ClickClickD'oh
Member
In the couple of years since Texas made it legal to hunt with a can, we have seen several people come out to the ranch to take does with subsonic 300 BLK. The results have been almost uniformly terrible.
IMO, there are two main issues at play:
1) The low velocity bullet just doesn't put things down. There simply isn't enough energy in it to cause the kind of wounding that puts animals away cleanly without a head shot. We even had one guy who claims to have success with the round state that his normal MO is to put one round in the animals shoulder to knock it down and keep it from running away then a second round in the head to kill it. That's just not right.
When we clean deer that have been hit by high velocity rounds, what used to be organs in their chest cavity pretty much glop out in gloppy clumps. Subsonic 300 BLK pretty much punches a bullet sized hole through the animal, leaving everything inside mostly the way it was, minus a bullet sized hole. Now, I know there's an argument to be made about using slower bullets to save shoulder meat and for the people that like organ meat. I get that. I'm just talking about killing the animal dead as reliably as possible.
By the numbers, subsonic 300 BLK is trucking along with about the same energy as a 1911 firing .45 ACP +P Gold Dots. Now, I know someone out there hunts deer with a 1911, but I think we can mostly pretty much agree that should not be the norm for the vast majority of hunters. Can it be done? Of course it can. You can kill deer with a .22. It requires perfect shot placement though. Which brings us to my second issue.
2) Holy arcing rainbow shot Batman! I think my Father in laws crossbow shoots as flat as a subsonic 300 BLK (sarcasm, but not by much). I always kind of thought that the guy who brought the hold over placard hunting with him was just trying to be tacticool, but great jumpin jeebus if you don't need one with a subsonic 300 BLK. The bullet drops 8 friggin inches between 75 and 125 yards... You know, the range where you are going to be getting most of your shots. I've never used my laser rangefinder so much in my life as when a subsonic 300 BLK is hunting on the ranch.
Of the three does that were shot on the ranch this year with 300 BLK: One went down after a 40 yard run, which is perfetly normal. One doe was recovered the day after the hunt, several hundred yards from where it was shot, and judging by the blood pool had laid down and bled out for quite some time before passing. The third was never recovered... It's blood trail just stopped after about 200 yards of tracking it. No more droplets, no dead deer anywhere nearby.
In the hands of expert shooters, I'm sure this round does fine on deer sized animals. In the hands of the average shooter though, it's just not humane. Unless the bullet goes straight through the heart or brain, the animal is not going to die quickly.
IMO, there are two main issues at play:
1) The low velocity bullet just doesn't put things down. There simply isn't enough energy in it to cause the kind of wounding that puts animals away cleanly without a head shot. We even had one guy who claims to have success with the round state that his normal MO is to put one round in the animals shoulder to knock it down and keep it from running away then a second round in the head to kill it. That's just not right.
When we clean deer that have been hit by high velocity rounds, what used to be organs in their chest cavity pretty much glop out in gloppy clumps. Subsonic 300 BLK pretty much punches a bullet sized hole through the animal, leaving everything inside mostly the way it was, minus a bullet sized hole. Now, I know there's an argument to be made about using slower bullets to save shoulder meat and for the people that like organ meat. I get that. I'm just talking about killing the animal dead as reliably as possible.
By the numbers, subsonic 300 BLK is trucking along with about the same energy as a 1911 firing .45 ACP +P Gold Dots. Now, I know someone out there hunts deer with a 1911, but I think we can mostly pretty much agree that should not be the norm for the vast majority of hunters. Can it be done? Of course it can. You can kill deer with a .22. It requires perfect shot placement though. Which brings us to my second issue.
2) Holy arcing rainbow shot Batman! I think my Father in laws crossbow shoots as flat as a subsonic 300 BLK (sarcasm, but not by much). I always kind of thought that the guy who brought the hold over placard hunting with him was just trying to be tacticool, but great jumpin jeebus if you don't need one with a subsonic 300 BLK. The bullet drops 8 friggin inches between 75 and 125 yards... You know, the range where you are going to be getting most of your shots. I've never used my laser rangefinder so much in my life as when a subsonic 300 BLK is hunting on the ranch.
Of the three does that were shot on the ranch this year with 300 BLK: One went down after a 40 yard run, which is perfetly normal. One doe was recovered the day after the hunt, several hundred yards from where it was shot, and judging by the blood pool had laid down and bled out for quite some time before passing. The third was never recovered... It's blood trail just stopped after about 200 yards of tracking it. No more droplets, no dead deer anywhere nearby.
In the hands of expert shooters, I'm sure this round does fine on deer sized animals. In the hands of the average shooter though, it's just not humane. Unless the bullet goes straight through the heart or brain, the animal is not going to die quickly.