Thread: You told me so! (subsonic centrefire)

Thanks Flyblown. Re: shoulder shots that was my understanding, but I had hoped those projectiles would be different. Regardless, that second shot was in the middle of the neck. All it did was paralyse the animal. That's not good enough for me. I may revisit subsonic one day, perhaps for baited pigs or goats in a paddock, but not in dense bush. The animals disappear too quickly for the perfect shot and injured animals are too hard to track down.

I used to love stalking goats in thick stuff with .22 subs. Maybe closest thing to bow hunting with a gun. Would not body shoot though. Top of the neck or straight behind the ear. All within 30 meters. Shoot a lot of rabbits first with the setup so you know where its shooting.

Not that I have tried but I wonder if a heavy 30/30 projectile like a 170 grain flat point hollow point with lots of exposed lead would work better.
Less Likely to pencil through maybe.


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I used a commercial load sub round in my Blackout. Sighted for it. Wasn’t impressed. Cost me a fallow buck.... I’ve scratched that itch so happy to just shoot supersonic in anything center fire.


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The LeHigh brass subsonic projectiles will give the expansion and quick kills you are after, but they are spendy and will need reloading. Otherwise try Roberts lead hollow points.

Originally Posted by Simon

Not that I have tried but I wonder if a heavy 30/30 projectile like a 170 grain flat point hollow point with lots of exposed lead would work better.
Less Likely to pencil through maybe.


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thats one of the first things guys tried...even the Duleys gave it a whirl.....

shoulder shot breaking bone MIGHT have given better result,but GOOD ON YOU for having a go and being honest enough to post about what happened.
when they work its awesome,but as you found ,when they dont it can be awful.

Had another hunt last week on reds using 190gr Sub-X handloads in my blackout and not impressed at all in performance, solid hits and run off like it was hit with a fmj. Needed to empty a 3 round mag on him and then loaded another mag in using a 125gr sst supersonic in the neck to drop him. I shot another stag at 20m while we were having lunch and lost it spent 2 hours try to track it but the dog was tracking live deer instead and we got onto 4 more deer in that 2 hours, what a debacle
Will only use Lehigh Defence subsonics on body shot deer from now on.

This stag was lung hit with a Lehigh Defence 168gr CF, he was hit solid and wobbling around only went 20m and stopped so I gave him another to drop him on the spot. The great thing about 30 cal subs is they are really quite and as we were boning the deer a couple of goats turned up unaware of what happened minutes before.




This stag was hit with a Sub-X that looked like he wasn’t hit all and dropped with a super in the neck.
I haven’t done a autopsy with theses bullets yet to many wasps around, wrong time of year. The wasps were already on the backstraps as I was boning it out.

Thanks Tikka, your post confirms my thoughts about Sub-X and I know you have a lot of experience with subsonics. Hornady are basically just bullshitting. I've ordered some supersonic hunting rounds, so hopefully the 300BLK experiment isn't completely over.

What did you order?
I had good results with 125gr Nosler BT and 125gr Hornady SST subsonics @ 1990 fps out of a 12” barrel and easily head shoot deer at 200m with them. Even at that speed good damage on body shots under 150m -200m, cup and core separation for multiple wound channels in internal organs.
Will try 110gr projectiles at some stage.

that should??? read supersonic....LOL
THE 125GRN Ballistic tips worked well for us in the x39mm too......as did the x39mm hornady factory load SST
cant see why be any different for you in BLK

110grn is a strange wee beast,unless going mono....and probably wont be fast enough to be really good,you arent really gaining ANYTHING......
if you determined to try them.....there are some designed for 30/30 with big exposed tip hollow point that might work well...but really cant see you gaining over the 125-130grn loads..... be interesting to see how the speer 130grn hp went,they deadly in everything else,including x39
Tikka....pretty sure you would love Roberts 150grn cast if you poked them out at say 1500fps even if they only work as first round up with mag of others,could be a good cheap option for you.....

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

that should??? read supersonic....LOL
THE 125GRN Ballistic tips worked well for us in the x39mm too......as did the x39mm hornady factory load SST
cant see why be any different for you in BLK

110grn is a strange wee beast,unless going mono....and probably wont be fast enough to be really good,you arent really gaining ANYTHING......
if you determined to try them.....there are some designed for 30/30 with big exposed tip hollow point that might work well...but really cant see you gaining over the 125-130grn loads..... be interesting to see how the speer 130grn hp went,they deadly in everything else,including x39
Tikka....pretty sure you would love Roberts 150grn cast if you poked them out at say 1500fps even if they only work as first round up with mag of others,could be a good cheap option for you.....

Yes supersonics definitely.

I do use use Roberts 151gr cast HP in subs for point blank putting animals down and for possums, for my rifle I can only single feed them on a empty magazine.
I’ve just got a 308win and will give the 151gr subs a go and see if they will cycle through the mag.

mirrors my experience, unless you can be very selective with you placement,
I've done subs (220gr HP lead) in my 358win on 3-4 goats and I think my 22WMR did a better job of killing.
I now save then for finishing shots or plinking shots for children.

What did work well on goats at short range was pistol bullets at 1500-2000fps.
Silencer and a light charge and the noise was OK, recoil was low et .
Z

Originally Posted by tikka

What did you order?

300 Blackout 135gr FTX - yes, Hornady again! They wouldn't lie to me again would they? It's really a question of what is available at the moment.

The ftx rounds seem to self destruct pretty quickly on impact.
With the goats and the 45/70 I have only had one exit and that was a neck shot. The last one had a big hole in the shoulder , smashed ribs and shoulder but the internals were only slightly shredded , by what seemed to be shrapnel , no actual wound channel I could see. The other side shoulder was untouched.
Don't get me wrong , they are dead before they hit the ground but don't get the huge exit holes I was expecting.

Originally Posted by Ftx325

The ftx rounds seem to self destruct pretty quickly on impact.
With the goats and the 45/70 I have only had one exit and that was a neck shot. The last one had a big hole in the shoulder , smashed ribs and shoulder but the internals were only slightly shredded , by what seemed to be shrapnel , no actual wound channel I could see. The other side shoulder was untouched.
Don't get me wrong , they are dead before they hit the ground but don't get the huge exit holes I was expecting.

Right now, that sounds great.