:917) SD 22.34
Supers
Sig 120g HT: 1912, 1896, 1880, 1924, 1880 (Avg:1898) SD: 19.51
Magtech 123g: 1770, 1768, 1720, 1782, 1740 (Avg:1756) SD: 25.33
*Barnes 110g Tac-Tx: 1891, 1891, 1896, 1896, 1893 (Avg:1893) SD: 2.50
Sig 120g SBR: 1952, 1952, 1955, 1921, 1899 (Avg:1935) SD: 24.83
Remington 120g OTFB: 1716, 1754, 1770, 1826, 1749 (Avg:1763) SD 40.32
Winchester Dear Season 150g: 1555, 1557, 1537, 1561, 1587 (Avg:1559) SD 17.96
A couple of observations:
White Box Winchester 200g Subs have a ridiculously LOW amount of recoil compared to everything else
The Sig 120g SBR ammo has a ridiculously HIGH amount of recoil compared to everything else
Though I didn't officially test the accuracy today, none of the subs impressed (the gun was designed around supers..and it shows)
There were only three Supersonic Rounds that shot inside 1" at 50 yards
The Perceived Best Shooters were:
The Barnes 110 Tac-Tx (Crazy low SD, shot inside 1"),
The Remington 120 (Terrible SD, still shot around .6-7")
And the surprise of the day, the Winchester Dear Season 150 grain (Lowest Supersonic velocity, best accuracy, 5 shots, one single hole...ridiculous)
Here is the Winchester Deer Season 150g, 5 shot group on a Larue 0.5 target grid:
Winchester Deer Season 150 grain, SLOOOOW…and highly accurate.
Again, take the accuracy with a grain of salt, but I have feeling nothing is going to touch that Winchester Deer Season 150g, at least not in this particular Rattler.
I know the Rattler was designed around the 110 Barnes Tac load, which I can personally attest does its job very well on deer but I have a couple of colleagues that took game with the Winchester Deer Season ammo last year and reported the results to be spectacular terminally. Some of these were in what I consider marginal, picky calibers such as the .243 that can be an inconsistent performer.
I can't imagine that the Winchester Deer Season wouldn't be a devastating self defense round as well. A .30 caliber, 150 grain @ 1550 fps with nice large expansion could be absolutely perfect for your truck or home gun, especially if we are talking sub-MOA accuracy out to 100+ yards as well.
That Rattler is a niche weapon system but with the right ammo, I think its capabilities can be stretched to much farther than its diminutive size would suggest.
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