.300 AAC Blackout with suppressor and subsonic ammo for deer hunting?

There is anecdotal use of subsonic BO killing medium game. Sure, if you like a hole in something it will/may eventually die (cns hits aside). These bullets don't expand and have pistol trajectories. I don't buy the archery comparisons so often injected into this conversation unless they are claiming they hunt with field points.



Supersonic, suppressed or not, is doable with proper bullet selection. Shot placement as always and limit range accordingly.

Aim1 said:

I've researched it and some said its fine and others say it's under-powered and shouldn't be used. What's your thoughts? And if you think it's fine with the right bullet, what bullet is good and how far is the max with it on deer?



And if that isn't fine, what about the .300 AAC Blackout with supersonic ammo and suppressor for deer? And if this works, what bullet is good?

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One of the large game ranches in my neck of the woods banned the round after many run-offs of both deer and pigs.

The problem with using subsonic ammo suppressed is that most bullets are designed to expand with higher velocities.

You need to either

1) Buy or reload bullets that are designed to expand at subsonic velocities or

2) Go with a supersonic load such as Barnes 110 gr.

My favorite brand is Hornaday. I was loading 208gr Amax bullets. Well, two years ago, I shot a doe at 90yards with a 208gr Amax. I had a great shot and heard the thud. I could not find one drop of blood...we looked for hours. My friend ended up finding the remains of my doe 5 months later. I felt terrible how she died.

I will only use bullets that are designed to expand at subsonic velocities. The two companies that I know are Outlaw State and Lehigh Defense. I use Lehigh Defense because they are a local company for me. Their products are not inexpensive, but they flat out work. I use the control fracturing (CF) and I have the maximum expansion (ME) bullets. I took a doe this past year with the CF and it did a great job. The CF will fragment into 4 pieces.

http://outlawstatebullets.com/2.html

http://www.lehighdefense.com/collections/bullets/300-aac-blackout-whisper

You can buy the bullets already loaded, or just the bullets if you load your own.

The Blackout, IMO, is another cartridge which I see as marginal for deer hunting. No room for error in shot placement or bullet selection. Sub-sonic would be even worse. Sure, if everything is righteous, Bambi's dead. Me, I just take it for granted that Mr. Murphy is hanging around, waiting for an opportunity.

A friend uses standard velocity 300 B-O for deer and black bear, with good results. He shoots a 125 grain bullet at just below 3000 FPS IIRC. A 243 is a 100 grain bullet at around 3000 FPS.

You don't remember correctly unless there is a yardstick barrel. Drop almost 1000 fps otherwise.

The obvious Question is why.
The only reason I can think of useing a subsonic round in a silenced gun on deer is poaching.

Granted that the test guns were shorties, but the velocities are underwhelming IMO for deer loads:

http://www.shootingtimes.com/ammo/ultimate-300-aac-blackout-ammo-test/

Why all the desire for subsonic ammo nowadays? We suppressed our sniper rifles and M4s in the military (and even MP5's way back when we used them) and we just used standard velocity ammo.

FL-NC said:

Why all the desire for subsonic ammo nowadays? We suppressed our sniper rifles and M4s in the military (and even MP5's way back when we used them) and we just used standard velocity ammo.

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To sell more crap. Now you can buy optics with multiple aiming points for dual ballistics and stock up on twice the ammo. Gee whiz talk about suppressed shooting makes more shooters want suppressors.

The last hog hunt I was on the owner of the place had just had a guy hunt with the BO, he was very unimpressed. Said there were hits with no visible impact.

With higher powered ammo I could see that being useful on hogs. Too hard to control their numbers.

If you want to hunt suppressed and subsonic sell the 300blk and get one of the big bore uppers and run 400+ grain bullets.

The only way to gain energy once you set a speed limit is to have more mass. A 458 socom will have more energy at 300 yds than the 300 blk will have at the muzzle.

Until then use supersonic ammo and bullets that work on deer. Should sound like you shot it with a .22, if your can is decent.

jim in Anchorage said:

The only reason I can think of useing a subsonic round in a silenced gun on deer is poaching.

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We do very well with a silenced .458 SOCOM culling the does at the end of the year. The state tells us X number of animals must be removed from the ranch, but the paying hunters always want their big bucks and never care about the does, so we have to go doe whacking every year. With the silenced .458 it's much easier. The deer jump and run around a bit, but then settle down and come back very quickly.

Subsonic .330 BO has been banned for use on deer on our ranch. The one we have in the family gets used for picking off coons that have grown super fat pulling protein feed out of the deer feeders.

Not for me. My .308 ain't broke and there's no noise ordinances out here.