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Yes, I'm the guy doing the conversion. The Mini-14 converted to 300 AAC Blackout will be cost prohibitive unless you already have a Mini-14 sitting in the closet to convert. By the time you buy a gun and pay a smith to rebarrel it you might as well get an AR. As for me, I am about to graduate with a gunsmithing degree and it sounded like an interesting project- you know, one with lots of problems to overcome and weird machining set ups.
For the conversion I am using a 180 series Mini. The barrel is .560" in diameter- too small for a .30 caliber. The goal of the conversion is to make the rifle look stock, so I used the factory gas block and bored it out to .700". The Douglas barrel steps down to .750" for the op rod to clear (with minor modification) and then down to .700" at the gas block and forward. I have made several new gas port bushings and a little trial and error will help me decide which one to use.
The 300 Blackout idea has been around a long time- its basically the 300 Whisper wildcat. But since the 300 Whisper is a handloader's round based of the .221 Fireball without set standards, the folks over at AAC came up with solid dimensions based of the 5.56mm and got it SAAMI recognized. Versus a 7.62x29mm is very much a matter of preference. Prices for the Blackout are very reasonable- but don't expect to find any at the local Wal-Mart.
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